Strong action needed against piracy on the high seas

Two years ago, another Taiwan-owned fishing vessel was held for five months before its owners paid a ransom of US$200,000 to gain its release.

In 2005, three Taiwan-owned trawlers were seized by Somali pirates and held for half a year before their owners handed over US$500,000 in ransom.

International news reports have inevitably played up the contradictions between Somali pirates and the powerful multinational naval forces facing them down. Many of these reports have contained mistaken information or ignored the universal jurisdiction all states may exercise against pirates.

For example, some reports have suggested this is the first time in recent memory that a U.S.-flagged vessel had been seized on the high seas. This is not true. In May 1975, just two weeks after the fall of Saigon, Cambodian Khmer Rouge forces captured and seized the U.S.-flagged container vessel SS Mayaguez and took it to the Cambodian island of Koh Tang.

U.S. President Gerald Ford immediately deemed the capture an “act of piracy” and dispatched a force to rescue the ship's crew and retake the Mayaguez. Not knowing that the ship's 39

crew had already been handed over to a passing Thai fishing boat, hundreds of U.S. Marines landed on Koh Tang and waged a fierce gun battle with Khmer Rouge forces before finally boarding the Mayaguez and fleeing the island. In what was later deemed the final battle of the Southeast Asian conflict, U.S. forces suffered 15 fatalities, and three more Marines were mistakenly left behind.

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