33 crew members sent to jail in Tamil Nadu.
By Rajiv Theodore
NEW DELHI: India is not taking any chances this time. After the incident of Italian marines shooting dead two Indian fishermen last year mistaking them for pirates, the crew members of an American ship carrying assault rifles and ammunition were arrested in Tamil Nadu, on Friday. Of the 35 crew members, 33 were arrested and two were left for upkeep and maintenance of the vessel till the company makes alternative arrangements. The arrested seamen were produced before a magistrate court in Tuticorin and remanded to custody.
The state has taken the case seriously and has refused to set the sailors free. The crew and security guards include British, Estonian, Indian and Ukrainian nationals. Eight are Indians. The southern tip of India is close to major trading routes from Asia to Europe. Many cargo ships now travel with armed guards to deter pirates. Sri Lanka, close to Tuticorin, is a popular boarding point for private armed guards.
The ship was reportedly in Indian waters for three days before it was detected. According to the police, the crew broke several Indian laws and maintained no log of the arms on board.
The MV Seaman Guard Ohio, an armed ship operated by a US maritime security company AdvanFort, was detained last Friday with 35 people on board by the Coast Guard, east of Tuticorin, around 600 km. south of Chennai, for failing to produce papers authorizing it to carry weapons and ammunition in Indian waters.
The complaint included offences under the Arms Act, 1959, Essential Commodities Act, 1955, and Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (prevention of malpractices in supply and distribution order), 1990. The said vessel also procured ‘’illegally’’ about 1,500 liters of diesel from private sources, without following procedure.
Deputy National Security Adviser Nehchal Sandhu had earlier said he did not think that the detained ship was involved in gunrunning. “I don’t think so.” He added that it is likely to be owned by a private maritime security company.
AdvanFort claims the ship entered the Indian waters to escape the fury of cyclone Phailin, which made landfall on India’s eastern coast (near Gopalpur in Ganjam district of Odisha) on Saturday. The vessel, however, was detected far from where the cyclone hit Odisha and Andhra Pradesh last weekend.
India is very sensitive about the presence of armed security guards on merchant ships after the shooting deaths of two fishermen by armed Italian marines last year in February. The marines were part of a military security team on a cargo ship when they fired at the fishermen, mistaking them for pirates. The two Italians are facing trial in India for the deaths.
“You have to understand that our territorial waters extend upto 12 nautical miles. Anything that happens beyond that is not within the realm of our control,” Sandhu said. “So, if there is a ship beyond that and doing whatever it is doing, then what can anybody do in terms of law. You cannot concoct law,” he said. Mr Sandhu was implying that the US Ship may not escape action if it is established that the vessel was cruising beyond Indian territorial waters.
The Company AdvanFort was involved in at least one prior felony relating to the possession of weapons without permits. According to a popular maritime security website, gcaptain.com, AdvanFort’s guilty plea and subsequent forfeiture of weapons came after an “independent contractor who promised [AdvanFort] he could obtain the needed weapons… went to a gun shop and bought 16 hunting rifles, using federal firearms forms for sales for personal use – bypassing the more complicated process needed for exporting weapons for commercial use abroad.”
The company was also in the news last year after two of its vessels – Advanfort Texas and Advanfort Alaska were said to have “encountered distress and were forced to break off their journey, seeking urgent assistance at Massawa, Eritrea.”
According to a draft copy of the United Nations Monitoring Group for Somalia and Eritrea both vessels and their crews arriving in Massawa were “impounded and arrested by the Eritrean authorities,” although at the time AdvanFort said that its vessels were “routing from Alexandria, Egypt, to Djibouti and had “no firearms or security equipment on board.”
An official from AdvanFort said the company had a license to carry firearms albeit not in India, the Seaman Guard Ohio was an “Operator Supported Vessel” which was privately owned and in that regard different from what is usually referred to as a “floating armoury.” The AdvanFort official also explained that his company had been “victimised by fuel vendors in India,” who were traditionally responsible for obtaining the permits and proper documentation.
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