Officials: Ship in missile incident registered in Cambodia

AP WorldStream via COMTEX ^ | 12-12-02

[Oldeconomybuyer]

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, Dec 12, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The ship found to be carrying Scud missiles from North Korea to Yemen this past week was registered in Cambodia, U.S. and Cambodian officials said Thursday.

The United States on Wednesday reluctantly permitted the cargo to proceed to Yemen after having first stopped and searched the ship as part of an interdiction operation in the war on terrorism.

According to U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Heidi Bronke in Phnom Penh, "the government has confirmed the claim from the ship's master that the ship was registered in Cambodia as the Pan Hope."

Cambodia government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said the ship was registered by the Cambodian Shipping Corp., a company that until recently was contracted to register ships under the Cambodian flag. "The ship was owned by Chinese, then it was sold to North Koreans who registered the ship with the Cambodian company in Singapore," he said.

The government recently suspended the company's operations after criticism that the vessels it registered were often not seaworthy and engaged in criminal activities.

Ship operators in the United States and other developed countries have long registered their vessels in countries such as Liberia or Panama that offer lower fees, less restrictive laws, lower taxes and cheaper crews.

[angkor]

This appears to be a hangover from the problems with Cambodia Shipping Corp., which lost its ability to register ships under the flag of Cambodia in August.

There's no implication that the government of Cambodia has any involvement in this, nor should there be.

However, it would be interesting to know whether it was the CPP (Hun Sen, former "Khmer Rouge") or FUNCINPEC (Prince Ranariddh, whose father King Sihanouk really was "Khmer Rouge") granted the license to the North Koreans in 1995.

My bet is on Ranariddh (whose home was found full of stolen Angkorian sculpture crated for shipment to France during the 1997 coup). Of course Hun Sen is hardly a paragon or virtue himself, so it could be either.

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Cambodian Shipping Corp. loses ship registry
Friday, 23-Aug-2002 5:00AM

PHNOM PENH, Aug 23 (AFP) - The Cambodian government said Friday it had retaken control of the country's shipping registry following a litany of complaints about vessels flying the Cambodian flag.

Transport Minister Ky Tanglim told AFP the government had cancelled all operations conducted by Singapore-based Cambodian Shipping Corp. (CSC), which had held the concession to operate the registry for seven years.

He said there were too many problems associated with CSC, whose operations have been at the centre of a government investigation since mid-June after a spate of sinkings and complaints by the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS).

"We will not allow them to operate anymore because they have created just too many problems," Ky Tanglim said.

[SNIP]

The government was forced to act in June when a Cambodian-flagged vessel, the Winner, was seized off Africa's Atlantic coast by the French navy in a joint operation with US, Greek and Spanish authorities.

As much as two tonnes of cocaine with a street value of 243 million euros (230 million dollars) was thought to be on-board the Winner, but crew members had tossed at least 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) overboard.

[SNIP]

A CSC spokesman was unavailable for comment but the Cambodia Daily quoted CSC former chairman Khek Vandy as saying he was relieved by the decision.

"I am happy that the government will be handling this from now on. There might be less criticism once ship registration is managed by the government," he told the newspaper.

[angkor]

Whoops, forgot this critical line from the AFP story above:

"Established with a North Korean interest, CSC became one of the fastest growing registries in the world by the late 1990s, offering ship owners easy Internet access and low registration costs."