Ecoterra - Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor – XXXII. Reconnaissance Flights over Somalia

In this article, I republish excerpts from the 32nd Ecoterra press release that makes available the latest news and a wide array of comments, analyses and republications.

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) - XXXII

Ecoterra International – Updates & Statements, Review & Clearing-house

A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who sit between all chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or overseas, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities nor the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding.

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". George Orwell

2009-05-08 23h57:12 UTC

EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia@ecoterra.net

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: SMS to +254-738-497979 or call +254-733-633-733

"The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream!"

Capt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit - killed by attack of French commandos - 10. April 2009

Non A La Guerre - Yes To Peace

(Inscription on the sail of F/Y TANIT shot down on day one of the French assault)

None of the various, local or foreign pirate outfits we like to add -

Clearing-house

Breaking:

Low Flying Aircraft Spotted in Northeastern Somalia. Unknown airplanes, which are said to be low flying, have been spotted last night in various residential areas in Garowe, Eyl and Galgala, Puntland region, local observers report, The true identity of these planes are not yet known, however, some have said that they belong to the U.S.-American Navy operating along the Somali coast and particularly Puntland and are fighting piracy and terrorism in the Horn of Africa.

The plane going over the Galgala area are believed to hunt for a known terrorist named Atto. The planes are unmanned drones. One of the planes flew at a very low range and could be seen by residents of Garowe who are concerned about a possible military operation that might be carried out by these planes along the Puntland coast. Numerous local residents fled their homes in panic, believing of an imminent attack.

The U.S.-American government has been considering carrying out military operations along the Puntland coast in the last two days although the Puntland administration officials have rejected the possibility of such an operation taking place saying that it is not acceptable to the people and stability of the Puntland region in general. Many politicians are of the view that Somali pirates should not be attacked if a meaningful and lasting solution is to be found to the problem of piracy. Politicians in Puntland have accused some foreign countries of rejecting the ongoing talks between people of Puntland and pirates and would rather see the problem of piracy spiral out of control.

News from sea-jackings, abductions or newly attacked ships

Spanish navy is guarding hijacked Dutch ship. The Dutch frigate HMS De Zeven Provinciën is heading towards the Dutch Antillean ship MV MARATHON seized by pirates in the Gulf of Aden yesterday, Thursday. But the Dutch Ministry of Defense says it can be days before the Navy frigate arrives near the hijacked freighter Marathon in the Gulf of Aden. Meanwhile, a Spanish Navy vessel is keeping an eye on the Netherlands Antilles-registered ship, but the Spanish have not been authorized to take any further action. The Marathon is manned by eight Ukrainian sailors. The cargo ship is transporting cokes, a coal-based fuel used for iron ore smelting in blast furnaces. Another Dutch ship was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden a year ago and was released by the pirates after payment of a ransom. The sea-jacked vessel is commandeered towards Ga'an at the Somali Gulf of Aden coast near Laaskooray, which is developing into the sixth pirate lair.

T/B MASINDARA 7, whose 2nd engineer reportedly was shot in the leg in a recent shoot-out among the two pirate groups which hold now the ship, has taken off to the high seas again, local observers reported today. Though it certainly can not be used to attack other ships directly since its barge ADM1 is still attached, it very well can serve as launching and supply platform for small, fast attack boats. Two further groups of Somali sea-shifts with together 14 men were reportedly recruited and have gone along with their skiffs. The vessel already had last week disappeared from the coast near Bendar-Beyla for two days, causing anxiety in families and worries with the Indonesian government. It can no longer be understood why the Malaysian government continues to allow the Malaysian owner of the vessel to be so failing and reluctant in seeking a solution. The crew of 11 Indonesian nationals is in extremely bad condition and the case is an example that delaying a solution finding only will create further problems. The times when negotiators could wear down the captors and reach a quick unconditional release through mediation efforts of elders or other respected persons are gone by since long, because owners of ships - especially with clandestine or contraband cargo - started to pay huge amounts of ransom and thereby conditioned the Somali captors into today's pirate behavior.

High-flying rumors that the Italian tugboat T/B BUCCANEER had been freed in a military operation were not confirmed. It has, however, been reported by numerous observers that the two barges are not "empty" as stated by the Italian Foreign Affairs Minister Franco Frattini. They might no longer contain whatever was loaded before the vessel was captured, but one barge lays deep and the other half-loaded in the water. It will have to be established if this is only ballast water or still some other load. Official requests to declare the last loading and off-loading of the barges have yet to be answered by the owner-manager of the vessel -LEADERSHIP MANAGEMENT of Ravenna - or the operator SEACOR OFFSHORE DUBAI LLC of Dubai or Micoperi Marine Contractors also based in the Italian city of Ravenna. The 16 crew (10 Italians, 1 Croatian, 5 Romanians) are said to be all right, given the circumstances. After she had come empty-handed back from her Puntland trip, Margeritha Bonvier, Frattini's special envoy for humanitarian emergencies, stated that she had hope for a quick release after she spoke with the Puntland government and in Nairobi with Vicepremier Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden as well as Foreign Minister Abdullahi Omar and was contacted over the phone by the Somali Primeminister. She stated that Italy's ties with Somalia had been reinstated after 18 years of absolute chaos. This all seems to have left the buccaneers of the BUCANNER unimpressed.

Somali pirates, who are holding a Greek-owned cargo ship since May 2, have sent their ransom demand for the release of MV ARIANA and its 24-member Ukrainian crew, a company representative said on Friday. "Pirates have contacted us to put forward their demands, we are in talks with them", Spyros Minas, Alloceans Shipping general manager, said. He declined to disclose how much they were demanding for the ship's release. The ARIANA cargo ship was seized by pirates 250 miles southwest of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. The ship was en route to the Middle East from Brazil and was carrying 35,000 metric tons of Soya. The pirates commandeered the ship to the Somali port of Hobyo.

The ARIANA's Ukrainian crew are reported to be in good health and have sufficient food and medicine. Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Turchinov ordered on Tuesday that a team be formed to rescue 24 Ukrainian sailors captured by Somali pirates aboard the ARIANA. The British-owned ship, which flies the Maltese flag, was seized in the early hours of May 2, near the Seychelles Islands. Ukrainian intelligence and security services, the Ministry of Transport and the Foreign Ministry will be involved in rescue efforts, RIA Novosti reports. The ship was heading from Brazil to the Middle East with a cargo of soy. It is currently harbored in Hobyo, a Somali port city at the Indian Ocean. Greek intermediaries announced today that the pirates have made their ransom demands for the ship known, according to RIA Novosti. Those demands have not been made public. On Tuesday, the crew was reported to be unharmed and the ship well-stocked with food and supplies. The ship´s owners, Seven Seas Maritime London, broke off telephone contact with the pirates at that time to prevent information leaks, the UNIAN news agency reports.

Directly piracy related reports

A Spanish judge today ordered seven of the 14 pirate suspects arrested in the Gulf of Aden to be freed. Spain´s Audiencia Nacional high court Judge Fernando Andreu issued the order after Spain´s public prosecutor withdrew a motion seeking to get seven of the suspect imprisoned in Spain for questioning about crimes in international waters. The high court prosecutor instead asked for seven of the pirates to be handed over to Kenya, which has an accord with the EU to handle suspected pirates. Spanish officials thereby have backtracked on plans to bring seven suspected young Somali pirates 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) to Madrid for questioning after they were picked up by the Spanish navy in the Gulf of Aden. The Spanish attorney general's office said it would be "disproportionate" to bring in "15-year-old boys who are 2,000 kilometers away" for questioning after a suspected thwarted hijacking. A Spanish navy oil tanker participating in an EU anti-piracy flotilla off Somalia rescued the seven after their boat capsized while they were allegedly trying to hijack a Panamanian-flagged freighter on Wednesday. Attorney general spokesman Fernando Noya said Friday that officials changed their minds after originally considering possible prosecution in Spain. Prosecutor Blanca Rodriguez initially said the suspects should be investigated under Spain's observance of the principle of universal justice, which allows serious crimes committed abroad to be prosecuted here. Judge Andreu agreed, ordered the seven Somalis held on the supply ship and brought to Madrid for questioning.

However, Rodriguez changed her mind Friday. She said suspects should instead be handed over to Kenya under a March accord with European Union countries to accept and prosecute piracy suspects amid a surge in hijackings off the coast of the lawless Horn of Africa country. The judge said that even though he was ordering the men freed _ he did not say in which country _ he was keeping the case open, albeit symbolically. Andreu refused to order the suspects surrendered to Kenya, saying it bypassed all Spanish laws on extradition and arguing that the EU accord cannot be applied to people with legal proceedings pending in Spain. The Defense Ministry said Friday afternoon the suspects were still in custody aboard the Spanish ship, but it did not immediately know where the men would be taken.

The French navy on Friday handed over 11 suspected Somali pirates to Kenya for a judicial investigation and possible trial in the second such transfer by the French forces in weeks, police said. "We have 11 suspected pirates handed to us this morning by the French navy", Mombassa port police chief Ayub Gitonga told AFP. The Somalis were brought to the port city of Mombassa by the Nivose, a French frigate serving in the European Union's anti-piracy force off the coast of Somalia. The group, captured last weekend onboard two skiffs and a "mother-ship" more than 500 nautical miles off the Kenyan coast, are expected to be charged with piracy either later Friday or Monday, said Gitonga. Defense Ministry Cmdr. Christophe Prazuck says the French Navy frigate Nivose transferred the suspects to Kenyan authorities in the port of Mombassa on Friday, after intercepting the suspects May 3 off Somalia's coast.

A gang of 11 others were handed over on April 22 have already been charged with piracy. Most of those arrested have been handed over to Kenya or the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland -- a major piracy hub -- but 15 who were involved in attacks on French vessels are awaiting trial in France. An unclear legal framework has led to confusion in the handling of captured pirate suspects. Kenya is the region's only state to have agreements with most major naval powers facilitating their arrest and transfer. Human Rights groups already have accused the Kenya judiciary of permanent delays in processing these cases and the inhuman conditions at infamous Shimo-La-Tewa maximum security prison, where the meanwhile around 70 men accused of piracy - dumped by foreign navies into the Kenya legal system -, are held. "The decision making process of the French navy is completely incoherent and not transparent", stated one French analyst and described the situation by saying: "If you are a pirate and are accused to have attacked a French warship, you get dumped in Kenya, while when you are just a small pirate-fellow on a yacht but a witness to a scene where French commandoes shoot a hostage, you are taken to France".

Piracy Challenges Global Governance

by Daniele Archibugi & Marina Chiarugi

Anti-piracy resources should be devoted to helping Somalia more than policing the waves

We may be certain that many Hollywood screenwriters are now taking notes on the rebirth of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Pirates were believed to have become anachronistic in a world in which nations had occupied every corner of the earth and even of the seas along their coasts, to the point of attributing legal value to the oxymoron "territorial waters''. It was believed that satellites and smart missiles would be a sufficient deterrent against large-scale piracy, allowing pirates to carry out only small raids. Satellite-based anti-theft devices allow us to locate our automobile with pinpoint accuracy, let alone an oil tanker. And yet, these are the roaring years of a new piracy which, using old-fashioned means, is successfully defeating the technological society of the 21st century.

What is sensational about the actions of the pirates in the Gulf of Aden, and which distinguishes them from all the others, is that they are able to seize huge vessels and to take and keep their crews hostage, even for extended periods.

They are, in other words, not like the pirates swarming along the west coast of Africa and in the seas of Asia, who conduct short, incisive operations and then flee with what little booty they have been able to seize.

The Somali pirates can lay claim to having carried out the largest ship seizure in history, that of the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star, of having captured a Ukrainian ship carrying a cargo of T-72 tanks, and of having dominated the front pages of the New York Times and the Guardian. They are only relatively anonymous: thanks to new information technology it is quite easy to photograph their assault craft, to know where the seized vessels are being held captive and even to identify individual pirates on the deck. However, these marvels of modern technology have so far failed to solve the problem. According to International Maritime Bureau estimates, in 2008, there were 111 pirate attacks off the Somali coast alone, a good 42 of which culminated in the seizure of the ship. This new and unexpected trend seems to be something out of a movie. Indeed we may be sure that someone is already preparing the casting for a film on this subject.

Casting for Hollywood

Let's take a closer look at the main characters of this new film, which still remains to be made: the media packages received from special reporters have already provided us with more information than we need. First and foremost, we have the captain courageous of the ship attacked, taken hostage after resisting and who is concerned with saving his cargo and, above all, his crew. We have seen the ship's owner, who suddenly loses a precious vessel and who protests vehemently to the minister of the merchant navy of his own country about the lack of security on the high seas. What may we say about the insurance company financier who must compensate his clients for the damage caused by acts of piracy rather than by storms and hurricanes?

And it is this financier who brings another character on stage, the mercenary, who is hired to guarantee the safety of the vessels and, just like the pirates he has to combat, has complete contempt for legality. He, he assures us, would be able defeat the pirates using old-fashioned methods: sinking their boats with one shot fired from a cannon. The mercenary is nostalgic for the days in which pirates were hanged at the dockside without a trial.

However, the most fascinating character is the adventurer whose job it is to negotiate on behalf of the ship owners and insurance companies: he is the one who has to board the seized ships and verify that the crew and the cargo are safe, but above all to pay the ransom. He is the only one of whom we know absolutely nothing as the negotiations must be conducted in absolute secrecy. However, proof of his secret existence comes from the fact that the ransoms are paid and the ships resume their voyage. One may wonder whether the pirates are content to be paid in cash or whether even today they do not demand to be paid in doubloons or gold nuggets. The way the ransom was paid for the release of the Sirius Star was certainly sensational: as in an adventure film, the cash was dropped on to the ship's deck from a helicopter .

Lastly, the increase in piracy brings other characters into the picture: governments have been led to cast aside their typical maritime rivalries and to collaborate in the protection of the sea routes. In September 2008 a mission sailed under the NATO flag and, in December, the first joint naval mission of the Europe Union left port. Furthermore, it has already been announced that another multinational mission led by the United States is about to sail. Also China has sent several convoys towards the Gulf of Aden, thereby inaugurating the first expedition by its navy outside the Pacific area. These new pirates are actually stimulating quite considerable innovations in navy practice.

However, the time has come to describe the real hero of this singular film - the pirate himself. Some have managed to interview him and to trace out his portrait. This hero is darker-skinned and much younger than Long John Silver, the Treasure Island hero that no adolescent has ever forgotten and, like him, is a likeable fellow. In 1992 he was just a kid when he witnessed the arrival of the US soldiers participating in the "Restore Hope'' peace mission. Sixteen years have passed and the hopes raised by western troops have been dashed. He is almost certainly a young Somali coast fisherman who grew up while his family and his people were being worn out by an endless civil war. He saw fishing boats that had come from afar to catch the fish that was needed to feed his people in the total absence of any Somali navy capable of defending what should have been the zone of exclusive economic exploitation of his country. He saw ships from other countries dumping toxic waste, including nuclear residues, on the coasts where he lives.

On several occasions he himself has been robbed in his wretched little boat.

Demonstrating greater business acumen than his peers, he first bought a rifle to defend himself from attack and then suddenly discovered he could do the same thing and so was transformed from fisherman to pirate. Perhaps the striking part of the film could be the transformation from harmless victim to criminal, putting together the tools needed for his new and dishonorable profession: a fiber-glass boat with a powerful outboard engine, a couple of hand grenades salvaged from the ever full civil war arsenals in the Horn of Africa, a few rudimentary electronic gadgets compared with the technology possessed by those who hunt him, and a lot of guts.

The act of piracy

The hijack victims describe the mechanism of the attack and the International Maritime Bureau reports the salient features of each episode. Generally speaking, a swarm of boats approaches the ship to be hijacked, fires a few rounds from a rocket launcher into the air for the purpose of intimidation and lastly boards the ship using wooden ladders. Once on board, the first thing the pirates do is to try and reassure the crew by gestures rather than by the few words they are able to proffer in a foreign language: they want their money and certainly not their life. The pirates take no more than a quarter of an hour to seize a ship. However, the action is risky and uncertain: only one attack out of three succeeds. Sometimes the vessels manage to escape, or to prevent the pirates from boarding them. One particularly combative Chinese crew succeeded in beating off their attackers by throwing tomatoes and bottles of beer at them.

However, the most significant fact so far is that only two crew members of attacked ships have reportedly been killed, while several pirates have been killed. No pirate deserves to be considered a gentleman, although those of the Gulf of Aden may not deserve to be called murderers.

The closing scene of this déjà-vu film could be set along the Somali coast, with the pirates distributing their ill-gotten gains among their people, stimulating commerce, providing new jobs and indeed becoming the only successful role model for children. Indeed, along the coast they are greeted as heroes for having brought back to this desolate corner of the earth some semblance of an economy that, however criminal it may be, is preferable to perennial famine. It is therefore not surprising that they are in no way perceived as criminals, but simply as replacement customs officials who exact tolls on behalf of a state which disintegrated a long time ago.

However, the pirates are not always in a position to celebrate. When they reach the shore, they often have to come to terms with other armed groups claiming their share of the booty. On other occasions they suffer the reprisals of the ship owners. And above all they have to cope with the elements of nature. A motor boat with eight of the pirates who participated in the seizure of the Sirius Star capsized for reasons still to be ascertained. Three of those on board succeeded in swimming to the shore, three were found drowned in the sea, one is still missing, while the last one was found dead on the beach with an envelope containing 153,000 dollars in his pocket.

But this is not a film; it is an episode of a real narrative. At this very moment more than one dozen ships are held prisoner in the Gulf of Aden and hundreds of hostages, and their families, live in fear for their lives. Ships are released after payment of a ransom and others are seized. The last cargo ship hijacked has an US flag and twenty-one US crewmen taken hostages. Like the Ukrainian ship, it is also probably transporting military equipment and it will also be very interesting to see if the United States will be prepared to pay a ransom.

It is the first time that a pirate attack involves a US ship and US nationals, and the whole world is waiting anxiously for the response of the Obama administration towards this difficult foreign policy challenge. The new year may well be much the same as the old one: on New Year's Eve a cargo vessel was seized with twenty-eight crew members on board, who have now swelled the ranks of those held hostage.

The acts of piracy that take place in other parts of the world, although numerous, have completely different characteristics. They are limited to brief raids on board ships to grab as much as possible before immediately returning to terra firma to hide. The rebirth of this form of piracy based instead on seizing the vessel can be explained in terms of three factors: the failure of the Somali state, the difficulty of coming up with an effective response, and the structural weakness of merchant vessels. Let us examine them.

The first and most oft-cited factor is the Somali state's incapacity to exercise the so-called "monopoly of force", on land and even less at sea. As we learned from the history of piracy in the 17th and 18th centuries, buccaneers need a land base where they can equip and re-supply themselves; a lawless state in the grip of poverty and strife serves this purpose well.

The second consists of the difficulty encountered by the navies of other countries to attack and repress the pirates in their hinterland. Although Somalia is a state on the brink of collapse, it nevertheless remains a sovereign state and no naval vessel flying a different flag can venture into its territory or territorial waters without its permission. Today it is not clear who to apply to get this permission. A no-man's-land, or rather a "no-man's-sea", is thus created which has been exploited by the pirates to "park'' the vessels they seize and to start negotiating the ransom.

The third point is related to the vulnerability of merchant shipping. Cargo ships can be lightly armed, but only with the authorization of the country where they are registered. Moreover, the weapons cannot be left in the hands of the crew as they would not know how to use them. The ship owners would have to rely on mercenaries and shoulder the relative costs. To enable merchant vessels to provide for their own defense would, in other words, entail huge costs and logistical problems.

The fight between merchant vessels and pirates is therefore one-sided as only the latter are armed. It is not surprising therefore that rather than foot the bill, many ship owners prefer to steer clear of the Gulf of Aden and to circumnavigate the whole of Africa. One ship owner told us that after doing the necessary sums he discovered it was more economical to pay the ransom than to hire mercenaries. The possible organization of a private system of collective self-defense has so far produced discouraging results. Indeed, in many cases the mercenary companies have trained guards who then turned into pirates: just as at the beginning of the 17th century, the corsairs who lost their jobs became the best pirates. And vice versa.

The fragility of global governance

It is certainly peculiar that a few poorly armed pirates are enough to breach the system of global governance of commercial navigation. The Gulf of Aden is a maritime space almost as large as the Tyrrhenian Sea and the protection of merchant vessels is certainly not a simple river policing operation. However, the international community, an ambiguous term used to refer to governments and intergovernmental organizations, was caught unprepared at both the operational and juridical levels.

Operationally speaking, most countries have preferred prevention to the cure: for many months, various navies have dispatched war-ships to the spot for the purpose of escorting the merchant vessels flying their flag or in which they have a particular interest. So far, the system of defense has been more individual than collective. Today the Gulf is much more crowded with naval vessels, which has had positive repercussions also as far as collective security is concerned; in numerous cases, the attacks of pirates were foiled by the arrival of naval vessels flying a different flag from that of the merchant vessels.

Only the persistence of the attacks has led to the development of a collective security system. NATO has been given the task, with the Allied Provider Mission (12 October - 15 December 2008) of escorting convoys transporting the humanitarian aid of the World Food Programme towards Somalia itself. Once in the Gulf, the ships of the Mission also protected merchant vessels, keeping the raiders at bay.

NATO then handed the job over to Operation Atalanta (EU-NAVFOR Somalia), the first joint maritime mission by the European Union. It actually seems that the pirates have contributed to triggering this European military collaboration which might otherwise have had difficulty getting off the ground.

Naval vessels therefore have a deterrent and preventive effect; the pirates often flee at the sight of them and even more so when helicopters take off from the cruisers. However, it does not seem that these unilateral or multilateral actions fully recognize their mandate from the legal standpoint. Maritime law allows a naval vessel to stop and inspect the papers of any merchant vessel encountered on the open seas, but certainly not to sink it without warning. The 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea also specifies that a naval vessel from any country can arrest persons suspected of piracy and deliver them for trial to the legal system of their own country. The crime of piracy is actually one of the few offences, indeed the first, for which a universal jurisdiction was invoked. And yet, in only a few cases have the pirates, even when caught red-handed, ended up in court.

A good example is that of the operation conducted by the Danish navy on 17 September 2008, which captured and detained on board their vessel a group of ten suspected pirates. In the end it simply accompanied them on shore. The problem lies not only in the opacity of the Danish language. When we asked the officers of the Italian navy in command of the NATO mission, "If you come across pirates at sea, what will you do?'', the answers given were uncertain.

Only France has decided to combat piracy directly. In this it has displayed a quite unusual vitality that has led it even to request the Security Council to extend the provisions regarding the repression of piracy in Somalia to take in also the West African coasts. The first episode, the seizing of the yacht Le Ponant in April 2008, was initially characterized by negotiations for the release of the thirty hostages (twenty-two of whom French nationals) and subsequently the capture of six pirates which actually took place in Somali territory without the explicit permission but the tacit acceptance of a government of such uncertain status as that of Puntland. The incident then took on a spectacular turn, with a live broadcast of the pirates being captured by heliborne French commandos and the freed hostages being personally welcomed by President Sarkozy. The second raid, in September 2008, to free the Delanne couple, was actually announced by President Sarkozy, renamed "national Indiana Jones'' for the occasion, in a press conference. The two actions each led to the arrest of six pirates (and the death of one of their number), who are now awaiting trial before a French court.

The United Kingdom which, during its history, more than any other country is known to have both favoured and repressed piracy, has perhaps found the most satisfactory way of treating the arrested pirates - washing its hands of the matter. It has actually negotiated a treaty with Kenya whereby those suspected of piracy are handed over to that country. Kenya's legal system is without doubt less sophisticated than that practiced in the Old Bailey and its prisons are less comfortable that those of Her British Majesty's. In other words, it is a stronger deterrent. After a few months, the United States and the European Union followed the example of the United Kingdom, negotiating with Kenya very similar agreements. During the first days of March, sixteen pirates have been delivered to Kenyan authorities. At this stage, it seems very likely that the pirates kept by France will also be transferred for being judged on African territory.

The Security Council in the limelight

The laws to combat piracy on the high seas exist, but the states that would be entitled to apply them have either forgotten them or are reluctant to use them. It would certainly be easier to eradicate piracy along the coast but who is able to exert control over the territory? The state of Somalia has no chance of intervening as it is in the grip of a twenty-year-long civil war. The other states face serious problems in having to act without encroaching upon Somali sovereignty.

It is on these two aspects that the Security Council has acted, also under pressure from the business community. It has consequently displayed unprecedented vigor, approving numerous resolutions on Somalia in 2008 alone, the last one, no. 1851, on 16 December 2008, even going so far as to allow the states involved to engage in the hot pursuit of the pirates in Somali territory, although subject to the permission of the Somali Transitional Federal Government. The aim was to invite all the states operating in the area to follow the example of the French armed forces, thereby granting ex post approval of an action of somewhat dubious legality.

During the Security Council debate, numerous states eagerly pointed to the robust legislation existing on the matter: consuetudinary law, the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea, the 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, which, although initially intended to provide an additional instrument for combating terrorism, can also be applied to the crime of piracy. As well as allowing a strong capacity for action, the Convention prescribes that the states should adopt the necessary measures to prosecute the individuals captured. Lastly, resolutions 1846 and 1851 extend the powers of the states and exhort them to act with greater determination and above all greater coordination.

Searching for jails

From the legal standpoint , the lack of coordination during the first phase of the fight against piracy made it materially impossible to bring the pirates before a court of justice. The uncertainty over the procedures to adopt in such circumstances led to the surreal episode involving the Danish navy. On the other hand, a definition of the mechanism to follow in the case of capture that was shared by the states operating in the area would also allow any problems of internal law similar to that of the Danish case to be overcome. Bilateral agreements such as those between Kenya and the United Kingdom are a mere palliative, a useful step but not one that eliminates the need for an integrated approach. If the first bilateral agreement between Kenya and United Kingdom was a rather modest palliative, the European and the American initiatives have certainly shown the willingness to lead the operations following a a more incisive and structured approach.

Nevertheless, can it be deemed opportune and dignified that the great democracies of the planet take advantage of the dissuasive capacity of the Kenyan prisons as an instrument for the fight against piracy? Is it acceptable to delegate the administration of justice to the institutions of a country that several reports of the most important international organizations have defined as extremely lacking in providing basic guarantees to the inmates?

The Kenyan prison system is in disastrous conditions. The penitentiary structures contain a number of inmates that is at least three times higher than the maximum allowed and inside there torture episodes and arbitrary executions by the penitentiary police are frequent. The judicial system has been harshly criticized by the majority of the external observers. First, the 1963 Constitution does not determine a system able to guarantee a separation of powers that goes beyond a mere formal declaration, assigning to the President very strong check powers over the judges operations. At the same time, the widespread corruption of public authorities doesn´t help to guarantee the rule of law. The impressive congestion of prisons involves so strong delays in the call of trials to make it possible that an inmate could spend more than ten years in jail without being taken in front of a judge. Third, there are very limited guarantees regarding legal aid, with the obvious consequence that the defense into trials becomes an optional for the few people with the necessary resources. Fourth, Kenya is a country that maintains death penalty, even if it has applied a moratorium on executions. Finally, subtle perplexities comes also from the managements modalities of the crisis due to the riots successive to the 2007 elections, when thousands of people have been deliberately killed by the police.

Following the missed institution of a Special Tribunal to judge the massacres´ responsible, many external observers invoked the intervention of the International Criminal Court. Obviously, the ICC intervention is admissible only when the territorial state is unable or unwilling to administer justice. We are facing an evident paradox: states entitled to exert jurisdiction have decided to delegate it to a state that just in these days is showing its incapability to assure the course of a fair trial regarding acts of exceptional seriousness like crimes against humanity.

States bound to the most sophisticated instruments on human rights protection are now willing to send Somali citizens in their custody to a country that almost certainly will violate their most essential prerogatives. The case of the European Union, that has always been very careful as far as the protection of human rights is concerned and that, with the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, is preparing to become a member of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, is highly emblematic. In conjunction with the adoption of the treaty for trying the pirates, the Union promoted another agreement relating their treatment after the transfer in which all the main instruments on human rights protection are recalled. The conclusion of such agreements will certainly improve the capacity to avoid that the prisoners must wait for years before the start of the trials, it will assure more guarantees related to legal aid and maybe it will reduce also the probability of being subject to inhuman or degrading treatments, creating a sort of first class inmates, but obviously it cant change the conditions of Kenyan prisons. The Mombassa jail, where very probably the pirates will be imprisoned, contains more than 3,500 prisoners, most of them sleep on the floor of very humid and sweltering rooms, among rats and cockroaches, with salty drinking water and widespread malaria. As many NGOs have observed, agreements on prisoners treatment limit a risk that remains very considerable and they do not exclude a violation of the so-called principle of non-refoulement by states patrolling the gulf, that is the imperative norm that forbids to hand over individuals under their custody to states that could violate their fundamental rights.

The last element that deserves to be taken into account concerns the rules of the Convention on the Law of the Sea related to jurisdiction over pirates. Article 105 provides for the power of the flag state to try pirates on its own territory. From the drafting history we can assume that the aim of the norm was to preclude the possibility of a transfer to a third state. Therefore, the legitimacy of such an attitude isnt completely undoubted, even if states practice seems to be univocally oriented in this direction. During these days China as well is starting negotiations with Kenya. Unfortunately for the potential prisoners, in this case we can exclude any concern about the different treatment received in Africa rather than in the country entitled to exert justice.

However, the initial judicial deadlock and its disappointing solution, although it may and should arouse serious concern about the international community's capacity to act, is certainly not the main obstacle standing in the way of eliminating piracy in Somalia. Whenever the Security Council has had to debate the issue, a chorus of voices has arisen to point out how the roots of the Somali problem lie in the absolute insecurity of the territory due to the absence of any effective state authority and the distressing poverty of the population.

What can be done about piracy?

These states have finally made up their minds to shoulder responsibility for maritime security in the zone: this is an example of tardy global governance acting not only at the administrative level but also at the military level. The Gulf of Aden is beginning to be crowded with naval ships, often with the task of escorting the merchant shipping flying their same flag, although of course they are not loath to dissuade pirates from attacking other shipping. On 9 January 2009 the United States announced they would be taking command of the umpteenth international force in the area, the Combined Task Force 151, with a naval contribution from another twenty countries and specifically designed to combat piracy.

The commitment of the international community is proving to be particularly massive and this is not surprising. The pressure from the business community has been reinforced by the concern that if piracy takes root it may ultimately become associated with terrorist groups or lead to more or less deliberately caused environmental disasters. The increased risks of transit through this area and the consequent increase in the insurance premiums paid by shipping threaten to make the rounding of the Cape of Good Hope a less costly option. We would thus see a substantial increase in the price of goods that currently pass through Suez, mainly oil and manufactured products from Asia. This would be a cost that, in view of the current international economic crisis, it would certainly be preferable to avoid.

One further element of concern lies in the risk that the ill-gotten gains of the pirates might be used to fund extremist groups potentially linked to international terrorism such as the Al-Shabab movement, the more intransigent wing of the Islamic militia occupying the South of the country. In fact, there is so far no evidence that the much feared links between Somali pirates and terrorist groups actually exist. There is actually a radical difference between the motives of these two groups of individuals. A reduction in the phenomenon actually occurred in the first half of the year 2006 when the Islamic troops succeeded in exerting a more stable control over the territory. However, once the vulnerability of merchant shipping becomes clearly apparent, there is no reason why it should not be targeted in future. The only apparently proved connection between pirates and the embryos of state apparatus present in Somalia, has been subject of the last report by the General Secretariat to the Security Council - concerns the Puntland territory, situated on the extremity of the Horn of Africa and completely extraneous to any Islamic influence.

There are clear signals that the various navies are no longer willing to use the kid gloves international law when dealing with pirates. The Indian and British navies have already fired shots in anger. The Indian navy's shots have probably caused the killing not only of the pirates but also of the 16 sailors kidnapped. The NATO mission and that of the EU shows that there is a will to act together. In Kenya and in other countries the prison doors are being opened. The pirates have been warned - in future it will be much harder to get off scot-free.

However, the growing strength of the military response is in dramatic contrast with the catastrophic conditions in which the Somali population lives. They total nearly ten million people, with a life expectancy of less than fifty years living in a country where the average age is seventeen. The country lacks the most elementary health and welfare structures, where famine and perennial drought condemn them to live on less than two dollars a day and where the twenty-year-old civil war between the northern warlords and the Islamic militias of the South means it is impossible to live without fear.

At this point it is impossible to dodge the question of whether the best and most effective way to restore security along one of the most important sea lanes in the world consists of deterrence and repression. A huge imbalance actually exists between the amount of money that the Somali pirates have successfully extorted in the form of ransoms (estimated at no more than 60 million dollars in 2008) and the damage they have caused, calculated as being of several billion dollars. So far no one has taken the trouble to estimate the cost of the protection provided by the various navies, perhaps because this is shouldered by the taxpayer. It has been suggested the creation of an operative co-ordination among the regional states, on the example of the Maritime Organization for West and Central Africa (MOWCA) that operates in the gulf of Guinea, to which delegate the burdens relates to the patrols. Its about a little reassuring expedient, aimed to save resources leaning the repressions expenses against countries that, although advantaged under the geographical point of view, are all in a condition of extreme poverty.

If the states had invested the time and resources they now devote to combating piracy in reconstructing the Somali society and economy, they would probably not now have to cope with these problems. But today there are new opportunities that should not be wasted. The Djibouti accords, signed in June 2008, providing for the withdrawal of the Ethiopian troops, are raising some faint hopes of possible cooperation between the Federal Government and the more moderate fringes of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia, a first step towards the making of a legitimate and effective central government. On the 31st of January 2009 Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the moderated Muslims leader, has been elected chief of the Transitional Federal Government, defeating the candidate supported by the international community and spreading all over the country a climate of renewed optimism. As we said before, in twenty years the only period of relative stability of the area has been observed during the phase in which the Islamic factions controlled the most of the territory. In his report to the Security Council, Ban Ki-Moon reaffirmed that peace and stability are a fundamental pre-condition for the solution of the piracy problem, in order to make possible that who today is finding himself in the bandits shoes, could come back to play the usual role of the fisherman.

In all likelihood, the financial resources the states intend to devote to protecting their own commercial interests will achieve better results if they are used in support of this difficult moment of transition. Above all if they are used to bring some relief to this people afflicted by perhaps one of the most dramatic humanitarian crises of all time, rather than being invested in the announced operations of deterrence and policing. The international community should have learnt that it is virtually impossible to come up with an effective deterrent against those who, in spite of themselves, have no longer anything to lose.

Anti-piracy measures

"What can the AU do to help fight the piracy and also to help Somalia?", Erastus Mwencha, deputy chairperson of the African Union was asked and he answered: "I think it is to strengthen the Somali government... We are working to strengthen AU forces on the ground and also to support the Somali government to put in place a mechanism that they can police that they can be in charge of their own environment".

Which Jails for Somali pirates?

By Daniele Archibugi

The Gulf of Aden is becoming increasingly crowded. Due to the several million paid in ransom over the last twenty four months, and to the persisting chronic poverty in Somalia, the number of individuals who have turned to piracy has increased, and they seem to be more desperate and less experienced than the previous ones. In the first quarter of 2009, the number of attacks on ships has in fact doubled.

But pirates have today, to deal with an increased presence of military ships; the United States leads a multilateral military force of some twenty states, and the European Union has created for this purpose its first joint military force. Their numbers are augmented by the presence of the military ships from several Eastern states. Moreover, the UN Security Council has authorized military ships in the area to pursue suspect vessels inside the Somali territorial waters and even onto the mainland in order to capture the pirates. If both the number of pirates and of military ships in the area increase, we can be almost certain that the two will clash more frequently. This is precisely what has happened in the last weeks.

But once arrested, what becomes of the pirates? The International Law of the Sea does not give rise to problems of interpretation: since the Seventeenth century pirates are considered hostis humani generi and piracy is one of the few crimes, indeed the first crime, for which there exists universal jurisdiction (for a fascinating account of piracy in the Seventeenth and Eighteen Centuries, see Peter T. Leeson The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates, Princeton University Press, 2009). This means that any state that captures a pirate ship is entitled to try the pirate crew in its tribunals. But the norm is so old and international piracy in the high seas had become so uncommon that states find themselves unprepared. More particularly, several countries do not know how to incorporate this international norm in their domestic jurisdiction.

Up till now, the United States and France are the only two states to have brought pirates home to try them. The United States have brought to New York Abduhl wal-i-Musi, the teen-ager involved in the hijacking of Maersk ALABAMA and its Captain Richard Phillips whose age and even name are still uncertain. This will be the first trial held in the United States for piracy for more than a century. The course of the trial promises to be all but predictable: the strategy of the defense is likely to be centered around the age of the defendant, but also on the fact that his arrest took place while he was onboard the American vessel to negotiate the release of the Captain. The fact that he was arrested during a truce in high sea might invalidate the arrest.

The number of pirates detained in France is greater: following two expeditions of the French special squads there are currently twelve prisoners. The first group of six pirates was captured in April 2008 after the kidnapped, payment of a ransom and release of the 30 members of the crew (22 of which were of French nationality) of the yacht "Le Ponant". The second group of six pirates was captured in September 2008 (while a seventh pirate was killed), after they hijacked the yacht of the French couple Delanne. In both cases, the blitzes of the commandos were properly filmed and broadcasted by the French Navy.

These cases have one legal point in common: those who performed the arrest are the same nationality as the hostages. But they have also similarities in terms of political image: Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama have both been directly involved in the process and are portrayed as the decision-makers of last resort who acted to protect their fellow citizens abroad as well as to ensure the guilty parties were punished.

How do the other navies behave, in particular in those cases when hostages of different nationality are involved? The Indian navy has shown more propensity to sink suspect ships rather then arresting pirates. The Dutch and Danish navies, who have captured ships carrying war weapons, have kept the crews onboard their vessels for a few hours but have then chosen to release them. The Dutch, who were operating under a joint NATO mission, have provoked the wrath of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. But the fact remains, NATO has an agreement to patrol the Gulf of Aden, but it does not have a common policy in relation to making arrests, as frankly acknowledged by NATO Lieutenant Commander Alexandre Fernandes.

It is certainly surprising that there are so many Navy ships patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the outcome is so often that arrested pirates are released. So far, the Navies have had a more preventive than a repressive role. There are not more than one hundred pirates waiting for trial, of which 64 in Kenya, 12 in France and 1 in the United States, but at least double the number of suspected pirates have been captured and then released.

Great Britain has extricated itself from this embarrassing situation by reaching an agreement with Kenya, delegating to the Nairobi tribunals the responsibility to see justice done. The United States and the European Union swiftly followed suit through an "Exchange of Letters between the EU and the Government of Kenya" (pdf).

It is an ingenious solution, albeit a contradictory one: states with a proven democratic tradition have surrendered jurisdiction to a country whose justice and detention system they have themselves often denounced as corrupt, inefficient, very slow and infamous because of regular violations of human rights. Surrendering the pirates to a state incapable of guaranteeing a just trial risks becoming a new form of "extraordinary rendition". Moreover, even in Kenya there is a mounting dissatisfaction with these legal arrangements, often not ratified by the Parliament and that may expose the country to reprisals by armed groups in neighboring countries.

But what alternatives are there? The first is to charge the states which captured the pirates also with the responsibility of carrying out the trial and detention (as the United States are doing). This may prove risky for the countries that arrest pirates. The United States and France, for example, may be asked to justify in front of their own Courts the use of force employed. Were better options available to the killing of the three other pirates involved in the kidnap of Captain Phillips? Was France legally authorized to intervene militarily in Somali territory? All these issues are likely to make the trials controversial and to make the offences of the pirates as minor ones.

The second is the institution of an ad hoc International Tribunal, but this solution is costly and judicially cumbersome.

The third, and possibly best, solution is to give jurisdiction to a state whose judiciary system guarantees that the defendants will not be abused, in other words, not Kenya.

We can be certain of one thing: the pirates' adventures have not only disrupted maritime governance, they are also showing up the faults of the international criminal jurisdiction.

Why don't privatize these authors and hawk them to the highest bidder? Could Profit Motive Put an End to Piracy?

A Little Free-Market Muscle Might Be Just What's Needed to Send Pirates Packing

Opinion

By John Stossel and Andrew Kirell

The privatization of the Gulf of Aden, a key shipping lane under constant threat of piracy, could be the most cost-effective way of securing boats in the area from waterborne attack.

After the recent rise in Somali piracy, politicians began to consider ways to prevent future attacks. Some want to spend tons of money for naval escorts in the region, others prefer sanctions and military force against Somalia.

But George Mason University's Peter Leeson, economist and author of "The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates", suggests a more economically practical solution: privatize the Gulf of Aden.

Economists have said "what nobody owns, nobody takes care of", and "no one washes a rental car". These adages apply to the oceans, too.

Because no one owns the valuable oceanic passageway off the Somali coast, Leeson said, no one has the proper incentive to effectively protect the water from activities like piracy that destroy its value. A private owner of these waters would have the profit motive driving the need to suppress piracy on his property, all while maintaining a safe, efficient navigational passage for ships.

"Rather than trying its hand at Somali state building, the international community should try auctioning off Somali's coastal waters", Leeson said. "The international community can use the proceeds of the auction for humanitarian assistance in Somalia, or put it in a trust for Somalia's future government, if one ever emerges".

The firm that purchases the territory would own the rights to charge ships a fee to fund the gulf's maintenance and security.

The company wouldn't be able to monitor an entire gulf at all times, but because it would mean better profits, the company would monitor the areas where security precautions are most needed.

Isn't it just like a pirate's ransom to charge ships a fee to move through what used to be a free passageway? No, said Leeson, because the user fee would certainly be much less than all the enormous risks and costs associated with arming, insuring and fighting against piracy and potential death when the water is "free" to travel upon.

No real peace yet

UAE's humanitarian aid plane arrives in Somalia. A UAE plane loaded with 35 tons of relief aid has arrived in Berbera, Somaliland on Friday, said the UAE's Red Crescent Authority (RCA). Blankets, tents, clothes, flour, rice and other food stuff and will be distributed to Somalis as part of the UAE's brotherly obligations towards the people of Somalia, said RCA's acting deputy Secretary General for relief and projects Dr. Saleh Mousa al-Ta'ae who heads RCA's delegation to Somalia. The plane has been sent to Somalia upon directives from President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, General Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, crown prince of Abu Dhabi and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces and is being followed up on by H.H Sheikh Hamdan Bin Zayed al-Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of RCA, Emirates news agency WAM reported. The said relief aid will be distributed to Somali victims of conflicts, famine, poverty and drought in coordination with Somalia Red Crescent. This is the 17th plane to carry relief aid to the most vulnerable groups of people in the Horn of Africa country. The UAE has so far provided Somalia with a total of AED 124 million in relief aid and funds for humanitarian projects. Al-Ta'ae appealed to individual and corporate philanthropists to donate for the Somalia humanitarian and relief operations to help out victims of 4 consequent seasons of drought which destroyed crops denying 30% of Somalis of their major source of income.

Somalia's interim president, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, has accepted a ceasefire proposed by the Islamic mediation committee, Radio Garowe reports. Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad, who chairs the mediation committee composed of Islamic scholars, told reporters in the capital Mogadishu Friday that the Somali leader had accepted the ceasefire proposal during talks at the Villa Somalia presidential compound. "We asked the government leaders for a ceasefire, in order to find a peaceful solution to the renewed fighting in Mogadishu", Sheikh Bashir told reporters Thursday evening. He noted that the Islamic mediation committee dispatched the same message to the armed opposition, "but there is no response yet".

Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad

Sheikh Bashir said the government leaders "accepted to immediately stop the fighting, to avoid any action that can lead to war and to avoid using the media for propaganda that could lead to instability". Further, he condemned the renewed violence in Mogadishu, where pro-government Islamist militias and anti-government Islamist militias fought yesterday.

15 killed, 50 wounded

The death toll from Friday's fighting has hit at least 15, with medical sources saying more than 50 people were wounded during heavy battles among the Islamist militias.

Read:

Notorious ex-warlord meets Somali president, 5 killed in fighting Islamic Courts spokesman Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Addow claimed that the pro-government faction killed eight members of Al Shabaab, a group of Islamist hardliners who have rejected to recognize President Sheikh Sharif's U.N.-backed interim government. "Our forces captured two armed trucks", Addow claimed. There was no comment from the Al Shabaab faction, but sources in Mogadishu said Al Shabaab fighters targeted again Thursday night in Hodan district after fighting earlier during the day. Medical sources at Daynile and Medina hospitals said upwards of 50 wounded persons were admitted since the fighting erupted in Mogadishu yesterday.

Fighting condemned

Somali human rights group Elman has expressed its opposition to the new round of violence in Mogadishu, with Elman deputy chairman Ali "Fadhaa" Sheikh Yasin telling reporters that the "factions are not fighting for the people's interest". "The people want peace not war. It is surprising to reward the people who supported the Islamists' rise yesterday with more war", Mr. Ali Fadhaa told reporters Friday. He indicated that "most of yesterday's victims were civilians", while underlining that the violence represents a clear violation of human rights and Islamic law. The Elman human rights group called on all factions to immediately stop the fighting and to "have mercy for the suffering masses". Somalia has been mired in armed conflict since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. President Sheikh Sharif's new government, which came to power in January, is the international community's 15th attempt to restore order in Mogadishu.

Al-Shabab Official Escapes Assasination Attempt Skirmishes were reported in Mogadishu´s Sodonka road today between Al-Shabab and an unknown group, after the vehicle of an Al-Shabab commander´s was attacked. The official whose name is said to be Qoslaye, was escorted by large number of his fighters. when he was attacked. One of the Al-Shabab fighters was killed in the process. A huge force of Al-Shabab, who seemed to be on high alert, were deployed between the Carwo and Black Sea junctions after the official escaped the assassination attempt. Area residents were gripped by panic since a senior commander from the Union of Islamic Courts was earlier attacked and wounded in the same area.

Future of Somalia

by Joe Fleishman

Another ship is taken by the Somalis. This time the victim is a German ship. World is paying heavy toll to these Somali pirates. Yet the immunity is very poor in the horn of Africa. NATO and some other countries like China have sent their big guns over there but a huge and rough sea like the Gulf of Aden is not very easy to secure totally. Some says looking for pirates in the Gulf of Aden is more difficult than finding a needle in haystack. It can be compare as finding needle in an ocean!

Somali pirates know this. Most of them were fishermen before. So they know this sea well enough that makes the task more difficult for the guards.

Some ships however have been successfully rescued by US and NATO patrol boats. Some pirates were also arrested. But because of the international law pirates are enjoying safe return to back home. So why would they stop attacking ships? There´s no serious threat but once they successful like Saudi Tanker –unbelievable remuneration is there.

These pirate ships are often encountering US, NATO and other Naval Ships. In most cases, in those situations pirates simply flee –and it´s all over. May be they can arrest but hardly for more than a week. Soon they will return you back home.

Recently there´s been a new way is used. They are now handed over for trial. But effectiveness of such action is not yet visible. That action is not enough to stop pirates.

In addition to handling these pirates, a new grave danger is knocking the door. A recent report showed may be terrorist organization Al-Qaida has found a real safe heaven in Somalia. They have chosen a perfect place no doubt on that. Somalia is a place where government has no control outside the capital. It is a failed nation. Their military has no effectiveness. So for nurturing terrorism –which can be a better place than this?

Already some videos are available online showed Al-Qaida movement in Somalia. If it is true it´s a bad news. UN has some previous bad experience to work in Somalia. Many people can still recall the clashes between US soldiers and Somali miscreants, which killed several US soldiers and Somalis.

For both the crisis, Somalia is now getting a growing threat to the world. World´s East and West treading is under serious jeopardy. More than 20,000 ships in a year is use that channel but now is now facing threat in every moment.

Something has to be done here. World is planning to encounter these Somali pirates. But till now nothing is found very useful here. In an interview one of these pirates said, they can even risk their life to hijack ships. It´s a big money, it gives them better life, better status in the society. These pirates will not give up soon unless some effective measures are taken.

Clock is ticking. The bandits are adding their muscles. World should pay more attention to Somalia, it deserves attention. If not, in future things can be very, very bad.

Impacting reports from the global village

Somali piracy moves up international agenda. Somali piracy appears to be rising up the international agenda, after Russia´s head of state, the Nippon Foundation and top naval officers in the US all offered separate suggestions for tackling the growing scourge.

Russian president Dmitry Medvedev on Monday called for an international court to be set up to try alleged pirates. The demand comes after the Russian navy recently revealed that it had captured a pirate vessel with 29 people on board off the coast of Somalia, but had not yet decided where to try the suspects.

Mr. Medvedev told Russian television: "It is necessary to consider all possibilities, including, maybe, the formation of some kind of international court on this theme. Often states where these pirates come from do not take any actions, in short, they aid this kind of crime".

In London, Nippon Foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa today used his keynote address to the International Maritime Law Institute to call for what he termed an "ocean peacekeeping initiative".

Drawing on the experience of the Malacca Strait and Singapore where, in recent years, "piracy has declined significantly", Mr. Sasakawa pointed out that this was a result of international cooperation "in actively supporting the framework of countries that border the Strait and the countries and companies that use them".

His so-called OPK initiative would include "monitoring from air, land and sea, the coastal areas near pirate strongholds", but crucially he argued there was a need to coordinate the fight on an international basis "under United Nations leadership".

"Through the sharing of command and communications systems, as well as a common code of conduct, we should be able to look forward to well-controlled and effective activities", he said.

Most controversially, however, Mr. Sasakawa advocated copying the user-pays framework he has advocated to fund maritime safety in the Malacca Strait to help fund anti-piracy operations.

"While it is critical for the international community to cooperate in dealing with piracy, I think the time has come to expect the private sector to also make various contributions," he said.

Meanwhile, US chief of naval operations Admiral Gary Roughead told reporters after a speech at the recent Navy League conference that action against pirates on land was needed to resolve the crisis.

"Pirates don´t live at sea. They live ashore. They move their money ashore. You can´t have a discussion about eradicating piracy without having a discussion about the shore dimension".

He said the area off the coast of Somalia was four times the size of Texas and there were complex legal issues involved. Moreover, it is not clear that the shipping industry wanted to begin using armed convoys to protect ships against pirates.

Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also told the media after the conference that he did not support putting arms on commercial ships and that it was up to merchant ships to pay for their own protection.

"I am not a proponent of putting arms on anything", Admiral Mullen said, adding commercial shippers could hire private security, but did not want to "because it costs them too much money".

He pointed out that less than 1% of the ships transiting the Gulf of Aden fall victim to attack, and combating piracy was therefore not his top priority. He said one analysis had shown it would take 1,000 ships to effectively fight piracy, more than the entire US Navy fleet. "I´ve got a big globe. I don´t have 1,000 ships that I can devote to that", he said.

Leaders from Kenya's North Eastern Province on Friday distanced themselves from the activities of the Al Shabab or any other militia groups operating in Somalia. The leaders further said that there were no active Al Qaeda cells in the Province as alleged in a section of the media, emphasizing they would not like to be associated with lawless groups in Somalia or elsewhere in the world, governmental broadcaster KBC reported. Speaking at a leaders meeting attended by Prime Minister Raila Odinga in Garissa, the leaders led by cabinet Ministers Mohammed Yusuf Haji and Mohammed Elmi noted that the people of North Eastern Province would not disturb the current peace prevailing in the area by associating themselves with lawless groups from Somalia. They said it was unfortunate that talk of presence of Al Shabab operatives in North Eastern Province was discouraging donors and other international organizations from working in the Province.

Prime Minister Odinga expressed concern that lack of a central government in Somalia for nearly two decades had led to widespread insecurity in that country that could spill over to Kenya if not well handled. Noting that due to the lawlessness in Somalia, guns and other dangerous weapons from that country were finding their way into Kenya, the Prime Minister asked people from North Eastern Province to cooperate with security agencies in the area in ensuring that all such weapons are mopped up. He said, "an upsurge in piracy and other lawless activities off the Somalia coast has raised insurance costs for ships plying that route. This has consequently raised the cost of goods coming to East Africa, hurting the economies of this region", Odinga said the solution to the Somalia crisis lay in constituting a central government acceptable to all the Somali people, adding Kenya was willing to help in the realization of a central authority in Somalia. On refugees, the Prime Minister noted that the Dadaab refugee camp in the Province was home to 250,000 mainly Somali refugees, adding there was need to expand the camp to accommodate the rising number of refugees fleeing Somalia and other troubled countries in the region. Said Odinga, "The Problems of Somalia are also our problems, we cannot ignore their suffering. We must help those refugees until when peace is realized in their country and they can go back home".

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Note

Picture: The entire world has been flooded by intentional misinformation, fraudulent lies, pre-calculated falsification, and an ocean of fake pictures of the Somali pirates.