UAE to host Maritime Piracy conf. in June

The United Arab Emirates will host the annual high-level international conference on maritime piracy in Dubai on 27 and 28 June, it was announced UAE Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al-Jarman during his address before the 11th Plenary Meeting of the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia in New York last night. "Despite the marked reduction in the number of hostages and ships currently being held by pirates as a result of the effective combating measures taken by the maritime coalition forces, including the improved guidelines given by the International Maritime Organization to its maritime personnel and the protection forces provided on the board the ships, we are still deeply concerned at the piracy attacks which have taken place recently against ships and tankers, including recently, on March 2, the attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman," Al-Jarman said according to Emirates News Agency (WAM). "This constitutes a significant threat not only to the safety of ships, sailors, passengers and containers, but also to the movement of international trade and navigation, the economic and social development opportunities in the countries of the region, and regional and international peace and security in general." He underlined UAE's strong support to all efforts to combat acts of piracy and hostage-taking, supports all proposals aimed at improving and strengthening these efforts, including military operations to track down, arrest and prosecute those responsible and involved in piracy activities, as a strong deterrent for preventing future piracy acts. "In this context, the United Arab Emirates calls upon the international community to adopt a comprehensive cooperation strategy which, along with combating piracy on the seas, addresses the root causes and motives of this phenomenon on land. This strategy must also strengthen the means for legal follow-through on piracy cases, especially in areas of improving the administration of prisons and detention centers used for detaining pirates, and in developing the legal framework and the national capacities concerned with investigations and establishment of courts for piracy trials. In this context, the United Arab Emirates is doing its part by trying pirates within its own national courts," Al-Jarman said.