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San’a, Yemen, March 05, 2009 – Yemen and France are planning an
artificial harbor off Yemen's Perim Island to help the international
campaign against piracy in the region, A French diplomat said.
Speaking after French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met Yemeni
President Ali Abdallah Saleh, the diplomat said: "This anchorage will
facilitate the missions" of vessels helping in the counter-piracy fight.
France, Yemen and Djibouti are preparing a letter of intent on an
"agreement in principle" to create the harbor on Perim, which lies in a
strategic location at the entrance to the Red Sea between Yemen and
Djibouti, the diplomat added.
Kouchner said he and Saleh explored ways their countries could join
forces to battle against high-seas piracy.
"We had very sincere talks", that centered on increasing visits to
Yemeni ports by foreign ships battling piracy and on helping train
coastguards, the French Foreign minister said.
"We must look at stepping up regional cooperation to avoid security
problems", commented Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr al-Kurbi, noting
that humble fishermen had been targeted by foreign vessels on
counter-piracy operations.
Yemen wants to create an operations coordination center, since we "must
help the fishermen to earn their living", Kurbi said. The country
currently operates only a small anti-piracy monitoring center.
Yemen will allow foreign warships to chase suspect vessels into its
territorial waters, on a case-by-case basis and when Yemen is unable to
act itself, a French diplomatic source said.
It is "progress compared to a few months ago", the source added.
On February 22 Kouchner had talks in Djibouti with the presidents of
Djibouti and Somalia.
More than 130 ships were attacked in the area in 2008 alone. The heavily
armed pirates operate high-powered speedboats and sometimes hold ships
for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or
ship owners.
They are estimated to have raked in 120 million dollars in ransom money
last year.
Source: Monday Morning
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