FISHING - PIRACY - DIPLOMACY

Shooting of 2 Indian fishermen off Kochi coast by Italian marines from the vessel Enrica lexie has been hitting newpaper headlines daily. The Italian marines thought them to be pirates. Piracy in Indian ocean has become common in recent days. Particularly the Somali pirates have created great concern along this busy suez canal route which connects the west to the far east. Now both India and Italy are claiming the jurisdiction of the case. As India has already arrested the 2 marines involved in the shooting, diplomacy has come in.

             Let us first understand law of sea so that we can understand the incident better.

             The sea is governed by the UNCLOS i.e. United Nation Conventions on Law of Sea. The convention defines jurisdictional zones as

1.Internal water- constitues lakes and rivers along the coast

2.Teritorial water- upto 12 nautical miles from the base line i.e. generally sea coast

3.Contiguous zone- upto 24 nautical miles from the base line

4.Exclusive Economic Zone(EEZ)- upto 200 nautical miles from base line. A country having a coast has the exclusive rights to explore economically in the EEZ.

5.High Sea- belongs to all.

             The incident took place in Indian territorial water. So India claims the legitimacy of arresting the Italian marines and prosecuting them in Indian court of law. But Italy says that according to Article 97 of UNCLOS the flag bearing state has the legal jurisdiction. In this case it is Italy. But it forgets that Art. 97 has given the provision in case of collision of vessels or any other incident on navigation. Here neither is the case.

             The Italy Govt. is trying hard to extradite their marines from India. Even the Vatican Pope also has tried his hand to influence the Catholic population of Kerala. But public mood is in the contrary. Govt. of India has taken a firm stand which is most welcome. We have history of letting go foreign culprits; be it Warren Anderson of Bhopal gas disaster or Kim Davy of Purulia Arms dropping case.

             At the same time India can't afford to put its long time diplomatic relationship with Italy at stake. Recently only Italy was at the receiving end of Indian decision of buying Rafale aircraft from France overlooking the Euro fighter Typhoon of which Italy is a part. But India has to get over its image of soft state and show more concern for lives of its citizens.