Calls for international piracy court

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Monday called for an international court to be set up to try alleged pirates.

The demand comes after the Russian Navy recently revealed that it had captured a pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the coast of Somalia, but had not yet decided where to try the  suspects.

Mr Medvedev told Russian television: “It is necessary to consider all possibilities, including,maybe, the formation of some kind of international court.”

“Often states where these pirates come from do not take any action; in short, they aid this kind of crime.”

In London, Nippon Foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa yesterday used his keynote address to the International Maritime Law Institute to call for what he termed an “ocean peacekeeping initiative”.

Drawing on the experience of the Malacca Strait and Singapore where, in recent years, “piracy has declined significantly”, Mr Sasakawa pointed out that this was a result of international co-operation “in actively supporting the framework of countries that border the strait and the countries and companies that use them”.

His so-called OPK initiative would include “monitoring from air, land and sea the coastal areas near pirate strongholds”, but crucially he argued there was a need to co-ordinate the fight on an international basis “under United Nations leadership”.

“Through the sharing of command and communications systems, as well as a common code of conduct, we should be able to look forward to well-controlled and effective activities,” he said.

Most controversially, however, Mr Sasakawa advocated copying the user-pays framework he favours to fund maritime safety in the Malacca Strait to help pay for anti-piracy operations.