Asia's maritime guardians strive to plug holes in crackdown on pirates, smugglers

Updated:2006-03-22 00:45:26
Asia's maritime guardians strive to plug holes in crackdown on pirates,
smugglers
By SEAN YOONG
ap
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - Pirates, smugglers and other criminals
who infest Asia's waters are taking advantage of weaknesses in regional
law enforcement and a lack of cross-border cooperation, officials said
Wednesday.

Maritime security chiefs from 17 countries were wrapping up a two-day
meeting in Malaysia with warnings that transnational crime could
escalate unless authorities trust each other, exchange intelligence and
share expertise and equipment whenever possible.

"We may wonder why there are still gaps in the way we cooperate with
each other, but it is these gaps that are ruthlessly exploited by the
criminal underworld," Au Hok-lam, Hong Kong's regional marine police
commander, said in a presentation at the conference.

Tackling maritime crime - which includes armed robberies, human and
cargo smuggling, drug trafficking and money laundering - demands quick
responses, but a telephone call or an e-mail might sometimes be the
only necessary move to prevent a major breach from occurring, Au said.

"We all know that professional rivalries and jealousies exist," Au
said. "But criminals do not care about national and regional
jurisdiction or about the limitations that are imposed upon those
fighting their activities. They have no problem cooperating with each
other."

Examples of criminal cooperation include human smuggling, which often
involves several syndicates from different countries who "move a large
group of people across the world in an incredibly short period of time,
despite great differences in cultures and languages," Au said.

The conference in Malaysia is also being attended by representatives
from Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,
Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, South
Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Indonesia's Marine Police Director Nengah Sutisna said his country -
which has the world's highest number of pirate attacks each year -
enhanced regional cooperation through coordinated patrols with Malaysia
and Singapore and training exercises with Japan and Australia.

However, Indonesian authorities have limited patrol ships with outdated
communication and navigation equipment, and face other obstacles such
as late reporting of sea crimes across its sprawling archipelago,
Sutisna said.

There were 79 pirate attacks in Indonesian waters last year - nearly
one-third of the global tally. The figure was not inclusive of 12
attacks in the Malacca Strait, a busy shipping lane between Indonesia's
Sumatra island and peninsular Malaysia.


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03/22/06 00:44 EST

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