Operation Rainbow is a first

NOVEMBER 25: Operation Rainbow, a joint operation between the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard which resulted in the seizure of a hijacked...

NOVEMBER 25: Operation Rainbow, a joint operation between the Indian Navy and the Coast Guard which resulted in the seizure of a hijacked merchant vessel Alondra Rainbow last fortnight, has received fulsome praise from the International Maritime Bureau IMB.

8220;We have been monitoring the hijacking and piracy against vessels for the last 15 years. It is our view that this is the first time that law enforcement agencies have gone to such lengths to interdict a hijacked vessel passing through their waters,8221; P Mukundan, Director of the London-based IMB, told Express Newsline. He said it was a matter of great credit to the Indian Navy and Indian Coastguard that they had taken a lead against this heinous crime.

The pirates would be tried under the Indian penal code and subject to the decision of the courts. The pirates will have to face their sentences in India, Mukundan said. The pirates are currently lodged at the Yellowgate police station, awaiting trial.

No decision has been made in respect ofthe reward of 200,000 US dollars that had been announced for the capture of the ship, he said. At present, the efforts of all the authorities are to secure the vessel and to charge the pirates with the crimes committed.

He said that the Piracy Reporting Centre was instrumental in informing the Indian Coastguard of the area in which the hijacked vessel was being operated. 8220;This has been one of the unique success stories of co-operation between law enforcement agencies and industry,8221; he said, adding that the IMB would continue to support the Indian Law Enforcement Agencies in the investigations into this matter.

In recent years there has been one case of a gang of hijackers who have been prosecuted and convicted of hijacking vessels in Indonesia. There have been over 20 individuals who have been charged by the Chinese Government over the hijacking and murder of the crew members on the Cheong Son.

Twenty-three Chinese crewmen of this freighter were lined up on deck and machine gunned by pirateslast November. Their bullet-ridden dead bodies were found floating in the South China Sea.

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The Japanese cargo vessel Alondra Rainbow and its cargo of 7000 tonnes of aluminum ingots was hijacked by a ten-member Indonesian pirate gang in the Malacca Straits on October 22, and the vessel was intercepted some 400 kms off Goa after a high speed chase involving a naval missile corvette and coast guard patrol vessels

While the number of piracy cases dropped marginally last year, the Piracy Reporting Centre notes that pirate attacks have been increasing in viciousness. Sixty seven crew members of various merchant ships were killed last year as against 51 in 1997.