The Hindu : National : India, Japan conduct anti-piracy exercise

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Friday, Nov 05, 2004

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India, Japan conduct anti-piracy exercise

By Arunkumar Bhatt

Indian Coast Guard personnel stand on "Sagar" (left) as Japanese Coast Guard Patrol vessel "Mizuho", passes by during the joint exercises off Mumbai on Thursday. — AP

MUMBAI, NOV. 4. The Indian and Japanese Coast Guards today carried out a joint anti-piracy and safety exercise, Sahyog-Kaijan 2004, in the Arabian Sea. The mock exercise involved the rescue of a hijacked merchant vessel, m.v. Juliet.

Rescue efforts

With the Piracy Reporting Centre at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, alerting that m.v. Juliet has been hijacked, the Japanese Coast Guard Ship, PLH Mizuho, and India's Sagar, an advanced offshore patrol vessel, rush to the reported position of Juliet.The Japanese launch their helicopter to locate the ship. Its spot investigation makesSagar send its boarding party on a Chetak helicopter. As the Indian sailors slither down the rope to land on Juliet's deck, a Japanese helicopter provides cove.

Meanwhile, the Indian Coast Guard orders reinforcements. Its high speed hovercraft, H-185, and its fast patrol vessel, CGS Sarojini Naidu, take position to provide cover to two surface boarding parties, CGS Kamala Devi and PLH Mizuho.

The boarding parties arrest six pirates but four accomplices flee in a speedboat. The hovercraft is sent after them along with the helicopters. The pirates are caught but not before they set the speedboat ablaze.

The Sagar's sister ship, CGS Sarang, is diverted to assist the hovercraft. It trains its fire-fighting equipment on the burning speedboat and sprays seawater and foam. The fire is put out and all four pirates are secure in the detention cabin of the hovercraft. The exercise involved two aspects — anti-piracy and fire-fighting. This was in a way a replay of real life action in which the Indian Coast Guard (and the Navy) caught pirates who hijacked a Japanese-owned vessel, m.v. Alondra Rainbow in October 1999.

Growing collaboration

The Sahyog-Kaijan 2004 is the fifth Indo-Japanese joint exercise. While sahyog means cooperation in Hindi, kaijan is Japanese for "God of the Seas." The ongoing collaboration has caught the attention of other countries as well. A Malaysian marine law enforcement agency and a nascent Vietnamese Coast Guard have sent their representatives to see the exercise and participate in a joint conference, said Commodore S. Pradeep, who commands the Western Region of the Coast Guard. The Vice-Commandant of the Japanese Coast Guard, Kenji Ishii, said the collaboration and cooperation would help in dealing with all criminal activities at sea.

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