Somalia Piracy, What to do? Does Anyone Care?

by Barry ORegan | November 22, 2008 at 07:48 am

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Barry Artiste Op/Ed

Some critics say, "Nuke their Country back to the Stone Age" to which I counter, "they are already in the Stone Age". Though I bet their country would look pretty from space as a big chunk of "Decorative Glass"!

http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/abc/home/contentposting.aspx?isfa=1&feedname=CTV-TOPSTORIES_V3&showbyline=True&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20081121%2fpirates_somalia_081122 New brand of pirates lured by easy cash and girls They've made headlines around the world, collected millions of dollars in ransom, and terrorized the high seas.

By Parminder Parmar

But despite their notoriety, little is known about the pirates who have been hijacking ships off the coast of Somalia for the past decade.

The relatively lawless nature of Somali society, where a functioning federal government has been all but missing for more than a decade, has created a lack of knowledge about who is behind the spate of ship hijackings in recent months.

Even one of the world's foremost experts on international piracy says there is limited information about the makeup of the pirate ships because most of their crews come from isolated villages in a remote part of Somalia, the quasi-independent region called Puntland. But Peter Lehr, a professor of terrorism studies, says scholars and security experts have concluded that most of the crew members on the Somali pirate ships are not what most people would imagine pirates to be from the movies or novels.

Forget images of seafaring bearded men with eye patches and hooks for hands, he says. Instead, the crews on the Somali boats are sometimes no older than pubescent boys.

They generally range in age from teenagers to men in their thirties. And the phrase "pirate" is probably not the most accurate term for people who have generally spent their lives as fishermen. Ironically, that's what makes them good pirates.

"(They) have very good maritime skills because of their fishing background," Lehr told CTV.ca by phone from Britain. At one time, those skills would have allowed the men to provide for their families.

But Somalia's collapse into near anarchy since the 1990s has left the country's economy in shambles.

The following is from Reuters News,

Exact numbers and positions of ships are not known for security reasons. But shipping sources estimate about 20 warships, mostly congregated in the Gulf of Aden, the gateway to the Suez Canal where trade between Europe and Asia flows.

Despite the relatively low number of successful hijackings, there were still 11 attacks in the first half of January, showing the pirates are far from overawed.

"Some of our friends were drowned because of the terrible weather, but we hope the weather will be fine soon and we shall carry out our activities as usual," said one undeterred pirate, Mohamed, from Haradheere near where the Saudi ship was held.

Pirates in Somalia have readily told Reuters they are simply adapting to the new circumstances by tracking the warships closely -- with expensive GPS tracking devices bought from ransom money -- or just moving further afield.

Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan-based East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, said one of the attacks this year had been as far away as Madagascar, way south of Somali waters.

The pirates have also strayed several times into Kenyan waters, spooking shippers at Mombasa port. But there have been a string of successes for the navies, too, including last week when a Russian warship foiled an attack on a Dutch container.

Mohamed, the pirate in Haradheere, said the apparent lull in hijackings was because the gangs were taking a breather to assess the new circumstances at sea.

"Most of us are resting while a few go to sea to survey," he said. We are neither afraid of warships nor getting reduced in number. We were six companies before, and now we are nine companies of pirates in Central region alone."

Now you have a little more information. However, most agree that the Somali's began their piracy due to illegal fishing in their waters and the dumping of toxic waste, killing people and devastating the fish population.

However, their initial response has turned into a postive criminal interprise that is rooted in greed and money. Even if you restore a working governmnet in Somalia, the piracy will continue. No individual involved in piracy is going to give up the amount of money they recieve in ransom to start growing corn on a couple hectares of land to support their family.

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Somalia Piracy, What to do? Does Anyone Care?

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