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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Background
1 In response to the concern expressed by Member Governments and international organizations regarding the increasing incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships, the IMO Assembly adopted two resolutions (A.545(13) and A.683(17)) urging Governments to take appropriate measures to combat the incidents of piracy and armed robbery in their waters.
2 IMO's Maritime Safety Committee (MSC) at its forty-ninth session in 1984 established "Piracy and armed robbery against ships" as a separate and fixed item in its work programme and under this agenda item receives details of such unlawful act incidents reported to the Organization and responses from Member Governments on actions they took on attacks alleged to have taken place in their territorial waters.
3 Since then, the MSC has repeatedly expressed its concern at the rising number of attacks by pirates and armed robbers against ships and the increasing danger to life and the marine environment caused by such attacks.
4
The IMO Council in November 1992 and the MSC in December 1992 endorsed a proposal by the Secretary-General to create a Working Group composed of Member Government experts, including experts from Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, to visit, on a fact-finding mission, the three States bordering the Malacca Strait, identified as an area particularly affected by pirates/armed robbers, and prepare a report on the situation in the area. The report should contain recommendations which would also be applicable in other parts of the world affected by piracy and armed robbery and should, in addition, consider the enhancement of the safety of navigation and consequentially protection of the marine environment in the Malacca Strait area.
Profile of the Malacca Strait
5 Malacca Strait is defined as the area lying between the west coasts of Thailand and Malaysia on the NE, and the coast of Sumatra on the SW.
6 The Strait is approximately 520 miles in length and varies in width from 200 miles in the north to 11 miles at the southern extremity. Together with the Singapore Strait, it forms the main seaway connecting the Indian Ocean with the China Sea. It is the shortest route for tankers trading between the Persian Gulf and East Asian countries with an estimated 30,000 ships passing through the Strait annually of which about 30% are tankers.
Piracy and armed robbery at sea
7 This report has drawn upon several sources of statistics on piracy and armed robbery including statistics compiled by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), the Singapore National Shipping Association, the Government of Indonesia and the United States Department of Energy. Statistics from these sources indicate a marked decline in the number of attacks by pirates and armed robbers in the Malacca Strait and adjacent areas since June/July 1992. The Group attributes the decline to the combination of a number of counter-measures implemented by the Goverments in the region since May/June 1992, which include a co-ordinated
W/9181e
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