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CHAPTER 3
THE ROLE OF THE SECURITY FORCES
Introduction
1
During the visit of the Group to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia, briefings and informal discussions took place between the Group and representatives of the security forces of the three countries. Without exception these discussions were full, frank and helpful to the Group members who were able to form a clear picture of the measures being taken by the three States to counter acts of piracy and armed robbery both within their
territorial waters and on the high seas adjacent thereto.
2
The term "security forces", as used in this report, includes the following authorities and agencies:
.1 Marine Police Forces
Coastguard and Police/Coastguard
.2
Navies
.3
Army Units
.4
Air Force Elements
.5
Customs
Immigration Agencies
Fisheries Agencies
The Sea Communications Directorate (Indonesia)
3 The 'mix' of forces naturally varies between States with the marine police and navies providing the major contributions. All the three countries agreed that, as both piracy and armed robbery at sea are criminal offences, they require systems of criminal investigation in both the holding of intelligence files on perpetrators as well as the maintenance of the evidential chain in order to convict these criminals in court.
They also agreed that the paucity and quality of many reports from ships hampered counter-measures. This point has already been made in Chapters 1 and 2 and is strongly supported by the Group.
Forces
4 All three countries use fast patrol boats (FPB) as the primary method of countering piracy and armed robbery both for regular deterrent patrolling and for fast reaction to an incident. These fast patrol boats are manned by either marine police and/or navy. Generally, marine police craft work closer inshore leaving the offshore areas to the respective navies. The patrols are co-ordinated not only within each country's coastal waters but also, bilaterally, between States following agreements made in 1992 between the States involved (see paragraph 8). As has already been reported, these co-ordinated patrols have brought about a sharp decline in the number of incidents of piracy and armed robbery in the area around the three States, which is highly satisfactory.
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