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Legislators who discussed the deadly pirate attacks on Thursday concluded that the nation’s Coast Guard had failed. 3 bodies have been recovered and 12 fishermen are still missing. There are officially 5 survivors. The government acknowledged that the fishing grounds were not being protected adequately even though it was aware of the presence of pirate and the occurrence of lawless acts. “We had foreseen this problem and we did nothing,” Defense Minister Ronni Benschop told Parliament when asked why the fishing grounds were not being protected. Legislators strongly criticized the government for failing to protect the fishing grounds. The Coast Guard evidently has boats but lacks the funds and the manpower to do its job effectively. The boats were often at the wharf instead of at sea. Minister Benschop pointed out that the bloody attack on the fishermen is the result of a ticking time bomb that exploded at the beginning of this month. It also became clear that the mobilization of the Coast Guard came too late. After the at- tack on the fishing boats had been reported to the police, it took the Coast Guard more than 10 hours to head out to sea. The acting Minister of Interior Affairs (Biza), Stephen Tsang, pointed out that it would also take an additional 7 hours to reach the destination. While the Coast Guard was looking for corpses the pirates attacked a fourth fishing boat and it can also be said with certainty that the captain has been killed. There is no information about the crew. “In the past the navy carried out the coast guard tasks. They did it with their ships and later with chartered trawlers and they were successful,” said Minister Benschop. The Council of Ministers will put the nation’s Coast Guard under a magnifying glass and it has not been ruled out that it will be taken from the Ministry of Interior Affairs to be placed under the umbrella of another ministry. The government had hoped to get international aid by putting the Coast Guard under the umbrella of the Ministry of Interior Affairs. “That has not happened,” said Minister Tsang.