By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, May 20 2002 (IPS)

The world’s sea ports are vulnerable to terrorism, the United Nations warned Monday.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a 127-page study released here, said that maritime security has been placed high on the agenda of the international community following the terrorist attacks in the United States last September.

Annan said attention is now being focused on “the adequacy of measures to prevent acts of terrorism, which threaten the security of passengers and crews, and the safety of ships.”

The London-based International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is scheduled to review and consider efforts to improve protection at its Conference on Maritime Security in December.

Monday’s study said major obstacles face coastal states fighting terrorism and crimes at sea. These include shortage of trained personnel and equipment; obsolescence or inadequacy of most national legislation; and weak maritime law enforcement capability of national agencies.

A necessary first step in addressing some of these problems is for member states to become parties to the relevant U.N. conventions that govern the suppression of these crimes, the study added.

The U.N. warning comes amid reports that weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological and chemical arms, could be freely transported from country to country in containerised cargo.

Addressing a U.S. Senate sub-committee on Technology, Terrorism and Government Information, a U.S. official said early this month that U.S. sea ports may be the most vulnerable locations for terrorist attacks with weapons of mass destruction.

Captain William Schubert, Maritime Administrator of the Department of Transportation, warned that an attack on even one ship would probably force the closure of all 361 U.S. ports for months.

“We would have to shut our ports down for four months just to check all the containers. If anything would ruin our economy, that would,” he said.

Currently, about 90 percent of all goods in global trade are carried as containerised sea cargo. The United States alone receives more than six million containers every year. But only about 10 percent undergo x-ray scanning at some of the busiest U.S. ports, including New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Oakland and Long Beach.

Schubert said these containers are welded shut at foreign ports and delivered unopened to U.S. cities. These containers are “perfect places” for terrorists to hide and deliver nuclear weapons, he added.

Senator Diane Feinstein of California was quoted as saying that she would not mind if U.S. ports are closed down for four months “if that will prevent a nuclear explosion.”

The U.N. study, “Oceans and the Law of the Sea”, also said maritime security can be threatened either by a terrorist attack or as a result of other criminal activities at sea.

These include acts of piracy, armed robbery against ships, smuggling of migrants, illicit traffic in narcotic drugs, and illicit traffic in firearms.

In the 20 years since the adoption of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), crimes at sea have become more prevalent and are increasing, the study warned.

The framers of the convention never envisaged many of the crimes that exist today and, as a result, either included only a general provision or none at all regarding suppression, it added.

The IMO has said that the number of reported attacks against ships last year, including piracy and armed robbery, came to 471, an increase of 162 or 52 percent over the figure for 1999.

Most of the attacks worldwide were reported to have occurred in territorial waters while the ships were at anchor or berthed.

The shipping industry has called on the United Nations to encourage its members to take preventive action, such as allocating sufficient law enforcement personnel and instituting national legislation addressing specific crimes.

At the upcoming conference in December, IMO has proposed several measures for consideration, including a review of issues relating to the installation of automatic identification systems on ships and the need for security plans on ships, port facilities and offshore terminals.

Additionally, it is calling for a review of the need for identification verification and background security checks for seafarers and the establishment of a secure chain of custody for containers from their port of origin to their destinations.

The IMO has also proposed the introduction of a mandatory requirement to provide details on the owner of a vessel prior to entry into port.

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