Cameron: UK vessels can carry armed guards
Source: Agencies |
October 31, 2011, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
BRITISH merchant ships sailing off the coast of Somalia will soon be able to carry armed guards to ward off pirate attacks, Prime Minister David Cameron said yesterday.
Britain is one of only a few countries with major shipping fleets to currently ban armed guards on its vessels, alongside the likes of Japan, Greece and the Netherlands. However, owners of ships from other countries are increasingly putting guards onboard as national navies struggle to combat Somali piracy in the vast Indian Ocean, a problem which is costing the world economy billions of dollars a year.
Cameron told the BBC that Britain now planned to license guards to carry firearms on ships. "The evidence is that ships with armed guards don't get attacked, don't get taken for hostage or for ransom and so we think this is a very important step forward. The fact that a bunch of pirates in Somalia are managing to hold to ransom the rest of the world and our trading system I think is a complete insult."
The planned exemptions to Britain's strict firearms laws could allow guards to carry revolvers, automatic weapons or even rocket launchers on board. A spokeswoman for Britain's Home Office said that a licensing scheme would start within a month. Licenses would restrict use of the weapons to off the Somali coast, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.
Somali pirates, operating from the shores of the lawless state in the Horn of Africa, have raked in millions of dollars a year in ransoms from scores of hijacked ships.
Britain is one of only a few countries with major shipping fleets to currently ban armed guards on its vessels, alongside the likes of Japan, Greece and the Netherlands. However, owners of ships from other countries are increasingly putting guards onboard as national navies struggle to combat Somali piracy in the vast Indian Ocean, a problem which is costing the world economy billions of dollars a year.
Cameron told the BBC that Britain now planned to license guards to carry firearms on ships. "The evidence is that ships with armed guards don't get attacked, don't get taken for hostage or for ransom and so we think this is a very important step forward. The fact that a bunch of pirates in Somalia are managing to hold to ransom the rest of the world and our trading system I think is a complete insult."
The planned exemptions to Britain's strict firearms laws could allow guards to carry revolvers, automatic weapons or even rocket launchers on board. A spokeswoman for Britain's Home Office said that a licensing scheme would start within a month. Licenses would restrict use of the weapons to off the Somali coast, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and parts of the Indian Ocean.
Somali pirates, operating from the shores of the lawless state in the Horn of Africa, have raked in millions of dollars a year in ransoms from scores of hijacked ships.
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