MMEA HELPING TO DRAFT NATIONAL LAW ON MMEA HELPING TO DRAFT NATIONAL LAW ON PIRACY

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 (Bernama) -- The Malaysia Maritime Enforcement Agency
(MMEA) is working with relevant agencies to draft a national law on piracy, said
MMEA's Head of Northern Region First Admiral Zulkifili Abu Bakar.

He said such a law was necessary to combat piracy more effectively.

"One weakness (in combating piracy) ... identified is the absence of a
national law on piracy," he said in his presentation on the last day Tuesday of
the two-day Kuala Lumpur International Conference on Piracy and Crimes at Sea,
here.

Zulkifili spoke on "Enforcement: Anti-Crime Surveillance, Intelligence and
Information-Sharing in the Straits of Melaka".

He said there was also a plan to establish a maritime crime investigation
department to combat piracy and all other maritime crimes in a more effective
way.

"There is already a proposal on that to the government. I think they are
looking into it seriously," he said.

On piracy and maritime robbery in the Straits of Melaka, Zulkifili said the
cases had dropped very much, from 40 in 2000 to four last year, and attributed
this to, among others, the effective security mechanism put in place as well as
the implementation of the "Eye in the Sky" initiative.

The "Eye in the Sky" is an aerial patrol undertaken by the three littoral
states of Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore to counter piracy and the threat of
terrorism in the Straits of Melaka, a major international shipping route.

This year, there has been only one case of piracy in the straits so far,
which was the kidnapping of two people of a Singapore-registered tugboat in
February. They were released after the payment of a ransom.

Annually, some 50,000 ships transit the narrow passage and it has become the
most important route of transport for oil from the Middle East to markets in
East Asia.

Zulkifili said that besides forging good cooperation with relevant agencies
in the country, MMEA also had close cooperation with agencies from other
countries such as the coast guards of Singapore, Japan and the United States.

He said Indonesia was also in the process of setting up a coast guard and,
once this was in place, there would be better cooperation with them.

Zulkifili said the security threat in the Straits of Melaka was quite
diverse, adding that besides piracy and maritime robbery, there were also
threats such as smuggling of people and weapons, poaching, and dumping of waste.

Meanwhile, Somalia delegate Mohamud Abdirahman, speaking at the conference,
said the international community was not really looking into the issue of
finding the root causes of the piracy off the coast of Somalia, which threatened
global trade.

He proposed that the international community form a group and work with the
national unity government of Somalia and the Puntland autonomous state of
Somalia to find the root and real causes of the problem, which he described as
serious.

"When we get to the root causes ... we can form a viable and practical
solution to the piracy problem there," he said.

He said sending naval ships to the affected area could only be a temporary
measure, pointing out that piracy continued to occur despite the despatch of the
vessels by several countries.
-- BERNAMA