The Yomiuri Shimbun
Currently, about 20 countries and organizations are dispatching naval ships and aircraft for antipiracy missions off Somalia. However, there is no central headquarters controlling the participating nations' activities.
After an incident in November in which an Indian Navy warship working alone sunk a Thai fishing boat, the U.S. and British navies established a joint mission unit in January.
As a result, a certain degree of uniformity was imposed on the participating countries, whose chains of command had diverged widely.
Naval actions are categorized into levels ranging from zero to three. Level zero is to deter pirates; Level 1 is to fire warning shots; Level 2 is to capture pirates; and Level 3 is to kill pirates.
A senior MSDF officer said actions on levels 2 and 3 are primarily conducted by the U.S. and British fleets. It is the reason why the MSDF's patrol guidelines prioritize deterrent actions and warning shots.
The participating countries' activities are roughly divided in terms of methods.
One is that naval warships escort commercial vessels by forming a convoy. Another is that warships and aircraft patrol areas of the Gulf of Aden, where piracy attacks often have occurred.
France and China practice the former method, while the United States, Britain, Denmark and Germany utilize the latter.
The European Union's naval fleet, which will soon start full-fledged activities, will protect commercial ships in convoy while also flying patrol aircraft.
According to the Defense Ministry's data, two Chinese Navy ships dispatched in December have been forming convoys with commercial vessels in the same way as the MSDF's guideline. On Jan. 12, the warships escorted four China-related commercial vessels, including a Taiwanese one.
The French Navy lets its special forces personnel board commercial vessels as a charged service, in addition to the fleet's convoy escorting.
The Gulf of Aden, which connects Europe with the Middle East and Asia via Egypt's Suez Canal, stretches about 2,000 kilometers from east to west.
The size of the sea area is close to that of the entire Japanese archipelago, from Hokkaido to Kyushu. About 20,000 ships per year sail through the gulf.
One convoy escort mission takes about three days. The MSDF fleet will continue activities while procuring supplies at nearby ports.
Though a new law is essential to allow the MSDF to cope with emergencies involving pirate attacks on foreign ships, Masahisa Sato, a House of Councillors member of the Liberal Democratic Party said he foresees no immediate problem on that point after he visited the gulf on an inspection tour.
"The participating countries were occupied by actions to protect their own countries' or related vessels. For now, Japan will not be criticized even if the MSDF flotilla escort only Japanese and Japan-related ships," he said.
(Jan. 29, 2009)
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