WASHINGTON — Commercial ships working pirate-infested waters should be protected by an armed corps of senior officers backed by government forces, with all operating under a clear chain of command, Maersk Alabama Capt. Richard Phillips told Congress today.
“I am not comfortable giving up command authority to others, including the commander of a protection force,” Phillips said in remarks prepared for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and obtained by The Associated Press. “In the heat of an attack, there can be only one final decision-maker.”
Phillips, who was held by pirates for five days this month and rescued by Navy SEALs, was the star witness during a series of hearings as Congress considers ways to combat a spike in piracy against ships carrying billions of dollars in cargo.
Modern-day piracy, the experts were to testify, is the product of lawlessness in places like Somalia and is motivated by money more than ideology. It’s a dangerous business nonetheless, with pirates carrying small arms and rocket launchers.
Phillips’ firsthand experience aside, there’s little consensus among policymakers and maritime experts on the wisdom of arming merchant seamen.
The chairman of Phillips’ own company told the Senate panel that doing so could make the seas even more dangerous.
“Arming merchant sailors may result in the acquisition of ever more lethal weapons and tactics by the pirates, a race that merchant sailors cannot win,” Maersk Inc. Chairman John P. Clancey said in his prepared remarks.
Witnesses said the solution will require a combination of diplomacy and cooperation between governments, shippers and seamen’s unions.
Government protection for ships in vast international waters was already in progress.
Belgium said today that its military will provide onboard protection to commercial ships off the Horn of Africa, beginning this weekend. Teams of eight soldiers will be available to Belgian ships upon request if an EU anti-piracy flotilla in the region can’t guarantee protection. The costs will be assumed by ship owners.
Phillips, 53, was taken hostage April 8 after four Somali pirates assaulted his ship, the Maersk Alabama. He was rescued April 12. He has described the siege in interviews, but told the Senate panel he would not talk about the details because of an ongoing investigation and legal proceedings against one of the pirates who held him hostage.
Meanwhile, American naval forces today handed over to Somali authorities the bodies of three suspected pirates, officials said, after U.S. snipers shot the trio earlier this month during a standoff over Phillips.
Lt. Col. Mohamed Abdulle Mohamed, the chief of security in Somalia’s northern Bossaso port, said regional authorities sent a small boat to collect the wooden coffins containing the bodies from a warship stationed about 4 miles off the coast.
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