Tag: armed guards

Police arrested them because they were carrying bullet-proof jackets The Attorney-General's Office intervened on Thursday to order the release of two Danish nationals, arrested by the Mozambican police in the northern port of Nacala on Monday.The two Danes, Peter Junlet and Jack Nielsen, are security guards, who had been protecting a ship from possible attacks by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and Mozambique Channel. They disembarked in Nacala, intending to return to Denmark.The police say they arrested them because they were carrying bullet-proof jackets - the first time it has ever been suggested that possession of such protective clothing is illegal. The police spokesperson in Nampula province gave no other information, but promised to give further details "shortly".The two men were transferred to police cells in the northern city of Nampula. A spokesperson for the Justice Ministry confirmed to AIM that the Attorney-General's Office ordered their release.These arrests followed the seizure in late March of weaponry owned by shipping companies that was being stored at the Nacala police command. The General Command of the Mozambican police said that whatever arrangement the Nacala commander, Adriano Muianga, had with the shipping companies and their freight agents was illegal, because Muianga's superiors ...

Ship carrying weapons to Syria Security official said that the Lebanese navy has intercepted weapons destined for Syrian rebels on board a ship Lutfallah II originating from Libya. Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr ordered that the crew of the detained ship will be held for questioning.Saqr requested that the military police question the suspects and determine at which port the arms were loaded and to whom they were to be delivered.In a statement released Saturday, the Lebanese Army confirmed weapons on board the ship were confiscated."The Army intercepted Friday off the northern coast the Sierra Leonean-flagged commercial vessel Lutfallah II The Army and relevant authorities inspected the vessel and confiscated three containers with a large quantity of assorted arms as well as heavy, medium and light ammunition."The statement added that the 11 detained crew members were of various Arab and foreign nationalities.Al-Manar TV reported Sunday that the crew was made up of eight Syrians, two Egyptians and one Indian.Tripoli MP Samir Jisr from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri's Future bloc said Sunday he was waiting for the results of the investigations before making conclusions."We are waiting for investigations and we don't want to jump the gun. People of Tripoli are neither ...

How UAE faces increased piracy at sea and the challenges ahead The UAE's private security sector has grown considerably over the past decade. Mahmood Mohammed Amin is the chief executive of World Security, a business unit of Dubai World whose clients include Dubai Customs and Emaar Properties. Mr Amin talks about how this market has shifted with the country's growth, increased piracy at sea and the challenges ahead.How fast is the sector growing?The private security sector is growing more than what was expected. It's not only a man guarding a place; it's about the whole security system, which can be controlled through, say, the internet.What changes have been made among private security guards to combat sea piracy in the region?Piracy is far away from our side, but we have procedures for the ships coming to our ports. They have to be registered with the International Maritime Organization, follow International Ship and Port Facility Security Code, declare what they are carrying, and how many armed or unarmed guards they have on board. There has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of armed guards on board merchant ships over the last five years.How would you compare the nature of ...

There is a need for regulating private maritime security companies A heated row at the International Maritime Industries Forum has highlighted divisions within the shipping industry over what constitutes a proportionate response by armed guards when it comes to rules governing the use of force.A presentation on maritime security delivered to the IMIF by Flagvictor chief executive Mark Hankey turned into a heated debate on use of force and the need to regulate private maritime security companies.Mr Hankey showed the IMIF meeting a video of a group of US armed guards shooting at a pirate skiff.The PMSC said that the guards were firing warning shots but there was no "onion layered" - or gradual - approach to protecting the ship and the guards continued to fire for some minutes as the vessel moved away from the pirates and the threat to the vessel became less urgent.When Mr Hankey asked whether the audience thought the armed guards' response was in proportion to the threat, several said they supported the PMSC's actions.Salvage expert and former International Salvage Union general manager John Noble said: "Let's stop pussyfooting around. If you are being attacked, you need to get in there and defend yourself. Where ...

Antigua and Barbuda-flagged 'Atlantic Cruiser' to be searched Turkey has intercepted an Antigua and Barbuda flagged vessel suspected of carrying weapons and ammunition to Syria in the Mediterranean, a diplomatic source told AFP on Wednesday."We received information that the vessel has a cargo of arms and ammunition headed for Syria," the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that Turkish authorities would search the vessel later in the day.The "Atlantic Cruiser" belongs to a German company, the source also noted.Amid Damascus' violent crackdown on unrest, Turkey imposed sanctions against its neighbour -- including interception of arms shipment to the country by air, land and sea.Throughout last year, Turkey intercepted several ships and trucks suspected of carrying weapons into Syria through Turkish territory.Source: AFP

Somali piracy has shifted from a small-scale and purely regional risk to a mature threat The international shipping industry and the governments that are ostensibly supposed to protect it have begun to radically rethink their long-held aversion to private armed protection at sea. The shift illustrates the inability and/or unwillingness of states to provide security, and presages potential ethical and legal controversy as the lines between commerce and state authority become increasingly blurred.For decades, both the international shipping industry and the governing bodies that oversee it have been critical of the concept of putting armed guards on commercial vessels in order to protect them from violence -- and piracy in particular -- at sea. From the perspective of private industry, hiring armed guards has traditionally been viewed as a costly and risky move that creates more liabilities (financial, legal, and reputational) than it resolves. Furthermore, the shipping industry has also balked at the idea of paying for a service that it expects the world's navies to provide for them free of charge.As recently as June 2010, a host of public and commercial maritime industry stakeholders -- including major shipping organizations -- explicitly stated that "the use of armed guards is ...

Auditing and verification service for companies providing armed guards International classification society Bureau Veritas has joined forces with French maritime security consultants Securymind to provide an auditing and verification service for companies providing armed guards to protect ships against piracy.Security companies offering services to shipping will be audited against the requirements set down by the "Scheme for Quality Management Systems of Private Maritime Security Companies" established by Bureau Veritas and Securymind. The scheme is based on IMO guidance set out in MSC1405 "Revised Interim Guidance To Shipowners, Ship Operators, and Shipmasters on the Use of Privately Contracted Armed Security Personnel on Board Ships in The High Risk Area".Security companies which meet these standards will be issued with an attestation by Bureau Veritas and will be listed in the BV Register of Private Maritime Security Companies.Roberto Nahon, Head of Systems Certification and Training Department, Bureau Veritas, says, "Shipowners have experienced that armed guards are an effective deterrent to pirate attack. However there are very many international security companies offering these guards, and not all of them can be relied on to meet the right internationally agreed standards. That is why Bureau Veritas has put its auditing and maritime experience together with ...

Germany May Loosen Shipping Laws Using private security firms to protect ships from Somali pirates has long been a legal gray area in Germany. Conceding that it doesn't have enough soldiers to do the job, the German government isconsidering a draft lawallowing shipowners to deploy private armed guards. But there's onecaveat:Security personnelwould be limited to using semi-automatic firearms.Shipping companies and Western governments have been struggling with the problem of piracy off the Horn of Africa for years. It's becoming increasingly clear that the only really effective solution involves having private security forces on board who are prepared to repel attacks with firearms if necessary -- as a recent viral Internet video of guards apparently shooting Somali pirates graphically illustrates.For ships flying the German flag, such operations are currently a legal gray area. The use of armed private security guards is neither clearly prohibited nor explicitly allowed. But that could soon change. The German Economics Ministry is currently working on draft legislation that would establish a certification process for security companies, allowing them to place guards on ships.According to the draft, which SPIEGEL ONLINE has seen, the German government considers the fight against piracy to be an "important task" that needs ...

Ship headed to "safe port", German spokeswoman says A German ship that is suspected of transporting Iranian arms to Syria is being diverted to an unspecified port for inspection, a German government spokeswoman said on Sunday."The economy ministry has been in contact with the owner of the ship. The ship will now head for a safe port (in a different country). There the goods will be checked," a spokeswoman for the economy ministry told Reuters.She said she did not know specifically where the ship would dock for the inspection.On Saturday, the economy ministry had said it was investigating a report that the German-owned ship in the Mediterranean en route to Syria was carrying Iranian weapons in breach of an arms embargo.German magazine Der Spiegel, which broke the story, reported on its website that the Atlantic Cruiser had been chartered to a Ukraine-based company, White Whale Shipping, which had declared the cargo as "pumps and the like".Der Spiegel quoted ship broker Torsten Lueddeke of Hamburg-based C.E.G. Bulk Chartering as saying: "We stopped the ship after we received information on the weapons cargo."Der Spiegel reported the ship had loaded the cargo in Djibouti this week and changed course for Iskenderun in Turkey ...

Shipping companies and charterers will want to continue to pay British rates ? As regulation slowly and painfully filters down the private maritime security industry, a "proliferation" of new firms from emerging countries is inevitable and British PMSCs will price themselves out of the market, according to Norton Rose partner Philip Roche.The big question, Mr Roche said, is whether shipping companies and charterers will want to continue to pay British rates?"There will be a proliferation of PMSCs from countries like the Philippines and China. Their standards won't necessarily be worse but they will have a different approach. It is likely that, like so many other industries, UK PMSCs are going to price themselves out of the market," he predicted.Mr Roche said that the legal wrangling surrounding the Enrica Lexie incident - in which two Italian marines shot dead two Indian fishermen they thought were pirates - reflects the concern that large parts of the industry still have about putting guns on ships."We have opened a Pandora's box in a way and it has happened due to shipping's ability to self help. The legal and insurance world has reluctantly followed. It has always been a question of when rather than if ...