TNAG-2897-FCO40-4171-Hong-Kong-piracy-in-the-South-China-Sea-1993 — Page 70

48.

CHAPTER 6

RADIOCOMMUNICATIONS

Introduction

1 The considerations and recommendations in this chapter concentrate on those aspects of radiocommunications which relate directly to:

2

Prevention and suppression of piracy and armed robbery;

Safety of navigation; and

Prevention of accidental pollution.

Although the communication needs/requirements/difficulties for dealing with cases of piracy and armed robbery may seem different from those related to safety of navigation and pollution prevention, the basic communication needs are similar. Basically the following functional requirements may be expressed as targets for communication systems/facilities covering all these types of cases:

.1

.2

.3

ships should have reliable radio communication facilities capable of transmitting and receiving with minimum delay all messages related to piracy, navigation and pollution prevention to/from appropriate shorebased authorities;

shore-based authorities should have reliable radiocommunication facilities capable of receiving and transmitting with minimum delay all types of messages from/to ships. Furthermore, any shore-based authority which may receive such messages from ships, should have suitable and reliable communication facilities (landlines, radio links, etc.) for exchange of such communications with all other relevant authorities in that particular State, as well as with relevant authorities in neighbouring States, which may contribute to solving the reported problems;

any shore-based authority receiving safety related messages (regarding piracy etc.) relevant for areas far outside its own areas of responsibility, should be capable of communicating such

information with minimum delay to shore authorities in the country responsible for the relevant area.

3 Thus, one of the tasks of the Working Group has been to consider and evaluate if the actual communication systems/facilities/procedures in the Malacca/Singapore Strait area can be considered adequate in relation to the functional requirements expressed above.

Ship-to-shore communications

4 It should be noted that, even in those areas of the world which may be characterized as "piracy threat areas", there may be long periods of time (weeks; possibly months) when there are no attacks or attempted attacks. When an attack does occur, it is normally the ship under attack which is the first to know that an attack is taking place, and is therefore in the best position

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