Yemeni fishermen aren’t the only ones who have been targeted by guards protecting ships from pirates.
Three Indian fishermen were shot and killed in two incidents this year. Two from the southern state of Kerala died in February when Italian marines allegedly fired their weapons from the tanker Enrica Lexie. Two marines are in India awaiting trial for the killings.
Italy says that the court has no right to try the soldiers because the incident took place in international waters outside of India’s jurisdiction and because the men are active-duty military personnel, according to court records Italy filed in India.
“Such a view would mean that any day, any passing-by ship can simply shoot and kill, at its will, fishermen engaged in earning their livelihood; and then get away with its act on the ground that it happened beyond the territorial waters of the coastal state,” P.S. Gopinathan, a Kerala High Court judge wrote in a May 29 judgment allowing the case to go forward. “Such a view will not merely be a bad precedent, but a grossly unjust one.”
Italy has appealed to India’s supreme court. The case could establish new parameters for prosecuting shootings that occur in international waters.
Another Indian fisherman died in July when soldiers on the USNS Rappahannock, a U.S. naval supply ship, opened fire on a vessel off the coast of Dubai. The U.S. ambassador to India has promised a full investigation into the shooting. The Navy says the boat ignored warnings as it raced toward the Rappahannock, and that results of its investigation will be available once it’s completed, Lt. Greg Raelson, a spokesman, wrote in an email.
Meanwhile, Oman, Yemen’s neighbour at the tip of the Arabian peninsula, has complained that armed guards in the region are behind multiple shootings of its fishermen, in what’s referred to as “drive-by shootings,” according to Capt. Philip Haslam, chief of staff of the European Union’s anti-piracy naval operation. Haslam declined to provide any further details.
Omani coast guard officials did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
“We started hearing these stories about a year ago,” says Jon Huggins, director of Oceans Beyond Piracy. Huggins, who spent 22 years in the U.S. Navy, says the lack of reliable reporting makes it impossible to know just how many fishermen have been killed in these confrontations. “Piracy and the high- risk area have pushed a lot of merchant vessels close to shore or close to fishing areas, so this is bound to happen more and more.”
2012, Bloomberg News