Lanka offer expertise to UN to combat piracy – Kohona

Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN Palitha Kohona today welcomed the Secretary-General’s options for ensuring that suspected pirates were brought to justice and maintained that it was important for the international community to share experiences and responsibilities, through imprisonment in third countries and capacity-building in the States concerned. 

He said this at the U.N. Security Council session held in New York.

 In general, he said, a collective and more dedicated international effort must be made to deal with piracy and ensure that the global community was rid of the problem.

At the national level, in addition to deploying naval deterrence, anti-piracy laws needed to be strengthened and strenuously implemented at both the domestic and international levels.  Having successfully countered seaborne terrorism, his country advocated on-board security teams on merchant vessels as a visible deterrent that could react immediately to attacks. 

He said that the United Nations should have a lead role in such efforts in improving sea security.  He stressed that the dense shipping lane south of Dondra Head in Sri Lanka had been free of any piracy, in spite of heavy traffic in the area over the past 28 years.  Sri Lanka stood ready to share its expertise and personnel that have kept that vital sea lane safe for international shipping.