Spanish tuna boats operating in the Indian Ocean will now use hired guns to ward off Somali pirates by hiring private security guards armed with high-powered rifles. The Defense Ministry said Spain cannot station Marines on fishing boats – as the industry has requested and France is doing – because Spanish law does not allow the military to be used for protecting private property.
Deputy Defense Minister Constantino Mendez explained that most of the 14 Spanish tuna trawlers operating in the Indian Ocean are based in the Basque country. Spain has had a number of encounters with pirates over the past two years, and Spanish navy vessels and a reconnaissance plane are taking part in an EU anti-piracy mission off the coast of Somalia.
The waters off lawless Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden are notoriously dangerous, with pirates hijacking merchant ships and holding crew members for ransom. The International Maritime Bureau’s piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur says there have been 156 attacks so far this year.
Mendez told that it was in January the Spanish government decided to let Spanish vessels hire private security guards armed with pistols, but this was soon seen as insufficient firepower against bandits sometimes armed with weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades.
