The Horn of Africa – Somalia Spring 2009 Chronicles II. AMISOM Gangsters Turn Somalia to Bloodbath

In this article, I publish excerpts from the no 184 Ecoterra Press Release SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor).

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor) – 2009-06-02 TUE 23h57:11UTC

Issue No. 184

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

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)

Clearing-house

Further escalation on all sides!

NATO Warning – 02.05.2009: 0230 UTC: POSN: 07: 19S – 052:11E. off Southern Somalia. A bulk carrier was attacked and hijacked. Awaiting for further information. All vessels are advised to remain vigilant. Pirate mother vessels and pirate skiffs are believed to be actively operating in the above areas. All vessels not making scheduled calls to ports in Somalia, Kenya or Tanzania keep as far from the Somali coast as possible. All vessels are advised to maintain a distance of more than 600 nautical miles from the coastline and when routing North / South consider keeping East of 60 E longitude until east of Seychelles. All vessels transiting the area and not able to keep 600 NM off the Somali coast are advised not to approach closer than 100 NM from the position given in this Report and maintain maximum CPA with any ship acting suspiciously.

Actually two merchant vessels, one from Turkey and one from Malaysia, as well as one yacht were sea-jacked on 02. 05. 2009

We await further details.

Breaking:

S/Y SERENITY, the ill-fated yacht from the Seychelles reportedly sunk today at around 03h in the early morning hours in heavy sea at the Somali waters near Garacad on the Indian Ocean Coast, local reports relayed. Independent confirmation could not yet be obtained and it remains so far unclear since in other cases sea-shifta had tried with staged the sinking of vessels and after redressing to sell such ships elsewhere, when no ransom came forward. The yacht had been sea-jacked near the Seychelles on 28th February. The three Seychellois crew, who where on the boat at the time it went under, were saved and brought on land, where they are awaiting their further fate. Though information from Seychelles had stated that a company had been given the task to negotiate for the release of the catamaran and her crew, thereby blocking other efforts to achieve a release. But no real negotiations had been commenced and the crew, whose names and families are known, was more or less abandoned now since weeks.

Alert:

Sea-Shifta from Yemen, Djibouti and Somalia are extending their area of operation. Ocean-going vessels should therefore exercise caution as they may now be targeted in the Red Sea. MT STOLT STRENGHT a 33,209 dwt tanker, who had already one sea-jacking episode earlier, was attacked by pirates on 01. June 2009 at around 50 miles north of Bab el Mandeb water ways, reports the Seafarers Assistance Programme (SAP).

"There were no warships available to police the region when the attack occurred", a Euro NAVFOR spokesman told Fairplay. "We have put out a warning to vessels traveling in the region". In November last year this vessel was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden and released only on 21 April 2009 after serious pressure was mounted on the captors as well as the ship-owners managers.

Another merchant vessel was also reported as having come under attack at 10:00hrs on 31 May 2009 in position 13 29N 043 01E, approximately 60nm north-east of Bab el Mandeb in the Red Sea. One skiff chased the vessel and opened fire with automatic weapons and an RPG. The vessel's master increased speed and performed evasive maneuvers to prevent boarding. There was a high probability of attacks in this area for the last 24-48 hours with weather conditions favourable for pirate activity as wind speeds were in the Gulf of Aden to be 5-15kts with wave heights of 2-4 feet through this period. But this has changed today with very rough weather conditions.

News from sea-jackings, abductions, newly attacked ships and vessels in distress

Maritime Casualties: The passenger ferry boat M/S FAITH sank last Friday evening en route from Dar es Salaam to Zanzibar in Tanzania. She capsized as it was approaching Zanzibar port, it is feared many people have lost their lives. More than 20 people lost their lives and more than 15 are still missing. About 20 survived. The ship had more than 50 people onboard, though the official manifest only had 25. We are informed that she started taking in water while under way to Zanzibar from Dar-Es Salaam port. The ill-fated vessel M/S FAITH is owned and managed by a local Tanzanian shipping company. Many Western tourists and Kenyan business men board those ferries from Dar to Zanzibar and on to Pemba. Most of the ocean-going vessels in this region are sub-standard and some of the ferries have no proper safety equipment or if there is, there is only enough for a few people and passengers don't know how to use them in case of emergency. By this evening the vessel still was not lifted, since the crane-vessel developed mechanical problems. The final number and identification of victims is therefore not yet clear.

Yemen's navy rushed after a Filipino-flagged oil tanker sent a distress call when it was about 15 nautical miles off the Makha port in the Red Sea. Arriving at the tanker site, Yemeni marines were informed that two pirate boats were trying to hijack the tanker. "Two boats fired at us and then four pirates got onboard", the crew said, adding the pirates stayed for a while aboard the tanker before they returned to their boats. However, the pirates remained a mile and half away from the ship after they left it, the Interior Ministry's Information Center cited the crew as saying. The tanker continued its voyage.

Ship owners and Insurers hardly ever loose in the "piracy business"

The following was sent to all owners of the around 1010 containers on the vessel:

German owned "MV HANSA STAVANGER had been hijacked by heavily armed pirates off the Somalia on 04.04.2009 whilst en route from Jebel Ali to Mombassa and Dar es Salaam laden with a cargo of containers. In view of the amount of the ransom presently negotiated between the Ship owners and the pirates it is to be expected that considerable amounts have to be advanced to achieve the release of the vessel, her cargo, bunker, containers and the crew from the pirates in order to avoid a possible total loss of cargo and vessel. The negotiations are very slow, but we are positive that we will achieve our goal for a safe return of all crew members and the properties involved. In view of the above Ship owners have declared General Average and have instructed our firm of Average Adjusters [Stichling Hahn Hilbrich (Average Adjusters) Ltd] with offices in London, Hamburg and Limassol to arrange for the collection of General Average securities and supporting documentation from all parties concerned".

The vessel is insured by Assuranceforeningen Gard of Norway and owner-managed by LEONHARDT & BLUMBERG REEDEREI of Hamburg / Germany. The sea-jacked vessel was subjected twice to attempted attacks by naval forces.

The Dubai office of the cargo handler already had told the consignees last week that the ransom had been paid and the ship had been released and would dock in Mombassa by Wednesday (tomorrow) - which of course is all not true.

Meanwhile also the family of the Fijian national, Wayne Suliana, a fitter-and-turner among the 24-member crew onboard the 20,000-tonne container vessel and his family is 'nearing the end of their tether after almost two months since his capture and complain that they are not informed. "We simply don't know what's happening", said his eldest sibling, Joseph Fesaitu, in Rotuman and he added "We can't even contact the local agent and there has been no word from them either". 11 other Pacific Islanders on this vessel are from Tuvalu, while five Germans, three Russians, two Ukrainians and two Filipinos also suffer the same fate of the 24 men crew. The families of the twelve Pacific Island sailors are appealing now to the Australian and New Zealand governments for help in gaining the release of the men. "(It's time to) put some active and proactive actions in to save those people", Tuvaluan Community Leader Reverend Suamalie Iosefa said.

The government of Tuvalu says it's very concerned. With a population of just 10,000 the plight of the eleven men has hit the island hard. Around 40 per cent of Tuvaluan men work as crew members on foreign ships. They provide valuable income for their families back home. Last week the Australian government announced it was sending a warship to patrol the Horn of Africa as part of an international campaign against piracy, but today it declined to comment on the hostages saying it didn't want to undermine ongoing efforts to secure their release. Relatives are hoping for a diplomatic solution.

Negotiations have again stalled concerning the Italian tug T/B BUCCANEER, local observers report, while the owner-manager-company of the vessel with its two mysterious barges tried all possible and impossible sidelines. Result is so far only that the captors have fired their translator in the negotiations, local observers report.

T/B MASINDRA 7 with 11 Indonesian crew has been abandoned by the Malaysian owner of the vessel. This is the second longest case pending and Malaysia was so far not able to obverse appropriate action by thee owner to secure the release. Now with a second Malaysian vessel being taken, the situation is getting not better for MASINDRA and her 11 crew.

Local report that ill-fated MV MARATHON has developed an engine problem, could so far not independently be confirmed, but several reports say the vessel is now around Raas Hafun but could not yet reach Eyl due to engine problems. We also try to independently verify reports on further injured crew members.

One Year in Hell

by Modupe Ogunbayo

Nigerian crew of a hijacked ship still held by Somali pirates one year after

Securing the release of the Nigerian crew aboard the MV YENAGOA OCEAN, a ship seized by Somali pirates since August 5, 2008, is proving to be a Herculean task. And that is because the uncooperative posture of the ship´s owners.

Ojo Maduekwe, the honourable minister of foreign affairs, explained that MV Yenagoa Ocean is owned by non-Nigerians who are not bothered by the pains of the captured crew and the feeling of the federal government about it. "The ship owners have been recalcitrant and uncooperative", Maduekwe said. The vessel is owned by ESL Integrated Services Limited.

The families of the crew members contacted the company a day after the hijacking. The following day, they also contacted George Onokpite, the chairman, ESL Integrated Services Limited, owners of the ship, from his base in Malaysia. On that day, Onokpite promised to ensure their release in a fortnight, but that did not happen. Months after the incident, nothing has been done. The company has now admitted that it does not possess the financial capacity to meet the $1 million ransom the hijackers are demanding. It also refused to co-operate with Nigeria in resolving the conflict.

Newswatch investigations revealed that the ship owners´ unco-operative attitude was due to the suspicion that the ship´s cargo may be contraband. The sailing route of the vessel is sketchy. One account said MV YENAGOA OCEAN was sailing from Singapore where it had undergone repairs before berthing in Mogadishu where it was hijacked. Another account said the crew went aboard the ship in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, UAE. From there, it sailed to Mogadishu where it was seized. The ship owners´ unease with explaining the ship´s itinerary and contents arose out of a desire to protect them from being prosecuted. This development primarily caused the federal government´s inability to ensure the release of the captured crew members for nearly a year now.

But the government has not given up its effort in securing the release of Graham Egbegi, the ship captain, and the other crew members. The other members of the vessel are David Akpoguma, Namo Musa, Usman Ochoche Agida and Lucky Edoja. Others are John Nkanu, Effiong Joseph Bassey, Emma Okon Timothy, Okuns Kalikio and Bassey Etim. The federal government set up a security committee headed by Sarki Mukhtar, a retired major-general and national security adviser, to co-ordinate the release of the ship.

But this did not impress the Nigerian lawmakers. Recently, the Senate summoned Shettima Mustapha, minister of defence, Godwin Abbe, minister of interior and Maduekwe to explain what they know about the seeming abandonment of a Nigerian ship and its 10-man crew that was captured by Somali pirates. The Senate also invited Muktar and Onokpite to appear alongside the three ministers.

Details of the meeting were not made known. But Maduekewe hinted that the committee was seeking foreign assistance to secure the release of the ship. "The fact that Nigeria is not publicizing its efforts to rescue the Nigerian crew does not mean it has folded its arms", he said.

He reminded Nigerian that the case has to do with security, and security issues like this are kept secret because if we come out and say for instance, that we have solicited the assistance of a foreign country openly to get the crew released, that might jeopardize the security of that country and its citizens.

Trigo Egbegi, the captain´s elder brother, said the captain was allowed to contact his family after five days in captivity. According to him, the vessel obtained clearance from Somalia´s authorities to berth in Mogadishu, Somalia capital. Egbegi also said the captain stopped over in Mogadishu to seek medical attention for some of his crew members who were sick. The ship was on its way from Dubai through the Pacific when it was hijacked. He said although the captain and his crew were well, the militants, who had reportedly contacted the ship´s owners, had been threatening to kill them unless the ransom was paid.

The ransom has remained unpaid since then. The pirates are angry and not ready to let the ship go. They now use MV YENAGOA OCEAN, a tug boat, as a base for carrying out other hijackings. Reports have it that for a while now, the pirates have moved the Nigerian ship to Puntland in Somalia, the restive main operational base for Somali pirates.

The crew members´ health and living conditions have degenerated. This information was corroborated by Victor Ndoma-Egba, the senate deputy majority leader. He recently said, "Although the beleaguered crew members are still alive, they have had to contend with bouts of brutality, starvation, contaminated drinking water and poor health conditions climaxed by the case of one crew member who once relapsed into a partial stroke in the absence of medication".

Reprieve may, however, be in the horizon for the captives. That is if the current wave of renunciation of piracy in Somalia continues. Last week, almost 200 Somali pirates reportedly renounced piracy at a meeting in Northern Somalia. Members of a pirate group met local leaders and Somali expatriates in Eyl, in the autonomous region of Puntland, and promised to halt their activities. Abshir Abdullah, a pirate representative, said he has been appealing to other pirate groups to free seized ships in return for amnesty. Pirates have been under pressure from local leaders who have accused them of corrupting their communities.

Somalia has been without a stable government since 1991, thus allowing piracy to flourish. The problem worsened in the first months of 2009 despite patrols by foreign navies.

Last week, Somalia´s interim government asked for international help to set up a national coastguard to help tackle piracy and protect fishermen from illegal foreign fishing boats and to prevent dumping of toxic materials. Piracy has been rife off Somalia since the country slid into chaos after rebel warlords toppled Mohamed Siad Barre´s military junta in 1991. Many pirates claim to be "coastguards" protecting their waters against illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste.

The Nigerian government has promised now to step in to solve the case of ill-fated T/B YENAGOA OCEAN (registered as YENEGOA OCEAN).

While every Somali on the seas becomes now a target British frigate HMS Portland intercepted two suspicious skiffs in the Gulf of Aden on Tuesday and troops boarded them, preventing a possible pirate attack, the US Navy said. Greek authorities this time were fast and immediately stated that a Greek-owned tanker had evaded an attack by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. The Merchant Marine Ministry says the Liberia-flagged United Lady "used maneuvers" to evade pirates. The attackers were also deterred by a passing helicopter operated by an international force patrolling waters off northeast Africa, the ministry says and added that the incident occurred Tuesday and the crew of five Greeks and 22 Filipinos was unharmed. The tanker was traveling from Turkey to India. The navy made the incident then sounding more dramatic. The boarding party "found articles that indicated the skiff had been involved or was about to conduct an act of piracy, and were clearly not those of an innocent fishing vessel", the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet said. The skiffs, with 10 people aboard, were carrying extra barrels of fuel, grappling hooks and a cache of weapons that included rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and ammunition, the statement said.

The suspected pirates were disarmed and released because there was insufficient evidence to directly link them to a specific attack, it added. "Having prevented this group of pirates from reaching their merchant traffic prey Portland destroyed one of the skiffs and confiscated all their weapons", the statement said. Portland was on patrol for CTF 151, a US-led multinational task force also including naval forces from Turkey, South Korea, Singapore, Denmark and Japan. "Having prevented this group of pirates from reaching their merchant traffic prey, Portland destroyed one of the skiffs and confiscated all their weapons", said the statement. This time they had also M-16 assault-rifles, which were provided to Somalia by the U.S. of America during Siad Barre's time. A Spanish helicopter from the Portland provided machine gun and sniper cover during the search operation. The suspected pirates were not detained, however, due to the lack of evidence linking them to a specific criminal act on the high seas, the statement added. The navy first stated that it had confiscated the smaller of the two vessels while it later was said that the navy destroyed it. For what one may ask - or came it in handy for another shooting exercise in order to get rid of too high naval hormone levels? It also must be noted that it is not illegal for Somalis to carry weapons on voyages or while fishing in their own waters and Yemen already complained that also their fishermen are now harassed by the international armada.

While still the naval forces have not arrested a single foreign fishing vessel, though they also are heavily armed (like the Korean vessel IDKA in the moment), the navies seem to now embark on an indiscriminate shooting spree, like the incident with the Russian naval vessel and a Yemeni ship shows. "This is an excellent example of international coordination", Deputy Commander Tim Lowe said in a news release, while critics say that this was an example of international illegal collaboration. "This international collaboration cannot be understated, and, as more countries join the fight, we will continue to work together to help deter, disrupt and thwart criminal acts of piracy", Lowe repeated, but it becomes obvious that as phonier the naval statements get the more their operations are actually either outright wrong, flawed or ill-designed.

U.S. Navy Probes $30G Missing From Maersk Pirate Rescue

The United States Navy is investigating how thousands of dollars disappeared during the rescue of American ship captain Richard Phillips from Somali pirates, UPI reported. The pirates reportedly forced Phillips to take $30,000 in cash from the MAERSK ALABAMA safe during the April siege. The sole surviving pirate suspect, Abduwali Abdulkadir Muse, who - being injured by a knife wound inflicted by a sailor - had given himself up, allegedly distributed the money to his three accomplices, according to the report. After the rescue, during which three of the three remaining teen-pirates were killed, the money was not among the items listed as having been recovered by Navy SEALs. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service is now questioning military personnel who had a hand in the Alabama rescue operation in the Gulf of Aden to try and track down the money, the report quotes an unnamed Pentagon source. The U.S.-American Navy had no immediate comment on the reported investigation. (hint: search the search-team, who grabbed the snipered dead! - or was skipper Phillips faster and just forgot to return those bucks into the safe?)

´The boat is my home. I had to come back´

by Daniel Howden

Jurgen Kantner along with his partner, Sabine Merz, was captured aboard their yacht the Rockall in the Gulf of Aden by Somali pirates, was freed and thereafter returned to Somalia.

The shipping forecast for the Gulf of Aden is troubled. In the past week, heavily armed Somali pirates have been intercepted by warships from Sweden, Italy and Canada.

Emergency conferences in Cairo and London addressed the piracy crisis, while at least 15 hijacked ships languish at anchor off the coast of Somalia with some 210 sailors held hostage.

Many others have been released.

Two of those were Jurgen Kantner and Sabine Merz, held for 52 days in a cave in the mountains, until their release last year after a half-million-dollar ransom.

And yet, against the backdrop of such an ominous forecast, the pair are about to set sail again, in the same boat and with the same ambition; to sail to Asia.

"If you have a car and you have an accident you don´t stop driving, you get back in again", said Mr Kantner, 61. "The boat is my home. I live in my home, I had to come back".

He says this while standing on the deck of his reclaimed yacht, the Rockall. A 30-footer with a battered yellow hull, it is moored to the solitary pier left in the shattered harbour of Berbera, Somaliland. It is hard to imagine a more intimidating place in the world to retake the helm.

Somaliland´s largest port was once a prize, jealously contested by superpowers at the height of the Cold War. Today it is a half-abandoned ship graveyard with a scuttled tanker, snapped in two like a child´s toy, rusting into its waters.

When the couple were released a hundred kilometres or so south-east of Berbera, in the Puntland region of Somalia, this is where their beloved boat was towed. And this is where after only five months back in Germany, the former restaurateur turned yachtsman flew to in search of his floating home.

With wild white hair and a beard framing his tanned and weathered face, Mr Kantner could pass for a pirate himself. He has been at sea for 32 years, a love affair born from a trip in his late 20s on a friend´s boat that convinced him to sell up and sail the world.

"I love the life on the boat – you are free. You can stay at a port and if you don´t like your neighbour you can just move on.

You could get a camper van but when you get to a beach you will find another camper van there. You won´t find a place where no one has ever been.

Here, for example there´s never been another yacht", he says with a smile.

Berbera, like much of Somalia, was destroyed during the civil war which eventually toppled the dictator Siad Barre in 1991. All that is left of the once mighty Russian naval base are broken buildings and a Tomahawk missile stripped for parts, lying on the beach.

Freedom and exploration have their downsides as the couple discovered in June last year. Sailing as close to the Yemeni coast as they could, they thought they were safe from pirates. That illusion was shattered when they were caught and boarded by a gang of young men armed with assault rifles and rocket launchers.

Initially the Germans were told they were to be used as a decoy as the pirates were hunting a larger prize and Mr. Kantner tried his best to make friends.

"I cooked for them, I even fixed their ladder [they use to board ships]".

The bigger ship never appeared and after two days the pirates became nervous and demanded that Mr. Kantner make for the Somali shore.

A bluff that the engine was not working led to the first of several mock executions as a rope was put around his neck and the sailor was told he would be hung.

"Sabine kept taking the rope off my neck", Mr. Kantner said, grinning, but his partner, Ms Merz looked haunted at the recollection.

The standoff ended when more pirate crafts arrived and the yacht was towed to the cliffs of northern Somalia.

Once they were transferred to the mountain cave, the self-reliance of the veteran sailor resurfaced. The pirates had no idea how to convert their hostages into cash.

"They thought we´d have $2 million (Dh7.2m) in our bags", he said.

"They said if you don´t have it, then Germany should pay but they didn´t even know how to make contact".

Eventually Mr. Kantner had to act as the go-between in his own ransom negotiations, phoning officials in Germany and teaching his captors basic English phrases, like "we want".

The former hostage was less than impressed with his compatriots´ response.

Having smuggled a GPS device with him from the Rockall, he exploited the Somalis´ lack of German to reveal their exact location, in the mountains of the northern breakaway Somaliland. "I asked them to send a helicopter. I told them how many guards. They always said they were doing their best but they did nothing".

As days turned to weeks with no progress the pirates became frustrated and the threats increased. On one occasion Ms Merz was taken out of the cave and Mr. Kantner was handed the phone to speak to the negotiators. As he repeated the captors´ demands shots were fired outside the cave.

"I didn´t know if they had killed Sabine", he said.

The ordeal ended with the payment of $600,000 delivered in cash by officials from the semiautonomous region of Puntland in northern Somalia. Ms Merz remembers that the pirates had brought along cash-counting machines to verify the ransom.

From the Puntland city of Bossasso they were flown by private jet to Nairobi – a flight they later received a bill of more than $26,000 for.

From Kenya they were flown back to Germany and into the glare of media attention and Mr. Kantner is bitter about their subsequent treatment. "Everyone thought it was our own fault".

And so after five months, the couple are back in Somaliland and gearing up for a voyage to Asia and a new life.

The Rockall, they discovered, had been stripped for parts and emptied of all supplies. The refitting job has stretched even the energetic Mr. Kantner and the yacht now has a sail fashioned from two windsurfs.

There is only one piece of equipment left to purchase: an automatic rifle.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 18 foreign vessels (19 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore) with a total of not less than 210 crew members accounted for (of which 44 are confirmed to be Filipinos) (+ the crews of the newly captured vessels) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 126 attacks (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 44 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as at least three wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) on the side of the naval forces.

Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures. Piracy incidents usually degrade during the monsoon season in winter and rise gradually by the end of the monsoon season starting from mid February and early April every year. Present multi-factorial risk assessment code: ORANGE (Red = Very much likely, high season; Orange = Reduced risk, but very likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Allegedly still/again four groups from Puntland alone are out hunting on the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, and also groups from Harardheere have set out again, despite the heavy seas.

Directly piracy related reports

Mystery still surrounds the action of the Indian Navy on 28th May 225 nm east of Aden.

Indian Navy if not irresponsible believes at least not to be accountable –

As we reported earlier and in the meantime has transpired as correct, fact is that the French Navy did the mopping up after the Indian helicopter and commandoes from an Indian warship INS Talwar on naval escort had shot up a gang of Somalis, who allegedly tried to board Norwegian owned and Liberia-flagged MV MAUD, manned by an Indian crew. The Indian navy thereafter disappeared from the scene - claiming other duties - and left the cleaning to the French. "The French navy handed two dead bodies and two pirates over to us this morning", confirmed yesterday Puntland's security minister, Abdullahi Said Samatar. Earlier, official reports from the Indian Naval headquarters and the Government of India spoke of at least 8 Somalis, who had launched the attack. But the French delivered only two dead and two survivors to Puntland, while 2 injured were taken to Djibouti, which makes six.

So - where are the at least 2 missing others? Unless the Indian Navy can proof otherwise their score stands at 4 dead (only two bodies recovered), 2 seriously injured, 2 survivors handed to Puntland. Was the Indian Navy again "threatened" like in the case of FV EKANAVAT NAVA 5, which the Indians blew out of the water together with its innocent crew. The report issued by the Indian Government must also seen as at least questionable in one other respect, because so far no proof could be provided that the gang actually had Katyusha (reported as Katysusha) rockets (which would be M13 or similar rockets for the Katyusha rocket launcher) with them, as the reports claimed.

Though such Soviet-era military remnants still do exist in Somaliland and Somalia and are used e.g. by Hizbullah, photographic evidence from the equipment this Somali gang had (AK 47s etc.), did not proof the allegations of Katyusha rockets having been on board. It is more likely that there was the notorious Russian RPG-7 on board. Though the weapons-escalation of which we warned already much earlier still must be taken serious (but would refer to other, more modern equipment, which can easily be used from skiffs) correct reporting, which is essential if the coalition navies together with the Somali governance want to have any pro-active impact to curb piracy of merchant vessels, is obviously not the most proficient quality of the Indian navy. And the code of conduct of the Indian navy becomes not only more and more questionable, but is feared to trigger a change in the conduct of Somali buccaneers, leading to outright war on the seas with much heavier equipment than what we have seen so for on the Somali side and with no more restrains. INS Talwar´s crew should be called home for training, if the Government of India wants to avoid further inhumane and out-of-bound incidences.

Libyan leader defends Somali pirates. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has slammed any representation of Somali pirates as criminals, saying they act within their rights to "defend their territorial water". Speaking a two-day summit of Saharan states in the Sabrata City on Saturday, Gaddafi said Western countries are to blame for the maritime crisis off the Horn of Africa state, a Press TV correspondent reported. Gaddafi says that the pirates are hungry men who only carry guns to hijack those who are looting the Somali resources. The Libyan leader, who was elected chairman of the African Union earlier this year, went so far as to suggest Somali pirates were on an anti-looting mission in their waters. "They are not pirates but people who are defending their rights". Gaddafi said the Somali pirates need real help and that Libya will accuse several countries of violating the international law if they do not stop their interference in Somali waters. In the real world, Somali bandits have terrorized the waters with attacks on trade ships in one the world's busiest shipping routes.

The pirates hold the vessels and onboard crewmembers hostage for ransoms, made off with millions of dollars last year, prompting an international anti-piracy mission. Following his election as the new AU chairman in February, Gaddafi said one of his priorities would be to claim to limit the power of Western nations. "It is a response to greedy Western nations, who invade and exploit Somalia's water resources illegally … It is not a piracy, it is self-defense. It is defending the Somalia children's food'', he had argued already during his inaugural tour in Ethiopia.

Iranian and Pakistani nationals were discovered among a group of pirates in the Gulf of Aden captured by the Russian navy some weeks ago, according to Russian media sources. Maritime security specialists contacted by Lloyd´s List were not immediately able to provide independent verification of the reports. However, if confirmed, the development would be a worrying pointer to the potential internationalisation and politicisation of the Somalia piracy explosion. The Voice of Russia news service, citing Russian naval officials, said that the suspects were 29 in number, and had been handed to the Iranian and Pakistani authorities for trial. The Russia Today television channel said that the men were planning to hijack a tanker with Russian nationals on board. Roger Middleton, a Somalia expert with the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London, said that if the claims stand up, criminality is the most likely motive. "If it is the case, it is the first time there has been any suggestion of foreign nationals being involved in Somali piracy. In the past, people thought there may have been some Yemenis involved, but in most cases when Yemenis have been found, they have actually been hostages". One possibility is that the suspects are actually arms smugglers,

Mr. Middleton suggested. If they were seeking to join the al Shabab insurgency inside Somalia, they would be unlikely to be hitching a lift with the pirates, given the animosity between the pirates and the Islamists. "If they were engaged in piracy, it would be as criminals, I would have thought. If they were engaged in arms running - the most likely probability - that is criminality, obviously", Mr. Middleton added. Meanwhile, a Lloyd´s MIU correspondent reports that Somali pirates on board a skiff yesterday opened fire on 1992-built, 143,170 dwt Suezmax United Lady, associated with Marine Management Services of Piraeus. The vessel reportedly carried out evasive maneuvers, including steering in a zig-zag manner, opened up high pressure fire hoses and took other anti-piracy measures to prevent a boarding. This caused the pirates gave up the attempted attack and move away.

Pirates, Inc.: Inside the booming Somali business

Meet the modern-day brigands behind the sometimes sophisticated, always risky operations that raked in an estimated $80 million in ransoms in 2008.

By Scott Baldauf - Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor reporting from Berbera

On a blazing morning in early May, Hassan Abdullahi and eight other men got into their small, wooden boat – each armed with a Kalashnikov rifle, a grenade, and outsized hope. They pushed out from a village near Bossasso, a large port in the Puntland region of Somalia, into the gentle waters of the Gulf of Aden to seek their fortune. They would make their way west 250 miles along the Somali coast before turning north toward Yemen, where busy shipping lanes narrow near the Red Sea.

Their goal, shared by a Somali businessman living abroad who funded their weapons and boat, was to attack commercial ships and hold them for ransom.

Neither Hassan, a fisherman, nor his crew mates – who like most men in a nation of goatherds had no seafaring experience – had ever worked as pirates before, and this was their maiden voyage. Their motive was simple: money. Their method was as elementary: Attack the first ship they saw.

"I was just doing fishing for the past eight years, and I was doing fine, but I [saw] friends doing piracy and getting rich", says Hassan, the 20-year-old leader of the group. "I thought I'd give it a try".

Meet the rank and file of Pirates, Inc. Legions of young men like these living in war-ravaged Somalia are the muscle behind piracy in the Indian Ocean. The brains behind this business – which raked in an estimated $80 million in ransoms in 2008 – can be as sophisticated as a CIA operation, with high-tech resources and highly placed personnel, or as haphazard as a Keystone Kops operation. Hassan's enterprise was more like the latter – and it didn't go well.

But that's just what was captured by cameras. Piracy is booming off the coast of Somalia. There were 111 attacks on ships here in 2008 (42 were hijacked successfully); more – 114 – were attacked just in the first four months of 2009 (29 were successful), reports the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Centre.

World leaders recognize, to their chagrin, that the problem requires more than just a few warships and airdrops of food aid to a starving, well-armed, and desperate nation. Capturing men like Hassan does as much to solve piracy as arresting a drug dealer does to win the war on drugs. Hassan is the lowest rung in a criminal network that includes corrupt port officials, politicians, and investors from Europe, Asia, and America. The big bucks – with the average ransom now estimated at $2 million – never reach people like Hassan, say Somali piracy experts. At most, mere gunmen stand to earn $10,000 to $20,000 apiece. But in a country devastated by two decades of war, where the average income is $500 a year and 60,000 people are at immediate risk of starvation, $20,000 for a little dangerous work is a risk worth taking.

But while Puntland had a degree of security and stability missing in the rest of Somalia, government corruption allowed criminal enterprises to flourish, with arms smuggling and people-trafficking, counterfeiting and piracy. When pirates bring a ship to port for the protracted process of negotiating a ransom, they generally find safe harbor in Puntland's ports of Ayl and Bossasso.

Hassan says he was contacted by an investor "to attack foreign ships in exchange for ransom", but he refuses to name the man or say where he is based.

Given the hundreds of ships attacked over the past decade off the Somali coast – and now even as far away as the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean – it is clear that Somali piracy is a multimillion-dollar industry, worthy of a Harvard Business Review profile. The face of Somali piracy in your daily newspaper may look like Hassan – a baby-faced adolescent with an AK-47. But behind him is a vast network of investors and corrupt officials who buy the speedboats, weaponry, and GPS devices; who select targets from the Lloyd's of London list of insured ships; and who distribute the bulk of the dividends among themselves by underground money transfer systems.

Hassan's investor probably was a Somali expatriate living in Europe or North America, the Middle East or Australia, with anywhere from $50,000 to $250,000 to invest in piracy.

"It's like an IPO [initial public offering]", says J. Peter Pham, a political scientist and expert on Somali pirate financing at James Madison University in Harrisburg, Va. "For a start-up operation, you need more money, between $150 [thousand] to $250,000, but if you want to provide capital to an existing operation, then you can give $50,000 to have a share in the profits".

Like most Diaspora communities, Somalis send money to family members still living back home to help them survive, using either legal but expensive money transfer systems like Western Union, or traditional and shady systems called hawala. Through hawala – "by air", in Hindi – a businessman can give money in Minneapolis or Manchester, knowing that it can be received in Mogadishu within hours. Hawala dealers profit the way Western Union does, by taking a small percentage. But hawala is off the books and untracked.

Hassan's investor was a relatively small player. Some pirate crews are given satellite phones to get real-time intelligence on the location and crew of a target. Some rent out "mother ships" to carry them far out to sea, giving the pirates enough cover to draw close to a targeted ship before launching their attack with smaller skiffs. Those who have mother ships even bring their own caterers to feed them for weeks at sea, says Professor Pham.

Early pirate crews headed to sea at the first sign of a ship on the horizon. Hassan's strategy wasn't much more evolved. But many of today's successful pirates track ships from port to port, often relying on inside information – the British newspaper The Guardian reported that pirates have "consultants" in the close-knit ship-brokerage and insurance industries of London to help target ships.

But shipping schedules are easily obtainable on the Web and in the local business press. Seeking ransom, the pirates are more interested in the crew than the cargo, Pham says.

"The pirates who planned the attack on the MAERSK ALABAMA ... knew who was on that ship", says Pham. "When the ship [carrying food aid to Mombassa, Kenya] left Djibouti, everyone in port knew who the crew was and that it was due to arrive in Mombassa within a week. It didn't require a genius to plot a course to find the MAERSK ALABAMA".

The capture of the ship brought Somali piracy to the attention of many Americans, as much for its violent resolution – with US Navy Seal snipers killing three of the pirates, and the fourth sent to the US to face trial – as for the hijacking itself. But had the pirates been successful, the owners of the Alabama would almost certainly have paid a ransom. Experts estimate that $80 million in ransom was paid by dozens of ship owners in 2008. The average ransom has risen sharply from $1 million to $2 million in the past six months. (The majority of the 42 hijackings in 2008 ended without harm to crews, a stark contrast to the more violent piracy now coming under control in the Strait of Malacca between Indonesia and Malaysia.)

"Generally, roughly 30 percent of the ransom goes to the investors, 20 percent goes to the government officials and port officials or even Islamists who guard the boat while negotiations are going on", says Pham, who has interviewed former hijackers and knowledgeable Somali and Puntland government officials. The remaining 50 percent goes to the pirates themselves, often on the deck of the hijacked ship, from the teenager who takes night guard duty ($1,000) to the actual pirates who board the ship ($10,000 to $20,000).

It is the sudden wealth – Somali "bling" – that proves an irresistible draw for young pirates. (And Hassan's crew was young – including a 19-year-old, five 20-year-olds, a 21-year-old, and the éminence grise, a 36-year-old fisherman.) Suddenly able to build homes and buy fast cars, a young pirate can find himself the most eligible man in his village, even if elders disapprove of high-seas robbery.

Mohammad Jumale, an aid worker from Mogadishu who travels often to the pirate haven of Haradhere on the southeastern coast, says that most Somalis know who the big pirates are in their area. "Even an uneducated village man knows who the pirates are", he says, noting that most Somalis believe the chiefs of piracy are the past and present leaders of Puntland itself.

The militia of former Somali Transitional Federal Government President Abdullah Yusuf is believed responsible for getting the first large pirate ransom – nearly $1 million – in the region when it seized a Taiwanese fishing trawler in 1997, say Pham and Mr. Jumale. It was under Mr. Yusuf's rule in Puntland that people-trafficking, counterfeiting, arms smuggling, and piracy took off, and Jumale says. Yusuf quickly surrounded himself with other businessmen involved in piracy, including current Puntland President Abdul Rahman Farole.

Small-time pirates may blow their money on girls and khat. But the big players are investing in property and – with a good accountant – laundering their money in a stable third country, such as Kenya, the United Arab Emirates, or South Africa.

Indeed, pirate booty is believed to account for the sudden influx of money in the Somali refugee enclave of Eastleigh in Nairobi. Ibrahim Ali Abdullah, a prominent Somali businessman there, says that while most streets in Eastleigh remain unpaved, gleaming glass-and-steel structures offering imported electronics and clothing at bargain prices are sprouting up.

"Who are the real pirates?" asks Andrew Mwangura, secretary-general of the East African Seafarers Association in Mombasa. "It's not these young boys on the boats. It's the people behind them, with the money to buy the boats and the motors and the guns and the GPS devices. They put their money here in Kenya, but also in Dubai or Canada or Mumbai". He pauses. "The real pirate could be a white person like you".

They may have already unwittingly given themselves away by buying provisions from locals and asking advice on the best course to plot to cross to Yemen. So after very little time they were sitting ducks for a patrol boat bearing a flag none of the men recognized. It was one of the three "ships" in the coast guard of the independent republic of Somaliland. Tipped off by villagers that the boat was full of pirates, the coast guard boat was prepared for battle.

Mr. Faratol and another crewman fought off the Somaliland coast guard with their fists (their guns and grenades remained hidden under a tarp). Faratol ended up with a badly swollen eye, the other ended up in intensive care.

It was all over within minutes, and with it Hassan's dreams of pirate wealth.

Somaliland's interior minister, Abdullahi Ismail Ali, says that Somaliland is "committed to fight against pirates and terrorists", even if its capacity to do so is limited. "We have great hopes that Somaliland will have an impact in bringing piracy under control", he said in an interview. "But at the same time, we have to realize that these are hungry boys. We even have youth in Somaliland with limited job prospects, and they can get the same wrong ideas from the youth of Puntland".

We meet the "hungry boys" from Puntland – Hassan, Faratol, and the rest of the pirate crew – in Berbera's central jail. At first quietly suspicious, they open up quickly with the arrival of a pretty Somali reporter, Moha Farah Jire, from Somaliland state television. One by one, they admit their criminal intent to attack ships, but plead for mercy from the Somaliland government.

"I'm really sorry I got caught", says Faratol, and he is especially sorry that he violated the waters of a country that he didn't even know existed: Somaliland. But given the choice, he would probably do it again. "At the end of the day, I'm a man. Life is full of challenges. I could have been a millionaire, but instead I got caught".

Most of the men are sullen, knowing that Somaliland has given stiff sentences to four other pirate crews captured over the past two years. But with the arrival of visitors to the jail, the tension of the past few weeks finally bursts for the youngest, a skinny 19-year-old in shorts. Breaking into giggles at the slightest provocation, he's sent away by smiling police officials to pull himself together.

None of the pirates believe the increasing naval patrols by the US, the French, NATO, the Indians, the Chinese, and others, is going to deter pirates. As long as there are opportunities to make money from piracy, there will be young men desperate for work, and "investors" providing weapons, speedboats, and information on which ships to attack.

"Absolutely not, foreign navies can't stop piracy", says Abdul Rashid Mohumud, a 21-year-old crew man. "There are no jobs in Somalia, no options for higher education. The youth of Somalia need money to survive".

In Somaliland, a country eager to be fully recognized as a pro-Western free-market-driven nation-state, justice comes swiftly. On May 10, six days after their arrest, Hassan and his pirate crew were sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Somali piracy a boost for London's shipping insurers

As the frequency of attacks rises, so, too, does cost of coverage for vessels plying pirate-infested waters.

By Aidan Jones

London's shipping insurers are emerging as big winners from the surge in piracy across the Gulf of Aden. As the frequency of attacks rises, so, too, does coverage of vessels plying pirate-infested waters.

London has been home to the world's marine underwriting market since 1688 – when Edward Lloyd's coffee shop became the meeting place to sell coverage for slave ships. And it is the Lloyd's of London syndicates that make money insuring ships routed through the Gulf. (US insurers do not cover piracy. Figures released last month by marine broker Aon reveal the surcharge for separate kidnap and ransom coverage could mean a ship owner pays an extra $30,000 per journey – for every $3 million worth of coverage – through high-risk seas – 10 times that charged last year.

Insurance firms are sensitive to suggestions that they benefit from the actions of pirates wielding rocket-propelled grenades, more so when their ship owning clients are wheezing from the impact of recession. But with 22,000 Gulf transits a year, additional premiums could be worth up to $400 million, says J. Peter Pham, a piracy expert at James Madison University in Harrisburg, Va.

"We've seen inquiries for [coverage] escalate as shipowners seek to protect their employees and businesses", explains Ashley Leszczuk from Aon's crisis-management team. "The cost of insurance is simply rising in correlation with the risk of kidnap in piracy hot spots".

For decades piracy was deemed a low-level risk and designated as a "marine peril" covered by insurance for loss or damage to the ship's hull. But the success of Somali pirates has forced insurers to weave new policies. Piracy is now a "war risk" – a pricier coverage – and ship owners must either pay up or brave traveling with poor coverage. There are also additional protection and indemnity premiums covering crew safety – an issue of increasing importance as ship owners weigh the risks of hiring armed guards.

One shipping broker for a leading market player, who spoke on condition of not being named, says the firm is surcharging a minimum of 0.125 percent of the hull value, rising to 0.2 at the top. War policies without the amended piracy clause cost around 0.025 percent early last year.

"Take the Sirius Star – it is worth about $85 [million] to $90 million. At the upper end you are looking at perhaps an extra $180,000 per transit", says the broker. "That's good money being made".

"Piracy does provide opportunities for some underwriters and premiums are higher", concedes Neil Smith, senior manager of underwriters at the Lloyd's Market Association, which represents the shipping industry. "But there's a very real risk of a total loss on the insurers' side when you have pirates operating with machine guns and RPGs".

Mr. Smith urges caution in quantifying the profit from piracy, as premiums change on an almost daily basis, keeping pace with the risk.

Insurers with a lot of vessels in the Gulf of Aden at any given time will also charge higher premiums for the greater exposure.

Shippers slap on $25-50 ´piracy surcharge´ by Gitonga Marete and Githua Kihara

As the shipping industry grapples with the piracy menace in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast in the Indian Ocean, at least two lines carrying commercial cargo to the port of Mombassa have introduced an extra fee on all the cargo the said route. The lines, according to the Kenya Shippers Council chief executive Gilbert Langat, are charging $25 per twenty foot equivalent unit (teus) and $50 for the 40-foot container to offset the increased cost. Mr. Langat said the increase is as a result of the longer route round the Cape of Good Hope that shipping lines are using to avoid the pirate infested Horn of Africa. By taking the longer route, shipping lines claim they are incurring higher costs of ship maintenance and pass the same to consumers. But according to the Kenya Maritime Authority, the increase is unjustified.

Director General Nancy Karigithu says although piracy has forced some lines to follow the much longer route thereby increasing fuel consumption and transit times, the extra cost does not warrant that level of increase. The Kenya Maritime Authority regulates maritime activities in the country. She further said, "Although piracy off the Somali coast cannot be disputed, there are those who would want to ride on the fear of piracy to justify charging an extra fee", adding that the surcharge was not necessary, especially with Kenya having fully participated in the suppression of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast. "The lines ought to acknowledge and support the efforts undertaken both by the government of Kenya and the international community. They have a role to play in the war against piracy and punishing shippers through an extra should not be the first line of action", she said. She said slapping the piracy surcharge fee on cargo destined for Kenya was not justifiable since this amounted to double punishment and watered down the country´s effort in the fight against the menace. Kenya, she argued, was at the forefront of the recently concluded Code of Conduct concerning repression of Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in the Gulf of Aden and the West Indian Ocean (Djibouti Code) which was signed by 11 countries, at a regional meeting held in Djibouti at the beginning of this year.

"As a country with significant interest in the regional maritime security, Kenya has its national courts to fill the judicial void created by lack of a central government in Somalia", she said, adding that the Kenya government has concluded and signed memoranda of understanding with various governments to allow for captured pirates to be charged in Kenyan courts. The government entered into agreements with the US in January and the European Union in March to enable captured piracy suspects to be tried in Kenya.

So far, 74 suspects are facing piracy-related charges in courts in Mombassa while 10 others, whose recent appeal against a seven-year jail sentence handed on them in 2006 was rejected, are serving their sentence at the Shimo La Tewa prison.

The Mombassa Maritime Search and Rescue Co-ordination Centre has provided a useful point of contact where ships regularly request advice or assistance when sailing in waters off the coast of Somalia and to which ships regularly report security concerns about other ships, movements or communications in the area, all of which have been very useful in monitoring piracy and armed robbery against ships in waters off the coast of Somalia, said Ms Karigithu.

"A Long Range Identification and Tracking of Ships and Data Center as well as Automatic Identification System which are scheduled for installation at the Maritine Centre will further boost the collection of information on ships and further enhance maritime security within the region", she added. According to the chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers Vimal Shah, as a result of the piracy menace, insurance costs have gone up by between $10 and $15 per tonne, charges that have been passed on to consumers.

Calls have been made for the international community to establish safe corridors in the Indian Ocean to protect commercial ships.

According to Mr. Langat, international freight costs have gone down by between 30 and 40 per cent, but the same has not been reflected in freight charges which have remained constant.

The falling international freight costs have not been felt in the region, despite some shipping lines calling at the port of Mombassa having marginally reduced sea freight rates. "Unfortunately the reduction is not felt because of application of too many other charges on landed cargo", Ms Karigithu said.

The reduction is attributed mainly to the reduced global economic activities arising from the current global recession. It is a normal phenomenon in the shipping market cycle, Ms Karigithu said, since freight costs depend on the demand and supply forces.

Freight charges have also decreased due to the massive cargoes coming from China and the Far East, which shippers feel should translate to reduced freight charges.

Additional reports: Further reports state that the Dubai cargo handlers for HANSA STAVANGER requested now a contribution from the cargo-owners, something which had been never heard of in shipping circles in East Africa (see above), except when a ship had sunk.

Who are the Somali pirates?

Few stories of the day are attracting as much attention as that of modern-day pirates attacking and seizing ocean-bound vessels. But who are the Somali pirates? The Media Line´s man in Somalia, Abdinasir Mohamed Guled answers the question…

In recent times, stories involving Somali pirates have ranked among the most read and most followed news stories. The world´s attention has been fixed on Somalia´s notorious waters, swarming with pirates. Many ships have been hijacked along the Somali coast and, in some cases, hundreds of miles out into the Gulf of Aden.

Hoping to secure larger ransoms the pirates have started attacking larger ships and ships with more valuable cargos.

International awareness of piracy increased when pirates seized a Saudi supertanker carrying $100-million worth of oil, and when a Ukrainian ship was captured with a huge military cargo including 33 tanks, as well as an American captain, Richard Phillips, who was rescued by the United States Navy in an operation that killed three pirates and captured one, who is being questioned in the U.S.

Somali officials have asked the Western navies to storm the ships and arrest the pirates because they say that paying ransoms only fuels the chaos in the war-wracked nation.

International navies patrolling the waters along the Somali coast have restored a little nationalism to some Somalis, who, while hating the pirates, have expressed a reserved sympathy for them because of the issues that created them.

The recent news rush and hysteria has often been short on context and long on conspiracy theory. The pirates, as unsavory sounding they may be, are the product of an era that has seen a massive, almost wholesale neglect of the humanitarian crisis plaguing Somalia, with international ships plundering its coastline, and numerous cases of illegal dumping of toxic waste along Somalia´s shores.

The Media Line (TML) looks at some of the myths and misinformation surrounding Somali piracy, its roots, and its objectives.

One of the main issues facing people living in Somalia´s coastal villages is the presence of large foreign vessels with large nets and aggressive crews intimidating local fishermen and over-fishing in areas once essential for local fishermen to make their living. Due to this fish plundering and terrorization, the primary food and income source for many Somalis has dwindled significantly.

TML met with one of the "pirates", who related that he had become a pirate to join the fight against the ships destroying local fishermen´s boats.

Identifying himself as "Mohamed Hadle", he explains his reasons for taking part in the practice of hijacking ships.

"This unusual tactic was spawned from many years of poverty and oppression; this was the root of the uprising", he says, proudly detailing some of the exploits of himself and his colleagues.

Since 1991, Somalia has been the scene of violence and chaos. After warlords toppled former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, the country has been wracked with violence and starvation, and to the anger of many locals there has been a constant binge of illegal fishing, industrial waste and toxic waste dumping.

Hadle recounts that after years of exploitation by foreign boats, dozens of fishermen held a meeting to address how best to deal with the situation. Some decided to plug on, hoping for the best, but for the majority of fishermen reality had pounded them too hard and too often, and the decision was made to form a seafaring militia.

"We decided to use our small boats, along with some guns we had in our houses, to hijack any ship violating Somali waters", Hadle says.

Hadle´s group of fishermen became one of several groups of pirates that now identify themselves as "Somalia´s coastguards".

Describing some of the operations carried out by his group, Hadle claims the group has hijacked three ships and received $1 million of ransom from each one. The money energized the group and they began to ratchet up both their hijacking efforts and business aspirations.

After collecting the first million, the group decided to construct a piracy network, buying speedboats, modern marine equipment and additional weapons.

There are unconfirmed reports that the pirates have their own management and offices in Mogadishu and the two pirate havens, the towns of Harardhere and Eyl.

For many years, Hadle says, he was a fisherman who kept to himself and even after numerous instances of harassment by international ships still refused to take up arms against them. But eventually reality set in and he was forced into piracy by "belligerent vessels".

"In truth, I had absolutely no desire join the pirates, but after the total ruination of my livelihood I was forced into it", he says.

Hadle describes an incident in 2008 when a boat that his group wanted to seize sprayed them with boiling water and shot at Hadle and his colleagues. Several of the pirate crew were wounded; they decided not to return fire and fled. One of Hadle´s friends is missing and is presumed dead after the ordeal.

When asked how the pirates distinguish whether the vessels under attack are armed or not, he says that the attacks are games of chance, but they fire shots at the ships before boarding them, seeing that many of their friends had been killed during such attacks.

When a ship is hijacked, the crews are controlled by having guns pointed at them and they are sometimes beaten; but they feed the hostages well, he says, smiling.

"We give them the best Somali food, because we will get undreamed of ransom", Hadle tells TML.

He adds that the pirates are misunderstood – they are not bandits but coastguards who defend the waters from waste dumping and illegal fishing.

When TML asked Hadle if the pirates gave some of their ransom money to Islamists, he denies it saying they are money seekers not weapons suppliers, and fear that arms would fall into the hands of al-Qa´ida-linked Somali insurgents.

In the last two years piracy recruitments have risen markedly because poor young Somali teenagers consider piracy the road to "quick riches".

"Piracy is really good work, because you will get hundreds of thousands of dollars at once", says Somali high school student Abdullahi Farah.

According to Hadle, the ransoms are divided among the pirates, but the biggest share falls to the commanders, and he was one of them.

Clutching a small, elegant walking stick, Hadle says that at 35 years of age he is a well-respected man with status provided by his piracy skills.

"I have three wives, two are in Garowe, Puntland and one in Mogadishu and I´m able to support them in the best way", he tells TML proudly in an interview at one of his houses.

He owns two small cars, one lorry and several commercial sites, including stores. He is thinking of quitting the piracy business in the coming months, and says he will become "an elder".

The pirates are ambitious young men trying to live the good life in a troubled country, but they face constant danger in a game of chance. But despite the dangers, hundreds of armed men join the pirates every week.

In the northern coastal towns such as Harardhere, Eyl and Bossasso, the pirate economy is thriving because of the money pouring in from pirate ransoms that have reached tens of millions of dollars this year alone.

But not everyone thinks of the pirates as the Robin Hoods they see themselves as: helping the poor when ransom money comes in.

"The pirates are a major force in the mindless violent crime in our country", Somali ex-maritime officer Mohamed Abdi tells TML by phone from Hargeysa, Somaliland.

He says the wealthy pirates are tricking poor young women into humiliating acts, such as sex for money.

Nevertheless, hundreds of people support the piracy.

"I would not be against marrying a pirate man because I would be living in a good life, because they have a good income", says Sahra Abdullahi, a resident of Harardhere.

Fighting the global terrorism threat as well as the scourge of piracy calls for stronger cooperation among G8 nations, the group's interior and justice ministers said Saturday. Despite some successes, "terrorism is still one of the most serious threats to international security", the ministers from the Group of Eight rich nations said in a final statement after three days of talks near Rome. Extremists have shown a "significant offensive capability" and "organizational flexibility", they said, along with an ability to recruit and radicalize their followers, which is "a cause of great concern", AFP reported. "The counter-terrorism cooperation between G8 nations is essential" to stop the spread of such radicalism, stressed the justice chiefs of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

"The exchange of information on the movement of funding to finance terrorist groups is a major example" of such cooperation, said Italy Justice Minister Angelino Alfano when presenting the final communiqué. According to Interpol's special anti-terrorism taskforce, there is a database of more than 8,000 suspects linked to terrorist activists and a network of nearly 200 contact officers in more than 100 countries. The head of the global police organization spoke to the G8 ministers Friday on the rising attacks of piracy on the seas, especially off the east African coast of Somalia, saying law enforcement was the missing link in combating this organized crime.

"There is clearly a need for a common international strategy that includes a law enforcement element to combat maritime piracy and armed robbery at sea", said Interpol Secretary General Robert K. Noble in a statement. "Right now, we are in a situation in which there are pirates in custody while others have been arrested and released, but there is no central system in place for collecting, exchanging and processing data to help connect the dots", Noble said, suggesting creating an investigative prosecutorial taskforce. "These pirates are organized criminals targeting victims, taking them hostage and using extortion to get money -- we must therefore follow the money trail to strike a blow at the economic interests of this type of organized crime", he added.

The G8 justice ministers agreed that steps must be taken "to deprive the pirates of the proceeds of their criminal activity", their statement said. They also encouraged countries affected by piracy -- either due to ships flying their flag being targeted, or their nationals being crew members or passengers on held ships. It noted that cooperation between states capturing pirates and those able to prosecute them plays "a valuable role in counter-piracy efforts". According to the International Maritime Bureau, pirate attacks off Somalia in the first quarter of this year surged tenfold to 61, compared with the same period in 2008. A total of 114 attempted attacks have occurred since the start of the year, and pirates have seized 29 ships.

On the sidelines of the G8 ministers' meeting, anti-globalization and far left groups organized a demonstration that drew some 4,000 people, according to police, the ANSA news agency reported. Many protesters brandished signs demanding rights for immigrants, including those that read "papers for all". A flood of illegal immigration from Africa to southern Europe has led countries such as Italy to take tougher measures on repatriation and turn back boatloads of would-be immigrants to their home ports. The justice ministers condemned illegal immigration and migrant smuggling, "which feeds the transnational criminal organizations and hampers the integration of legal migrants", their final statement said.

The issue of piracy was central for Russia at a Rome meeting of G8 interior and justice ministers and officials, the Russian interior minister said Saturday. "This issue has become the most important one for us. The organization of an effective response is important in this sphere", Rashid Nurgaliyev told journalists. The meeting was held May 28-30. Russia was represented by Nurgaliyev, Justice Minister Alexander Konovalov and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika. Around 20 warships from the navies of at least a dozen countries, including Russia, are involved in anti-piracy operations off Somalia. According to the United Nations, Somali pirates carried out at least 120 attacks on ships in 2008. Nurgaliyev also said the meeting touched on terrorism, organized crime, cyber-crimes, child pornography and human trafficking - all crimes for which Russian gangs are famous. "We finally feel that we are passing from statements to definite action", he said.

The "crooked hook"-award for May 2009 goes to McClatchy

Presented for judgment were 129 piracy stories

The winners is:

Unresented Shashank Bengali with another spin published by McClatchy Newspapers and reprinted by far-off papers like the Seattle Times or the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, titled: Pirates: Yo, ho, ho and a million-dollar Mc Mansion in Kenya, which triggered immediately some scribes in Kenya to run after the red herring.

It is the most outstanding article for false reporting, fantasy results from flimsy or no investigation and an example how to play the jealousy card concerning issues of grave concern.

Shashank Bengali did beat by far the second placed Handelsblad author, who actually only had chosen the stupid headline Somali Pirates Love Prison over an otherwise not too bad article.

Marine ecosystem, IUU fishing and dumping, ecology

Biodiversity issues: Take US in the fold

by Chaturvedi - with Delhi-based think-tank RIS and Richerzhagen - a Research Fellow at GDI

On May 22, the international day of biodiversity was celebrated. It was last year at Bonn, under the leadership of Germany, the parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) committed to achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, basically re-dedicating themselves to the global 2010 Biodiversity Target.

This was endorsed by the World Summit on Sustainable Development and the United Nations General Assembly and was incorporated as a new target under the Millennium Development Goals.

Biotechnology-based industry organizations are also involved in these discussions. Furthermore, the governments have set a deadline to finish the negotiations on an international regime of biodiversity benefit-sharing until 2010. So, next year is very crucial in this respect.

The CBD is the only comprehensive agreement on biodiversity. It aims at the conservation of biodiversity, its sustainable use and at the fair and equitable share of the benefits arising out of the use of genetic resources. With 191 parties, nearly every nation in the world has ratified the CBD, expect four countries: Andorra, Iraq, Somalia and notably, the US.

The US, being a global biopharmaceutical leader, has chosen not to ratify the CBD in order to protect its industries from benefit-sharing claims and to exclude its own biological resources from an international agreement. However, it has always sent delegations of government officials to attend the negotiations as observers. It is not that the US was always opposed to the convention. The CBD came out after a long deliberation, of which the US was very much a part of. In a dramatic move in September 1994, CBD ratification was removed from the Senate´s agenda and since then the ratification issue never came up for voting.

The question is who will take the lead role on that sprint to the next Conference of the Parties (COP), which will take place in Nagoya in 2010? Europe and many other countries are relieved that after many years of silence of the US, President Obama pledges to take lead role on climate change issues. However, it does not seem that the US will take over the same lead in fighting the loss of biodiversity.

Since Germany has the CBD presidency until the next COP, it has the responsibility to further the negotiation process and support the achievement of the self-imposed targets. Furthermore, as leading economies among the highly diverse countries Brazil, India, China and South Africa (BICS) must try and persuade the US to sign the CBD. Being a leading member of the grouping of Like Minded Mega-diverse Countries (LMMC) Brazil has already put some pressure on the US for this.

Although the CBD has been in place since 1992, biodiversity is on the decline at all levels and geographical scales and the benefits arising from the use are rarely shared. The current human-driven rate of species extinction is approximately 1,000 times higher than the natural rate, which has prevailed over Earth´s history.

With so much focus on the Copenhagen Summit on climate change, it is amazing to note that biodiversity targets are not attracting enough attention. Further loss of biodiversity would lead to far more dangerous consequences for global climatic balance with grave social consequences. The net present value of annual losses of forests ecosystem services is estimated at between $1.35 trillion and $3.1 trillion.

Besides its stability function, biodiversity has high commercial potential. Due to technical progress and the tremendous proliferation of the biotechnology industry in industrialized countries, genetic resources have become important inputs for commercial products (e.g. pharmaceuticals).

Given that most of the world´s biodiversity-rich countries are developing countries located in the tropics, the benefit-sharing principle implies that users have to share the profits with the providers of the biological material. However, until now providers of biodiversity have received only few benefits.

Developing countries are often overextended to implement benefit-sharing regulations and to negotiate fair benefits or users disregard the benefit-sharing regulations and commercialize products without the consent of the providers.

For example, in 1994, the European Patent Office granted a patent relating to the neem tree´s fungicidal effects. In India, however, the fungicidal effect of the neem seeds had been known and used for centuries.

In 2000, the European Patent Office eventually revoked the patent, admitting that the patent did not comply with the inventiveness and novelty requirement for patents. In order to prevent such cases beforehand, developing countries claim for an international regime that makes users more accountable.

With the elevation of Obama to the US presidency, people expected a deep change in attitude and approach of America. It is high time the US took a leadership role on issues concerning benefit-sharing. In this context, influential parties of the CBD, such as Germany as well as the BICS, must play a catalytic role in getting the US on the negotiating table.

Anti-piracy measures

Stability ashore, not sea battles, will end piracy, states rightly Scott Taylor for On Target

For the past couple of weeks, I had the unique opportunity to transit the North Atlantic aboard the USS Bataan. Admittedly, it was a working passage as I was participating in the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School´s Regional Security Education Program.

This is a relatively new program. Introduced in the wake of the October 2000 terrorist attack against the USS Cole, it is intended to provide both Navy and Marine commanders with access to experts who are familiar with the regions to which their troops may soon be deployed.

While my lectures provided a boots-on-the-ground perspective of the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, my two colleagues provided analysis on topics ranging from the roots of the Islamic religion to the present strategic role Iran plays in the Middle East.

One of the most topical presentations was the one dealing with piracy off the Horn of Africa. This was not surprising given the fact the USS Bataan battle group would soon be entering those increasingly hostile waters.

The issue of Somali piracy has certainly captured the world´s attention in recent months as both the size of the targets and the number of attacks has increased dramatically. The first victims of the Somali pirates were foreign fishing trawlers that had been taking advantage of the relative anarchy ashore to over-fish stocks within Somalia´s territorial waters.

Once the pirates discovered how lucrative ransom money paid by eager insurance companies could be, they forgot about fishing vessels and set their sights on more prosperous cargos.

Last year there were over 100 attacks on ships transiting the Gulf of Aden. About 40 of those were successful. This may not seem very significant, when contrasted with the statistic that over 30,000 ships pass through this busy waterway annually, but among the ships captured was a Saudi Arabian oil tanker carrying $100 million worth of cargo. Another was a Ukrainian freighter hauling 33 T-72 main battle tanks and vast stores of ammunition.

With insurance companies willing to pay up to 10 per cent of the cargo´s value to recoup their merchandise, it is estimated the Somali pirates pocketed approximately $120 million in 2008 alone.

By comparison, Somalia´s only source of export revenue is the trade of livestock, and this amounts to less than $100 million a year. Needless to say, in such a poverty-stricken, war-ravaged country, the pirates of Somalia have become very popular, if for no other reason than they bring back money and food to their people.

Canadian warships have been involved in the international effort to combat the pirates, but to date the results of these operations have been mixed. While the U.S. Navy has introduced a new policy which will allow them to chase suspected pirates within Somali territorial water — and ashore if necessary — Canada and other NATO countries have been exercising a "catch and release" doctrine.

The fact the pirates are using small, speedy skiffs launched from a larger mother ship has proven tactically challenging for NATO warships. The New York Times quoted an Italian naval officer as saying that using a missile destroyer to chase a pirate motorboat is like "going after someone on a bicycle with a truck".

Perhaps in order to find a solution to the current crisis on the Horn of Africa, we need to revisit the so-called "Golden Age of Piracy", when the Jolly Roger ran rampant throughout the Caribbean during the early 18th century. Then as today, those who engaged in acts of piracy did so out of economic necessity.

Following the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht which ended the War of Spanish Succession, the bankrupt British Royal Navy cashiered some 36,000 sailors with virtually worthless scripts. Unscrupulous merchant mariners took advantage of the sudden glut of unemployed sailors to slash their crew wages below subsistence levels.

Driven to desperation, volunteers soon flocked to the "failed state" of the Bahamas to join forces with such characters as Blackbeard and "Calico Jack" Rackham.

The much diminished Royal Navy proved no match for the pirates. In desperation the British government employed the services of a former privateer named Woodes Rogers to confront the situation.

Realizing the problem originated from the situation ashore rather than at sea, Rogers offered the pirates pardons and promises of development to successfully reintegrate them into society.

While the international community got badly burned by the failed intervention into Somalia in 1993, the piracy spilling onto the high seas today is a direct result of us having cut and run from that crisis 16 years ago.

Having our navy capture and punish pirates will not stop the problem. Installing a functioning government in Somalia will end the piracy.

Malaysian container ship joins the navy to fight pirates. A container ship has joined the navy as an auxiliary vessel on its anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden. MISC Bhd, in collaboration with the Royal Malaysian Navy and the National Security Council converted the MV Bunga Mas Lima to escort and protect its ships sailing through the pirate-infested gulf off the coast of Somalia, the New Straits Times reports. This follows last year's hijacking of two MISC ships there. In a statement yesterday, MISC said the conversion was carried out by its heavy engineering arm Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd here. The Bunga Mas Lima is the first Malaysian merchant ship to be converted into an auxiliary vessel for the navy. A ceremony to commemorate the successful conversion of the ship was held here yesterday, attended by Deputy Defense Minister Datuk Dr Abdul Latif Ahmad, navy chief Admiral Datuk Seri Abdul Aziz Jaafar and MISC president and chief executive officer Amir Hamzah Azizan. Since last year's hijackings, RMN had launched Op Fajar, a rescue, escort and protection mission, with the aim of ensuring the safe passage of all MISC vessels in the Gulf of Aden.

The navy has deployed five ships in support of that mission. But with Bunga Mas Lima, one of the five ships currently stationed in the Gulf of Aden, will return to Malaysia this month. The RMN auxiliary vessel will be manned by MISC personnel, who had completed a training programme with RMN. The crew, now taking on the role of navy reservists, will be responsible for the navigation and maintenance of the vessel. Regular officers and navy men will also be on board the vessel to carry out security-related operations. Under international law, an auxiliary ship is a ship other than a warship, which is owned or under the control of the military. It is operated by the government and thus, the ship is accorded sovereign immunity. But still Malaysia was not able to solve its only hostage case, which is tugboat MASINDRA 7 with an 11 men Indonesian crew and an Indonesian barge - a case pending since nearly six months.

Piracy not easy to solve, says international judge

The United Nations is studying further actions to bring piracy to justice, said Judge Helmut Turk, the vice-president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg / Germany during a lecture yesterday at the University of Macau (UM).

The public lecture, "Combating Maritime Piracy and Terrorism - A European Perspective", was part of the UM Master of Law Seminar Series.

Speaking with the media prior to the seminar, Judge Turk said that at the moment a working group has been established to deal with piracy and the ITLOS is awaiting the group's proposals.

The working group is composed of representatives from 25 to 30 countries.

"Tribunal of the Sea [ITLOS] is not a criminal court and they can only decide cases of piracy if there are inter-states cases", he said.

"At present there is no international court that can take piracy to trial. That is a matter of national jurisdictions for domestic courts", he added.

According to Judge Turk, there is an ongoing discussion about this question in which some suggested the establishment of a new international tribunal.

However, he said that "the cost for such an operation [to set up a new international tribunal] is very high".

Hence, some others suggested the use of the International Criminal Court in The Hague to hear piracy trials, but it also brings a controversy as "there is a counter argument that this court is responsible only for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity", the ITLOS vice president said.

Judge Turk believed that the most effective way to fight piracy is on land.

However, if there is no efficient governmental structure such as in Somalia, he said that "it's practically impossible to uphold the law and while the political situation is maintained, it will be difficult to fight piracy. Somalia's industry is based on piracy".

"For now piracy will have to be dealt with by each country's jurisdiction and that is not so easy because many of the countries affected do not have the means to apprehend pirates and also to bring them to justice", Judge Turk said.

At present, penalties for piracy are different from country to country which vary from three to 10 years imprisonment, he said.

And if the pirates killed someone in the course of the crime, they could face up to 15 years in jail, he added.

In the United States, life imprisonment is applied for piracy and some other countries apply capital punishment.

"There are different standards of punishments and some renowned legal experts are criticizing about this. Anyone who commits a crime has to know what penalty he will face and a pirate does not know the punishment he faces because of the different domestic jurisdictions and criminal courts", the judge explained.

Piracy has long been a serious issue for the global maritime law and has jeopardized the freedom of sea navigation as it creates threats to political and economic stability in the region.

Given the fact that 90 percent of the global trade is conducted by sea, Judge Turk said that finding solutions to tackle piracy has become a "critical agenda" among all nations.

Raiders of the Lost Arks (CNBC)

Piracy is making the vital shipping route through the Gulf of Aden a virtual no-go area, and while naval task forces ready for battle, the international community has some catching up to do. Trevor Huggins reports

As the captain of a merchant ship crossing the Gulf of Aden, you realize it´s not going to be a routine day when you look over the side to see a rocket-propelled grenade launcher pointing at you. Piracy, Somali-style, is a thriving international business. Exploiting their country´s lack of effective government since 1991, the increasingly sophisticated and well-armed pirates now use small, high-powered skiffs launched from mother ships anywhere in the Indian Ocean.

For the world´s trading community, the inconvenient truth is that it is largely responsible for creating the very piracy in the Horn of Africa by which it is now plagued. With no visible means of self-defense as Somalia slipped into chaos during the 1990s, the country´s lucrative, unprotected fishing grounds became a target for international trawlers.

Commodore Hans Helseth, deputy chief of staff (operations) of NATO´s Maritime Component Command and a key figure in NATO´s Operation Allied Protector, which is charged with protecting shipping and tackling the Somali pirates, is well-acquainted with the history. "It started when Somali fishermen took back what they thought belonged to them. We have to admit that the international fishing industry has taken advantage of Somalia´s inability to control its own economic zone. European and east Asian fishing vessels have been operating in a 200-nautical-mile area that would normally be patrolled by the state´s coastguard or navy. Foreigners were exploiting Somalia´s weak internal status".

However, if the piracy began as retribution from local fishermen, it did not remain that way for long. "They very soon realized that the vessel was worth more than the catch, so they hijacked the fishing vessels", says Helseth. "From there, it was a short way to hijacking commercial merchant vessels".

The international response has been a patchwork shield of warships, helicopters and aircraft. Between NATO´s Allied Protector, the EU´s Operation Atalanta, whose main task is to protect UN World Food Programme ships, and the US´ anti-piracy task force CTF151, around 20 ships patrol the Gulf of Aden at any one time. Several navies also lend a hand. Though individual agendas vary, much of the protection is aimed at the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC), a stretch of sea along the Somali coast designed as a safer haven for ships passing between the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Ship owners are encouraged to use the IRTC and notify the maritime authorities of their transit through the area.

However, the size of the corridor — only 12 nautical miles long but 500 wide, and lodged in one million square miles of sea — means safety cannot be guaranteed. The pirates also still enjoy some advantages, including their range of equipment and speed of attack. Rear Admiral José Domingos Pereira da Cunha, whose NRP Corte Real is the flagship of NATO´s Allied Protector, has foiled two attempted hijacks this year, and says: "The pirates use satellite phones, GPS and access to the International Maritime Organization´s Automatic [Ship] Identification System to coordinate and execute their actions very fast. Between an alarm of a vessel and the entrance of the pirates on board it can take three minutes". Moreover, for the pirates, any ship will do, among the 20,000 passing through each year.

And, as Helseth has found out, because the pirates use standard open boats they can disguise themselves among normal fishing vessels: "From the angle of view from a helicopter or the bridge wing of a ship you cannot necessarily tell them apart. Even if you do find weapons on board, that´s not a crime in itself because the fishermen can argue they need them to defend themselves against pirates, which is potentially true. If they have RPGs and boarding ladders, that´s a clear indication they´re pirates — but when we come to board them, they throw everything overboard. And suspicious activity is not necessarily enough to have them convicted".

Another advantage is, of course, the sheer scale of the waters to be patrolled. Somalia´s coast is around 3,000km long, with most of it facing the mind-mangling vastness of the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean. Matters are not helped, though, when advice given by the likes of the EU via its website goes unheeded. In an industry where time is money, some are willing to risk sailing closer to the shore in the hope of saving time and fuel on the journey. Rear Admiral Philip Jones, operation commander for Operation Atalanta, says: "It is quite extraordinary how many of the ships that have been pirated in the last couple of months were not registered on our website and were not taking some of the basic precautions and self-protection measures".

That said, it is far from plain sailing for the pirates, whose mother ships are in turn being stalked by warships. "This is not a game, but it looks like one. We are trying to identify their movements, their routines and they are looking for information on where the warships are", says Pereira da Cunha.

Merchant ships can help by traveling as fast as they can, avoiding the area with the highest risk of pirate attack during dawn and dusk — ideally transiting at night — and keeping a good lookout. "It is amazing the variety of preparedness that we´re finding in ships for a transit of the Gulf of Aden", says Jones. "Weave to throw the skiffs off the beat, high-pressure water hoses and barbed wire across the most vulnerable access points. On many occasions, we´ve found that even under sustained fire, if you´ve got the crew safely inside the superstructure, you can actually outrun the pirates". Even holding off them for 30 minutes can be decisive. "Experience will have told the pirates that within half an hour we´ll have some sort of military force with them — a ship if it´s close enough or certainly a helicopter or maritime patrol aircraft", adds Jones.

Another option is simply not to visit the area, thereby avoiding the risks and the higher insurance premiums sought by brokers. But as Neil Roberts, a senior underwriting executive at Lloyd´s Market Association (LMA) points out, the detour along Africa´s western coast is not an option available to all and it too comes at a price. "The bigger ships and tankers were being re-routed fairly frequently from January onwards via South Africa. But they can´t all do that. It´s a very bad weather area a lot of the time, so it´s got to be a pretty substantial vessel. And there´s a cost involved: extra fuel and an extra two weeks on the charter".

It all leaves the business community and the world´s navies looking for long-term solutions. Neither of Jones nor Pereira da Cunha think the problem can be eradicated. "The more warships you can put in the area the better", says Jones. "But you could put another 100 warships in the area and you still wouldn´t give a complete guarantee because we are dealing with such vast expanses of ocean".

Though that view shared is by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), which monitors piracy around the world, it would like to see more targeted action. IMB Director Captain Pottengal Mukundan says: "In the Gulf of Aden a very large number of attacks have been prevented by naval action. It´s working. But it´s a completely different challenge in the Arabian Sea/Indian Ocean. They need to go aggressively against the mother ships… I don´t see any other option. In that expanse of sea, you can´t depend on a reactive response".

For some, including the LMA´s Roberts, the answer lies in a little-publicized document called the Djibouti Code of Conduct, which was agreed in January by countries in the region. The code, designed to improve cooperation in tackling the pirates both on the sea and in the courts, was signed by nine nations at an International Maritime Organisation meeting in Djibouti. The IMO hopes more signatories will follow and that the likes of NATO, the EU and the maritime industry will provide financial and technical help.

International forces could also help in more ways than simply providing battleships. Jan Fritz Hansen is executive vice president of the Danish Shipowners´ Association, one of whose members, AP Moller-Maersk, made headlines when its MAERSK ALABAMA was the subject of a hostage taking in April. The drama ended with the captain being freed, one pirate being detained and the three others, aged between 17 and 19, being shot dead by snipers. Hansen, who felt the IRTC corridor was "quite safe", says his association will press for a coastguard service to be created in the area, one that would also tackle interloping fishing trawlers.

Ultimately, the real solution – and hardest to achieve – is to resolve Somalia´s problems ashore. Helseth says: "There are 150 countries in the world with a coast and we only have a real problem with one: Somalia, a failed state. Once there is a reasonably capable government in place, the piracy will go away".

Clearly, while teenage foot-soldiers might be out on the water, those orchestrating the attacks are on land. Jones partly sees his task as influencing "a risk/reward balance, which looks very different depending on whether you´re a 19-year-old sat on a beach in Somalia contemplating an act of piracy or whether you´re one of these shady characters involved in orchestrating the whole thing and who gets a rather large share of any ransom paid. At the moment, the reward for that second group is enormous and the risk is none at all".

However, Jones believes we are stuck with piracy for some time yet. "I can certainly detect no enormous appetite in the international community at the moment to invest in Somalia the kind of commitment of peacekeeping troops, humanitarian effort, money, time and capacity-building measures to make a real difference. We´ll probably have to do our maritime contribution for some time to come, while the international community works out what it´s going to do about Somalia".

Plundering the Pirate Playbook

How America´s anti-piracy point man is battling Somali scallywags.

By Bruce Falconer

Working from a nondescript government office building near Washington's Navy Yard, Owen Doherty spends his days worrying about Somali pirates. What preoccupies him the most is the law of unintended consequences: the idea that pirates hopped up on khat—the mild, amphetamine-like stimulant that's popular in the region—might turn their AK-47s and RPGs on a ship carrying explosive cargo and inadvertently cause an ecological and economic disaster that could devastate the world's shipping industry. "I think the environment out there is such that we could really have a more serious incident on a vessel", says Doherty, director of the office of security at the Maritime Administration, or MARAD. "We've just been fortunate". But fortune is fickle, so lately Doherty has been thinking of what can be done to prevent such a scenario from coming to pass.

In recent months, as pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden and neighboring waters have skyrocketed, he's been particularly busy. But if you're picturing an ocean-going Rambo, guess again. Doherty is a suit, a career civil servant who until 2007 worked as a special assistant to MARAD's administrator, where he played a central role in drafting the National Strategy for Maritime Security. Though he's a Navy veteran and still serves as a captain in the reserves, he's not about going in with guns blazing. "We're not a security provider", he explained when I visited with him at MARAD's headquarters. Instead, Doherty's office concerns itself primarily with issuing advisories to US-flagged ships, providing them with up-to-date intelligence on pirate attacks, and instructing them on countermeasures. Doherty also helps coordinate Anti-Piracy Assistance Teams, which at the invitation of ship owners conduct free security assessments and identify vulnerabilities that pirates could exploit.

For their part, nations have dealt with the recent uptick in pirate attacks in typical fashion by deploying naval warships to protect affected shipping lanes. Certainly the sight of destroyers on the horizon causes even the most plunder-hungry pirate to think twice before provoking them. But as Doherty acknowledges, ostentatious displays of naval power are not the answer. Criminality at sea is simply a logical extension of conditions on shore, which makes chasing after pirate crews like treating the symptoms while ignoring the sickness. Besides, the ocean is simply too large to patrol effectively, even within the relatively limited range of Somali pirate craft. In the Gulf of Aden alone, for example, putting a halt to piracy would require an estimated 60 warships, according to the Congressional Research Service (PDF); to date, concerned nations have deployed about 20. There have been instances in which these navy ships have been able to intervene, but they are few in number and generally concentrated in the narrow confines of the Gulf. With pirates increasingly operating from so-called "mother ships" in the open ocean off the east coast of Somalia, the odds of detection diminish exponentially. "When the weather gets good, and it's calm out there, they're still able to get ships", Doherty says. "It's a big area with ships coming in from all directions, which makes it very hard to patrol".

But as big as the ocean is, Doherty's primary concerns—US-flagged ships—are easier to protect simply because there are so few of them. Of the more than 15,000 commercial vessels plying the world's seas, less then 300 fly the Stars and Stripes. The reason is clear enough: US-flagged ships must carry expensive American crews and are subject to strict environmental and safety regulations. Most savvy US ship owners opt to bypass the requirements by registering their ships offshore and flying "flags of convenience". And of the few US-flagged ships now operating, even fewer venture anywhere near the Somali coast. From Doherty's perspective, the effect is one of compression. "Instead of saying you've got to protect the entire area, 2 million square miles, you look at where the US-flagged vessels are and which ones are most vulnerable, because there's actually very few", he says.

But pirates are equally skilled at sifting the best targets from the crush of commercial ships that skirt their shores. Numerous reports suggest that they do so with the help of paid informants in European ports who help them target particular ships. Doherty acknowledges that in some cases corrupt officials abroad may be involved, but remains convinced that most attacks occur at random. "More and more it's just targets of opportunity", he says, with pirates chasing after commercial vessels that are riding "low and slow" in the water. Indeed, Doherty's view could help explain how 11 hapless pirates were nabbed May 3 after attempting to seize a French naval frigate, itself part of a European anti-piracy force. Imagine their surprise when the frigate deployed commandos and helicopters in pursuit of its would-be captors.

Ultimately, securing the waterways adjacent to the Somali coast may simply be impossible. Even so, the recent attack on the US-flagged MAERSK ALABAMA and the capture of its American captain has sparked a debate over whether American merchant ships should carry armed guards. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat, sent a letter to President Obama in the wake of the attack urging him to deploy them. Likewise, General David Petraeus told a House panel that although non-lethal deterrents like high-pressure water hoses can work, "it's tough to be on the end of a water hose if the other guy is on the end of an RPG" and urged the shipping industry to "get more serious about this problem".

Yet hiring armed guards is not something most ship owners are eager to do. For one thing, armed security is expensive, and given the comparatively low cost of paying the occasional ransom, most shipping firms are content to take their chances. Paying ransoms keeps the pirates content, too, theoretically lessening the risk both to merchant crews and their vessels. (Consider that after the MAERSK ALABAMA incident, pirates publicly threatened to seek out and murder American mariners after Navy SEAL snipers killed three of their own.) A host of legal and insurance-related issues also come into play, many of which have yet to be worked out. Take rules of engagement. When would guards be justified in firing their weapons? And who would adjudicate allegations of illegal shootings? "There's such a fine line between what is a pirate and what is not", says Doherty. "You've got fishermen out there who carry AK-47s to protect themselves and act erratically because they're looking for fish! Or you may be crossing where they do fish, and they may be angry at you".

Still, says Doherty, the effectiveness of armed guards has already been proven. To supply the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Navy's Military Sealift Command charters civilian ships and crews to augment the Pentagon's capacity. Each carries a security detachment of 12 US troops. "That's been their best anti-piracy measure, having armed security on board", he says. Despite international resistance to replicating such protections with private contractors, the US government has so far declined to rule it out. "We want to have that as an option", Doherty explains, adding that some American ship operators have already hired groups of armed contractors to accompany their vessels. (He declined to say which ones.) "There is a place for private security, but I think it's really for the anomalies, where you have really low, slow vessels that can't avoid the area". Nevertheless, given the range of things that could go wrong by introducing gun-toting private guards to the shipping lanes, Doherty acknowledges, "there are more questions right now than answers".

Netherlands backs calls for global piracy tribunal but Somalia rejects the proposal

The Netherlands is the latest country to call for the establishment of an international tribunal to try pirates. A proposal to set up the tribunal was put to the International Piracy Contact Group, which met in New York last week and the Netherlands reportedly is organizing a meeting of international experts on the issue. But the Somali government is opposed to the idea of forming an international tribunal to try piracy suspects. The idea has been floated as a way to fight Somali piracy, which has increased dramatically over the past two years as the security situation continues to deteriorate in the country. Somalia has not had a stable government since 1991 and is considered incapable of handling the piracy situation on its own. The country is facing attempts by Islamists to take over the country and impose Shari'a, Islamic law. The United States is concerned Somalia will become a safe haven for Al-Qa'ida-inspired terrorists and there are fears that the conflict there will spill over into other countries in the Horn of Africa. Muhammad 'Abdallahi 'Umar, the foreign minister of the transitional government, told Shabelle Media that his government did not request the formation of an international tribunal for pirates and voiced opposition to the idea.

The government has appealed for pirates to be sentenced in Kenya until a legal court is formed in Somalia. Countries such as the Netherlands are pushing for the formation of an international tribunal and have submitted a proposal to the International Piracy Contact Group, which consists of 24 countries from the European Union, the African Union, NATO and the United Nations. Holland recently had to release nine suspected Somali pirates, who were detained in the Gulf of Aden by Dutch marines under NATO command, because there was no legal framework for their arrest. Last Friday, Holland suggested an international tribunal be set up in Africa and the pirates serve their sentences in the region. Experts will gather in The Hague soon, to discuss the implementation of such a measure.

Holland could play a special role in setting up such a court, since it already accommodates several international tribunals, including the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. Russia is reportedly also supportive of the idea of an international court. The idea of an international tribunal for pirates was proposed in April with the notion of having them tried in Kenya, because it is the closest country with the relevant legislation for prosecuting pirates. However, experts have told The Media Line that the political turmoil in Kenya last year also affected its judicial system, and the country is stretched in terms of the capacity of its legal system. Also, Kenya has a large Muslim population, which has had a difficult relationship with the central government. There are concerns that prosecuting Somali Muslims pirates on Kenyan soil will fuel the resentment of Muslims towards the government. Many of the captured pirates are being held indefinitely while their pending prosecutions face bureaucratic hurdles.

The aim of such a court would be to speed up prosecution, make trials more efficient and solve problems of jurisdiction which, up until now, have caused foot-dragging in piracy trial cases. Several countries are reluctant to put pirates on trial on their own turf because they do not want the bureaucratic responsibility and financial burden of dealing with the suspects. Also, bringing Somali pirates to their territory for prosecution poses a potential immigration problem. In this case, it will be hard to argue that they should be sent back to the war-torn Somalia, where their lives would be at risk due to the precarious security situation. Last year was one of the worst years in piracy, with an increase of more than 200 percent in the number of piracy attacks off the coasts of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden.

Two Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force P-3C aircraft on an anti-piracy mission landed Sunday at an airport in Djibouti, where they will be based during their first overseas mission. Following some training, the aircraft will start patrolling from mid-June in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia and convey relevant information to the MSDF destroyers that have been patrolling there since March as well as Japanese-related vessels and other navy vessels in the area. The air patrol operations involve about 100 MSDF personnel, including the P-3C's crew and engineers and about 50 Ground Self-Defense Force members who guard the aircraft at the airport. Helicopters from two Japanese destroyers are currently patrolling the gulf, but the MSDF decided to send the P-3Cs, given their greater flying range and longer flight time. Russian Volga-Dnepr Airlines has in addition transported supplies and equipment for Japan's Ministry of Defense (JGSDF) from Sendai, Japan to the Republic of Djibouti in Africa.

Smothering The Somali Coast With Search, finds StrategyPage

Australia has decided to send a P-3 naval reconnaissance aircraft (and a frigate) to join the anti-piracy task force off the Somali coast. Two Japanese P-3Cs recently arrived in Djibouti where they will join several other aircraft that already patrol the waters off the coast of Somalia. Last year, Spain sent a P-3, to search for the pirates that have become an increasing problem there.

The site of most pirate attacks has been the Gulf of Aden, which is one the busiest shipping lanes in the world (with nearly ten percent of all traffic). Each month, 1500-1600 ships pass the northern coast of Somalia. Last year about one ship out of every 400-500 was captured by pirates. With the pirates getting more and more ransom money for each ship, the number of pirate groups operating in the Gulf of Aden is growing. An increasing number of mother ships, usually captured fishing trawlers (able to stay out for weeks at a time, and carry speed boats for attacks) are traveling farther from the coast in the search of victims. The P-3s can search large areas of the high seas in search of these mother ships, which warships are now hunting down.

Most merchant ships are wary of the pirates, and put on extra lookouts, and often transit the 1,500 kilometer long Gulf of Aden at high speed (even though this costs them thousands of dollars in additional fuel). The pirates seek the slower moving, apparently unwary, ships, and go after them before they can speed up enough to get away. For the pirates, business is booming, and ransoms are going up. Pirates are now demanding $2-3 million per ship, and are liable to get it for the much larger tankers and bulk carriers they are now seizing. The P-3s seek out the mother ships, and alert warships to the location where the pirates are operating.

But there are some problems. The American built P-3C maritime reconnaissance aircraft is getting old. The average age of. P-3Cs is over 25 years. The P-3 entered service in 1962. The current version has a cruise speed of 610 kilometers per hour, endurance of up to 13 hours and a crew of eleven. The 116 foot long, propeller driven aircraft has a wingspan of nearly 100 feet. The P-3C can carry about ten tons of weapons (torpedoes, mines, or missiles like Harpoon and Maverick).

The 63 ton P-3 is based on the 1950s era Lockheed Electra airliner. The last P-3 was built in 1990. A more likely replacement for these elderly search planes, are UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), like Global Hawk or smaller aircraft like Predator. These UAVs typically stay in the air for 24 hours, or more, at a time. What maritime reconnaissance aircraft need, more than anything else, is endurance or, as the professionals like to put it, "persistence".

Spain sent 90 personnel (air and ground crew) to Djibouti, while the Japanese have sent 150. Australia will also post a ground support team there. The French were the first to send a patrol aircraft, an ATL2, to Djibouti. This is a twin engine, 46 ton aircraft that entered service in 1989. It can carry nine tons of weapons, a crew of eight and has a maximum endurance of 18 hours.

The maritime patrol aircraft are proving to be more useful than the twenty or so warships on station. The aircraft can cover a lot more ocean, and spot pirate mother ships and speedboats stalking larger ships. The maritime patrols have already resulted in many (no one will admit how many) pirate attacks being aborted. Few of the nations with warships in the area, will allow their sailors to arrest pirates. In most cases, the pirates will surrender when confronted by a warship, safe in the knowledge that the most that will happen to them is that they will lost their weapons. However, some nations are turning captured pirates over to courts in Kenya, and a few other countries. But, so far, piracy has turned out to be a low risk enterprise for the pirates.

Puntland turns against Somali pirates

If Somalia's pirates find the Gulf of Aden a rich hunting ground for ships to hijack, the bleak camps for displaced people overlooking the gulf offer rich pickings for pirate gangs looking for recruits, reports the BBC.

The oldest of the camps is called "100-Bushes", named by locals with a grim sense of humour. Thousands of makeshift shelters huddle together in the heat and dust on the fringes of the old port city in Somalia's northern province of Puntland. Camps like 100-Bushes house about 40,000 displaced people.

There is not a blade of grass - let alone 100 bushes - anywhere in sight. The oldest shelters have been here for more than a decade. They look like they were thrown together last week.

The shelters are built around frames of sticks salvaged from the beaches and lashed together with bits of wire and twine.

They are clad in whatever their owners can find: Scraps of plastic, flattened tin cans, paper bags and, if the owners are lucky, sheets of rusting corrugated iron.

The 40,000 people who live in camps like 100-Bushes across Puntland have drifted in over the years, seeking refuge from the apocalyptic horrors in southern Somalia - civil war, drought and famine. Out here, there are no jobs. Only one in three children are in school, and the future for most is anything but promising.

No wonder then that mothers like Mumena Abdur Qadir are worried about their children - either that they will end up just as poor and destitute as their parents or that they will become pirates.

"They drive around in expensive cars, they offer our sons lots of money, so of course piracy is an exciting option", she says.

"But nobody likes them any more, and now it's really dangerous. The (French and the Americans) have been killing pirates, so we think it's a really bad thing to do."

Christian Balslev-Olesen also despairs. As UNICEF's outgoing special representative to Somalia, he believes just a little more international effort in social services like schools and healthcare could give youngsters a decent prospect of a future that does not involve piracy.

Mr. Balslev-Olesen visited the camps around Bossasso on his farewell tour, along with the British UNICEF ambassador Martin Bell (the former member of parliament and BBC broadcaster).

Puntland President Abdirahman Mohammed Farole on the battle against the pirates "We've seen here that we can make life so much better for these people, just by building a few good schools and giving kids an education. It's wonderful to see what can be achieved, but frustrating that it is so hard to get the support we need", Mr. Balslev-Olsesen said.

When they began, Somalia's pirates cast themselves as "Robin Hoods of the sea" - as defenders of the nation's fisheries, first chasing away and later capturing foreign trawlers that had been looting the country's rich and non policed seas.

Much of the money they took as "fines" went back into local schools, hospitals and businesses. No longer.

"They're responsible for so many problems", said Abdifatah Hussein Mohamed. As an activist with the Puntland Students' Association, Abdifatah and his friends have created a multi-media empire.

From their stuffy, cramped headquarters in central Bossasso, they churn out TV programmes, radio shows, magazines and websites with a single, simple message - piracy is out.

"First, they are responsible for inflation", he complained. "Now, food, land, cars are all too expensive for ordinary people. It used to be that you could hope for these things, but not any more. Then, they bring in prostitutes, they take drugs, they crash their cars. They rape whoever they want and nobody can do anything about it. Nobody wants them around any more".

His friend, Mohamed Jama agreed: "They are causing a lot of problems in the family. Sometimes women go with them because they promise lots of money. But they also divorce their wives very quickly too. It's bad for everybody".

Of course, casting pirates as social outcasts will not solve the issue alone, but the government believes that isolating them from their communities is a promising first step.

Funds needed

What the Puntland administration wants now is the support the international community has promised so vehemently over the past few months.

President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole complains that he is a victim of political ideology.

"So many governments promised to help fight piracy on land, and that's a good thing", he said. "But they are all talking to the central government in Mogadishu. That's a policy decision, but it is a waste of time. The TFG (transitional federal government) only controls a piece of Mogadishu. They have no authority up here. So the rest of the world has to recognize that there are two legitimate governments in northern Somalia - Puntland and Somaliland - and deal directly with us if they want anything done".

Somaliland declared independence in 1991 after military leader Siad Bare's regime collapsed; Puntland opted for autonomy in 1998. Both regions set up their own administrations though neither has been formally recognized by any other government.

President Abdirahman believes that he could bring piracy under control with barely a 10th of the money that shipping companies are paying out as ransoms.

"With $7m (£4.4m) or $8m, we could set up security services and a coastguard that could stop this in its tracks… But the rest of the world has also created this problem by paying out ransoms", he said.

"They must stop paying ransoms and give us the permission and resources to fight (pirates) at sea".

But the president also acknowledges that such a strategy would come at a price.

"We can't make decisions for the companies, especially when their ships and the lives of their crews are at risk. But sometimes you have to take big risks if you want results".

It is a risk the international community has so far been unwilling to take.

No real peace in sight yet

Vision of Humanity ranks Somalia in their Global Peace Index on 142nd place of 144 countries, immediately after Israel (141) and Sudan (140) and just before Afghanistan and Iraq. see the ranking and the details:

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/gpi/results/somalia/2009/ Somalia went down from rank 139 in 2008, which saw Abdullahi Yussuf resigning and UN crowny Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed emerge. Only one figure the index obviously got wrong: The Number of paramilitary personnel per 100,000 people is listed with zero.

Journalists kidnapped in Somalia plead for help reported now also [Tom Gross] in NRO

"Canadian reporter Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan – who have been held captive in Somalia for the past nine months – have smuggled out a message saying they are in poor health and fear they may die in captivity unless their governments to do more to secure their release. Lindhout believes she will die unless the Canadian government and her family pay a ransom. Their pleas were made to the French news agency AFP through an intermediary who claimed to be speaking on behalf of the kidnappers. They were abducted in August 2008 while on a freelance assignment. Their kidnapping is one of the longest that has occurred in Somalia, one of the most dangerous countries for journalists and aid workers to work. A Somali journalist and two drivers who were captured with Lindhout and Brennan were released on January 16.Lindhout´s friends and colleagues are trying to keep her case in the public eye through Facebook and YouTube videos (for example, here)".

Though we disagree with Gross and believe the message was not smuggled out but actually at least in parts even forced under duress, the Australian and Canadian governments now seem to at least be moving after nine month of inactivity and reluctance and the following sentence by Amanda Lindhout most likely was not forced upon her: "As a fellow journalist, I ask that you repeatedly loop out my crisis to the outside world, to the community of journalists - worldwide"!

Also still held are four European aid-workers for ACF and two Kenyan pilots.

And today unidentified gunmen armed with pistols have kidnapped the director of Somali Universal television which broadcasts its news and programs in Somali language outside Mogadishu, witnesses said. Witnesses said Ibrahim Mohamed (Jekey) has been kidnapped while traveling from Afgoye to Mogadishu late on Tuesday afternoon. Abdirisak Mohamoud Jimale, one of Universal TV staff who was traveling with the director said four masked men armed with pistols kidnapped the director. Abdirisak said that four masked gunmen armed with pistols have stopped them and escaped the director with a Toyota Hilux Surf that the gangs were traveling in Garasbaley village about 15 km south of Mogadishu.

It is not known why the gunmen kidnapped the journalist, but there have been attacks and abductions against the journalists in Somalia recently. Somalia is one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists to work. Four journalists were killed in Somalia in 2009 alone. The Somali Journalists´ Rights Agency (SOJRA) immediately denounced the abduction. "We think this abduction is another threat from part of the Islamists in Somalia", said Daud Abdi Daud, SOJRA Executive director and he added that all Mogadishu media directors are now attentive to what is next in these painful actions against freedom of expression and press freedom in Somalia.

Heavy fighting broke out Tuesday in a densely packed slum area of the Somali capital, sending thousands of residents fleeing while a leading aid agency warned of a humanitarian catastrophe. Officials and residents said clashes erupted in Dharkinley in southwest Mogadishu around 0800 GMT when Somali loyalist forces attacked checkpoints manned by hard line Islamists. Terrified residents in the district, largely spared the fighting in recent years, packed whatever they could strap to their backs or load on carts and started flooding out of Dharkinley. Many headed southward in the direction of Afgooye, where relief agency Oxfam warned that conditions were not fit for human habitation. "This morning heavy clashes erupted near Abagedo area, everybody is fleeing for their lives because they [the fighters] are using heavy machine guns and mortar shells", said resident Mohammad Ibrahim.

Colonel Mohammad Hashi, a senior Somali police officer, said the fighting had been heaviest in the morning. "Many people are fleeing the battle zones to avoid the crossfire", Hashi added. The interim Somali government launched a counter-offensive on May 22 to try and regain control of swathes of the capital captured earlier by the rebels. On Monday, government forces overran with 10 people killed a strategic police station controlled by insurgents, but on Tuesday the rebels claimed to have seized back Yaqshid police station.

The "very dire" humanitarian crisis in Somalia is the worst in Africa for many years, says Oxfam's coordinator for the failed Horn of Africa state under the present UN-fostered constellation. Many of its hundreds of thousands of internally-displaced people, the world's largest such concentration, have little food or shelter, he said. Mogadishu civilians have been fleeing intense fighting between Islamist guerrillas and pro-government forces. The exodus is continuing from the capital amid the crackle of gunfire. Many thousands of people, mainly women and children, have fled to the outskirts of the city where most are sheltering under trees with little to eat or drink, he says. Hassan Noor, Oxfam's humanitarian coordinator for Somalia said there are hundreds of children all over the area with tubes on their faces and [saline] drips on their hands. "Some of them are actually unconscious and suffering from all sorts of diseases, mainly acute diarrhea and cholera. I have seen the situation in Darfur, northern Uganda, some parts of Congo, but what is actually happening now in Somalia is indeed the worst kind of humanitarian situation in Africa in many years", he added.

Radical Islamist militia groups, Hisbul-Islam and al-Shabab, have been locked in see-sawing battles in the Somali capital with pro-government forces that have displaced more than 60,000 civilians since 7 May. Pro-government forces appeared to gain some ground on Monday as they pressed on with a counter-offensive launched last week against the insurgents, who control swathes of southern and central Somalia. Loyalist troops in north Mogadishu retook a police station which had been occupied by insurgent fighters for the past month. The police station is seen as the key to controlling that area of town. However, at least five Somali policemen were killed in a roadside bomb blast in the south of the capital. A moderate Islamist president took office in January but even his introduction of Sharia law to the strongly Muslim country has not appeased the guerrillas, who are accused of links to al-Qaeda. The UN last month warned that drought had left nearly half of Somalia's nine million population malnourished and some 3.2 million in urgent need of food aid. It is estimated at least one million people have been internally displaced by almost perpetual civil conflict in the failed Horn of Africa nation since the collapse of its central government in 1991.

Somali government forces have pushed armed opposition groups out of two districts of Mogadishu, the country's capital, after bloody battles, residents and officials say. Government soldiers launched an offensive last month in an attempt to seize large areas of Mogadishu from the control of fighters who have pledged to topple the interim government of Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, the president. "We have swept them from the area. Madina and Dharkenley districts are now in our hands", Abdiqadir Odweyne, a senior police officer, told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday. Fourteen out of Mogadishu's 16 neighbourhoods are now under government control, according to Mohammed Abdi Gandi, Somalia's defense minister. "That means we are making progress", he said. "We presently have the situation well under control and we have enough soldiers to hold on and repel the extremist aggression on the country".

But Abdullah Youssef, secretary-general of Hizbul Islam, an armed group, told Al Jazeera that the opposition forces would regain any ground they had lost. "If we were the ones who initiated the attack, the fighting would have been next to Macca Al Mukarama Street and the presidential palace. But we assure you that they will have to retreat", he said. Hizbul Islam has allied with al-Shabab, another armed group, in an attempt to force the interim government from power, accusing Ahmed of being a traitor because he signed a UN peace deal in January and joined the government. Ahmed was previously the leader of the Islamic Courts Union, which seized much of south and central Somalia from the government in 2006.

Weapons intended for government 'expected in Somalia' A senior military official in Somalia told Garowe Online news agency that a weapons shipment intended for the Horn of Africa country's interim government is expected to arrive soon. The source, who refused to be named, said the weapons were "donated by some African countries", although he did not specify details. "Some of the weapons will arrive by land via Ethiopia and Kenya, other weapons will be unloaded at the Port of Mogadishu", said the military source. Port sources confidentially told Garowe Online that a ship transporting military hardware is expected to dock at Mogadishu's port later this week, with one port worker saying: "We were ordered to not show up for work on Thursday and we were not told a reason...but I have heard that weapons are expected". Somali government officials, including Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmake, have recently issued public statements vowing to attack armed opposition groups, namely Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, who control pockets of Mogadishu and vast regions in south-central Somalia.

International warships bar ships from insurgent-controlled port

International warships blocked a cargo ship preventing it from entering an insurgent held port in Kismayu in an attempt to stop supplies the Islamist militants who control the region. Kismayu, the third largest town in Somalia is situated 528 km southwest of Mogadishu, near the mouth of the Jubba River, where that river flows into the Indian Ocean. "I´m confirming to you that the international warships prevented a commercial ship from docking in Kismayu", stated the Ports and Sea Transport Minister Mohamed Ibrahim Habasade. He further said the measure aims at stopping supplies reaching the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents who want to overthrow the UN backed government headed by a moderate Somali Islamist. Several countries initially deployed warships in the Red sea, Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean in order to fight the flourishing piracy that threatens the safety of the international trade. The minister told Reuters they warned Somali traders against chartering ships to the opposition groups´ strongholds because they have sanctions imposed on them. The ship had delivered goods to the capital Mogadishu before heading south to Kismayu, the minister said. Its nationality and details of its cargo were not known.

Al Shebab, which Western security services say is a proxy for al Qaeda, has been fighting the Somali government since early 2007 in a rebellion that has killed nearly 18,000 civilians and driven more than 1 million from their homes. In Kismayu the Somali insurgent on Friday imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew after a rare attack near one of its bases in the southern port city it has held since mid-2008. Two civilians were injured when a hand-grenade was hurled towards the base on Thursday night, locals said, in the latest violence in the Horn of Africa nation which has suffered 18 years of near-continuous civil conflict.

Cartoonish U.N.: Pitiful caricature was commented in the Pittsburg Tribune

Wanted: A cartoonist for the United Nations Development Programme to produce a comic that addresses the agency's Millennium Development Goals for Somalia. A sense of humor is a plus.

Seriously.

The UNDP job opening is now closed. But it shouldn't require too much creativity to draw a conclusion from this latest U.N. absurdity.

What's intended is a comic featuring two characters (male and female) to help Somalis understand and supposedly achieve developmental goals. Perhaps one of the characters can be a Somali pirate with a parrot atop his shoulder espousing better living through the United Nations.

Somalia is a land of precious few resources and prone to drought. It's wracked by severe poverty and fighting between the Transitional Federal Government forces and militias. Civil war has gripped the country since 1991. Its economy is in shambles.

Somehow we doubt that the locals struggling to stay alive are going to be influenced by a comic that depicts "correct, neutral and culturally sensitive messages". This is an intelligent response to a region so seriously troubled?

The U.N., itself, has become a pitiful caricature of own ineffectual policies and mind-set.

Consider this cartoon from insidesomalia.org: The empty office of the U.N. cartoonist, where the phone-answering machine plays this message -- "Hello. You've reached the cartoonist's office. To issue a fatwa, press one".

UPDF in Somalia go months without pay

by Rosebell Kagumire & Gaaki Kigambo

Discontent is brewing within the Ugandan peacekeeping contingent under the African Union (AU) Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) with soldiers alleging they have spent months without pay.

Originally the soldiers, under the Uganda-AU understanding, were supposed to receive an allowance of $500 on top of their salaries. $100 of this is given to them in Mogadishu to cover accommodation and food while the rest is credited on their bank accounts in their respective home countries.

The money is released in a lump-sum from the AU Peace Fund to defense ministries of the respective governments, who in turn should deposit it on the soldiers´ accounts.

However, Ugandan soldiers in Mogadishu have written to The Independent complaining that they have not received their allowances since November 2008. They also say families of their fallen comrades have not been compensated yet AU releases the money every month. This has sparked suspicion among the Ugandan contingent that their allowances have been diverted by their Ugandan superiors. "This money is being used by these corrupt officials for their personal gains yet our families are dying of hunger", wrote one of the soldiers who requested for anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The soldiers also say that whereas the AU increased their allowances from $500 to $750 effective December 2008, Ugandan authorities have not formally communicated these changes or reflected them in their salary disbursements. Interestingly, the Burundi contingent on the same mission did not only receive formal communication about the increment, but have also been earning about $750, up from $400 since January this year. Uganda and Burundi are the only countries who have contributed troops to AMISOM.

The soldiers say the most affected belong to UGABAG 2 contingent which was deployed in October last year. The soldiers say they were instructed by the defense ministry to open new bank accounts different from the ones they already held where part of their allowances would be deposited. Left without explanation why their accounts have not been credited, the soldiers suspect the new accounts system was instituted to deny them chance to monitor their earnings.

Sources at AMISOM say there has been a salary crisis and confirmed complaints that peacekeepers haven´t been paid. But an official familiar with AMISOM has dismissed the Ugandan soldiers´ claims.

The official, who declined to be named because he does not speak officially for the mission, told The Independent, "A couple of months ago we had a similar situation with the Burundian contingent. Sometimes there are delays [in funds being released] from Addis [Ababa, the seat of AU]. But they all end up getting paid. In all honesty the donors are so strict that they have sent people to monitor the payments of the soldiers in the TCCs (Troop Contributing Countries), in Addis Ababa and AMISOM Headquarters in Nairobi".

Gaffel Nkolokosa, the AMISOM public information officer, says the AU has received no official complaint from soldiers whether Ugandan or Burundian that they haven´t been paid. He confirmed that allowances for peacekeepers was increased from $500 to $750 beginning January this year. He says half of the money is paid to the troops´ personal accounts back home. "But whether the ministry of defense in the home country is involved, ask the Ugandan government there".

AMISOM´s spokesman, Maj. Barigye Ba-Hoku, said: "The contract is not between the soldier and AU but AU and the country. So the responsibility of paying the soldiers doesn´t lie with AU but with the government. To claim that a commander in Somalia can eat their money is baseless. Commanders don´t touch any money".

Uganda´s army spokesman Maj. Felix Kulayigye said the AMISOM troops have not received their allowances since December. But he blamed the AU´s bureaucracy for delaying the release of money.

"We got information yesterday [May 22] that the payment process has been cleared and now we are waiting for Bank of Uganda to do its part and the money will be credited to their accounts", Kulayigye said.

But soldiers in Mogadishu say that in what seems a move to calm the growing discontent, they were on May 16 paid $300 and told it was for November up to January. "Commanders after realizing that we will get to know [the] fact[s], they started silencing everyone who talk[s] on that matter and worse still denying us access to communication and this was done by confiscating our mobile phone[s]", wrote one of the soldiers.

He said even the money turned out to be fake dollars and they refused it. He said commanders pointed out some soldiers as being behind organizing the refusal and "they are now expecting action from above".

Defense Minister Dr Crispus Kiyonga told parliament in February that AU owed Uganda Shs45 billion for AMISOM where the country has up to 2600 troops. This is debt accrued from unpaid and redeployment allowances, injury/disability and death compensation, as well as self-sustenance allowances.

The AMISOM is funded by USA, Britain, Sweden and EU, which last month pledged about €60 million to boost security in Somalia, part of which went to AMISOM.

Uganda has lost more than 10 troops since deploying in Somalia in 2007.

Constitutional squabbles in Puntland. The State Minister for Democratization Process and Federal Relations in Somalia's self-governing Puntland State, Dr. Abdi Hassan Jim'ale, told Puntland-based Radio Garowe that the region's new constitution is the direction forward. Dr. Jim'ale said the new constitution is composed of 141 Articles and that the source of the Puntland Constitution is Islamic law, or Shari'ah. "No clause in our [Puntland] constitution goes against Shari'ah", the State Minister told Radio Garowe during a Sunday interview, adding that the constitution was prepared by a group of legal experts chaired by Mr. Mohamed Hassan.

He spoke briefly about some Puntland MPs who have issued public statements criticizing an introduction to the constitution personally written by Dr. Jim'ale, which stated that the people of "Northeast Somalia" established the Puntland State government in 1998. "Geographically all regions between Togdheer [Burao] and Mudug [Galkayo] are located in Northeast Somalia", Dr. Jim'ale said, while responding to criticism that the phrase "Northeast Somalia" excludes the regions of Sool and Sanaag. He defended Puntland's strong position to remain part and parcel of Somalia, arguing that the local clans in Puntland State spearheaded the Somali independence movement in the 1950s and that Puntland will lead the way to finding a stable federal government for Somalia. The new constitution is currently under debate in the Puntland Parliament. Meanwhile local reports revealed that allegedly the son of Puntland´s recently determined new president "Farole" is conducting illegal fishing operations in Somali waters using two foreign vessels. All fishing licenses for foreign vessels were revoked by the new Somali Government and new ones can only be issued after the new fisheries legislation and controls are in place.

Impacting reports from the global village

Yemen: From Bad to Worse? asks Fred Schwarz and elaborates:

The last time we mentioned Yemen, President Obama and his crew were planning to send 97 Yemeni terrorists from Guantanamo back to their home country, where they would be taught good manners and released with a pat on the head. Now even the hard-core trans-nationalists at the Department of Justice are starting to realize that this might not be a good idea. In fact, the whole close-Gitmo thing may be delayed by a year or two while they cook up either (a) a plan to find enough states and foreign countries willing to take in hundreds of trained and fanatical terrorists from Yemen and elsewhere, or (b) an excuse for why Obama´s campaign pledge and executive order to shut the place down have become inoperative.

Once that´s done, all they have to do is explain why militant Islamists who are moved to the general prison population won´t simply recruit more terrorists there (as was done in the recent Bronx bombing plot, for example). They can also tell us how the terrorists will be better off in American prisons that are often brutal and gang-ridden, instead of in an all-Muslim facility where their safety is ensured and their religious practices are scrupulously indulged.

The Yemenis, as the biggest bloc of terrorists at Guantanamo, were a major factor in the decision not to rush the prison´s closing. What made the administration change its mind? Nothing much that´s new, just the internal conflicts that have been simmering in Yemen for decades. Those conflicts are now starting to bubble to the surface, and the situation is looking shaky enough that not even Obama´s true believers can ignore them.

As often happens, the separatist movement in Yemen has been fueled by a general disintegration of society. As Jane Novak, the doughty Yemen watcher, writes:

Somali pirates hide their mother ships in Yemen´s waters. NATO Commander, Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, said the pirates receive "a lot of the logistical supplies" from Yemen. Pirates say they receive information on ship location from Yemeni collaborators.

The U.N. committee that monitors the arms embargo on Somalia found Yemen to be the primary source of illegal arms and ammunition. Yemen´s inability to stem the large-scale arms trafficking is "a key obstacle to the restoration of peace and security to Somalia", the panel determined.

Weapons are also smuggled to Saudi Arabia and Gaza. Yemen, the poorest nation in the Middle East, spends a third of its budget on the military. President Saleh inked a billion-dollar weapons deal with Russia in February.

Narcotics from Pakistan, Iran and Syria, including millions of Keptagon tablets and tons of hashish, enter Yemen and flood the Gulf States. Yemeni children are sold to beg in Saudi Arabia and have their kidneys harvested in Egypt. In some border villages, one third of children are missing. The biggest danger sign is that Ali Salem al-Beidh — the former Soviet stooge and later vice president who briefly led an independent South Yemen during the 1994 civil war and has lived quietly in exile ever since — has returned to politics and claimed leadership of the separatist Southern Movement. Yemen´s tensions have been growing for some time, and are not confined to the south; lately they have gotten violent.

Issues include ethnic grievances, pervasive government corruption, a growing Islamist influence, and a general lack of the necessities of civilized life.

Ali Abdullah Saleh, president of the fissiparous nation, has long been America´s best friend in the struggle, though he is widely believed to have cooperated with al-Qaeda terrorists. Better a dodgy strongman than another Somalia, it is thought, especially in this fertile ground for extremists; and if Saleh can take those Yemeni detainees off our hands and get them working for him, so much the better, the odd leveled village and suppressed opposition group aside.

But if Saleh can´t hold Yemen together, there´s no reason to support him, and it looks increasingly likely that he can´t. Earlier this month, U.S.-brokered peace negotiations began in Cairo, though no one but the diplomacy-loving Americans places much faith in them. Oh, and did I mention that oil revenues are down 74 percent compared with the same period last year? That won´t improve anyone´s disposition.

The understandably cranky editor of the Yemen Post takes a plague-on-both-your-houses approach:

The government of Yemen has not been able to give its people even the essentials of modern life, like electricity or water. Every day, the electricity turns off for at least 6 hours in the capital Sana´a, and water services have seen a decrease since the beginning of the year. . . . People today in Yemen live a life close to that of some poor countries in Africa, even though it is located in one of the richest places on the planet.

Ali Salem al-Beidh, the former vice president of Yemen, and leader of the south announced last week that southern Yemen must be separated. In my opinion, the reason why he announced that was because he has either gotten too old and is saying things for no reason, or that he was bored in his old home in Oman and wanted more action in his life.

Whatever the reason for him was, President Saleh will help him if he does not stop corruption and give the people the biggest portion of the cake. Most Yemenis would settle for a little peace and quiet and a manageable level of corruption, but the prospects for achieving even that modest goal are not good. One thing is for sure: The situation would not be improved by adding 97 more trained and rested terrorists to the mix. Yemen is yet another situation where Obama and his handlers are slowly learning the harsh differences between running for office and running a country.

New Yorker killed in Ethiopia in 2003 revealed as CIA spy reports James Gordon Meek for the Daily News

CIA clandestine operative Gregg Wenzel's official cover was lifted Monday, when it was revealed that the New Yorker killed in 2003 was a spy - not a diplomat, as claimed.

Wenzel, 33, was an operations officer who died in Ethiopia. He had been listed as a U.S. foreign service officer.

The cause of death was said to be a random traffic accident. The actual circumstances remain murky, Wenzel's father said.

"My son wanted to make a difference, and he did", Mitch Wenzel told the Daily News after his son was honored at CIA's Langley, Va., headquarters. "He wanted to give back by joining the Clandestine Service".

Wenzel and a still-anonymous operative killed last year became the 89th and 90th gold stars engraved on the Memorial Wall in the lobby of the agency.

The elder Wenzel wrote letters to ex-President George W. Bush every year asking for his son to be publicly acknowledged as a CIA hero.

The beefy lawyer - who was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx and upstate Monroe - was a distinguished public defender before joining the CIA in 2000.

He graduated training in the first class after the 9/11 attacks. "Gregg stood out as a leader" with a huge intellect, sense of humor and "great penchant for fun", CIA Director Leon Panetta said at a ceremony Monday.

The Wenzels were marathoners, and Mitch sent his son "bags of sneakers to give to Ethiopian kids". The U.S. ally is a CIA hub for operations against Al Qaeda in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

Zawahiri To Obama: "You Are Not Welcome in Egypt"

Alleged Al Qaeda No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri said in a new audiotape today that President Obama is not welcome in Egypt. Commenting on Obama's upcoming visit to Cairo, Zawahiri said that President Obama's message to the Muslim World has already been delivered.

"Obama's message to the Muslim World was delivered when he visited the Wailing wall, with the Jewish skullcap on his head…when he performed the Jewish prayers despite claiming that he is Christian", Zawahiri said, reminding his audience of Obama's pledge before the AIPAC conference to make Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel, CBS reported.

The al Qaeda deputy chief accused Obama of approving the "Zionist aggression on Gaza", of sending more troops to Afghanistan and continuing to bomb tribal areas of Pakistan, and of leading the "brutal campaign" against Muslims in the Swat valley. He said the Obama administration's message to the Muslim world can be seen in the continued use of secret prisons and the breach of the Geneva conventions regarding terror detainees.

"Obama's bloodied messages have reached and are still reaching Muslims, and they shall not be masked by the PR campaigns, the theatrical visits and the courteous words", Zawahiri said.

"As for his choice of Turkey and Egypt to be the places from which to address the Muslim world as he claims, well, this choice holds another indication that simply says that the kind of Muslims the Crusader Americans would be pleased with are those who abandon Islam and embrace secularism, those who acknowledge Israel, conclude security agreements with it, and take part in its military drills".

President Obama had visited Ankara last April and delivered a speech before the Turkish Parliament where he pledged to strengthen ties with the Muslim world.

Zawahiri directed part of his criticism at the Egyptian regime, accusing it of further tightening the blockade imposed on Palestinians in Gaza, and accusing Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak of grooming his elder son, Jamal, to succeed him as President, "in order to maintain the corruption and the reliance on America, the Crusaders and the Jews."

Zawahiri, who previously called President Obama "a house negro" upon his election in December, said that only the corrupt "butchers and tyrants" of Egypt would welcome President Obama there, but not the sincere honest Egyptians. "The honorable people of Egypt despise Obama and consider him an international criminal, and an arriviste politician who serves the Zionist cause in order to get promoted to the highest levels of government".

He concluded his message by urging Egyptians not to welcome the US President in Egypt. "O´ free and honorable people of Egypt, O´ pious and Mujahids of Egypt, stand in one rank in the face of this criminal who came to try and obtain by ruse, what he failed to obtain in the battlefield, especially after the Mujahideens have foiled the American plots in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia".

Zawahiri´s statement runs over nearly 12 minutes, and is entitled: "Egypt´s Slayers and the Agents of America Welcome Obama".

The Small Arms Survey and Saferworld draw your attention to the latest Sudan Human Security Baseline Assessment (HSBA) Issue Brief: Conflicting priorities: GoSS security challenges and responses

The Brief provides an analysis of the current security challenges facing the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) and its recent responses, including its decision to conduct a civilian disarmament campaign in 2008. The Brief highlights the extent to which GoSS¹s security planning continues to be driven by the belief that a future confrontation with the North is likely, and how this orientation constrains its ability to address insecurity and conflicts emerging within the South. The Brief is intended to help policymakers, non-governmental organizations, donors, analysts, and researchers obtain a clearer understanding of the motivations and strategies underlying the GoSS¹s recent actions. It finds that:

The GoSS faces a combination of internal divisions and external pressures from an increasingly hostile National Congress Party (NCP) in the North; numerous violations of the CPA have been left unresolved, and there has been associated violence in a number of areas throughout Southern Sudan.

The 2008 GoSS civilian disarmament campaign had limited impact, in terms of both removing weapons from circulation and stemming violence. The campaign was conducted selectively, took place alongside re-armament, was decentralized in its implementation, and lacked a uniform approach. Disarmament in the current context is unlikely to contribute to the broader goals of peace and security.

The 2008 disarmament campaign and subsequent violence in Jonglei in 2009 are indicative of divisions within the GoSS, between those empowered by the CPA and other southern opposition groups. The issue of how to handle militias ‹whether independent or aligned with security forces in the North‹as well as inter-communal conflict is at the heart of these divisions. A renewed focus on SouthSouth dialogue and reconciliation is essential if the South is to remain unified.

In order to meaningfully engage with the GoSS on security issues, the UN and donors need to appreciate the GoSS¹s security dilemmas and priorities, and allow these to inform their approach to supporting the development of security policies and institutions.

Donors and others involved in security policy and programming can engage decision-makers to plan for possible scenarios following the referendum in 2011 and develop strategies to address and mitigate internal threats to stability in the short to medium term. This calls for a sequenced approach that takes security‹rather than disarmament‹as the necessary starting point. The Issue Brief, Number 14 in the HSBA series, can be downloaded from:

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/files/portal/spotlight/sudan/sudan_publicatio ns.html

For further information about the publication and the HSBA project, contact Claire Mc Evoy HSBA Project Manager Small Arms Survey claire.mcevoy@smallarmssurvey.org or Sarah Preston Sudan Project Coordinator Saferworld spreston@saferworld.org.uk

Charting a Course: US-China Cooperation at Sea

by Peter A. Dutton

In December 2008, Chinese leaders announced that the People´s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) would join the anti-piracy efforts off the Horn of Africa.1 This decision reflects China´s increasing global interests and the threat posed to them by non-traditional security concerns, particularly the rise in piracy that has disrupted shipping traffic in the critical sea lanes that run through the Gulf of Aden.2 The international community has been battling such threats in the region for many years, but until recently China has avoided cooperative maritime security efforts with other countries, including the United States. Thus, the decision may also reflect a move by China to assume more influence over international security affairs. Since Sep. 11, 2001, leadership to combat non-traditional security threats has been filled almost entirely by the United States, but differences in legal and political perspectives have kept China from contributing to such US-led international maritime security activities as the Proliferation Security Initiative and Combined Task Force 150. Indeed, Chinese officials and scholars have publicly questioned the legal rationales behind them.

On the other hand, China has been more supportive of state-to-state cooperative efforts, including on the United States Container Security Initiative (CSI). An examination of China´s decisions to opt in or out of specific international efforts, in light of China´s perspectives on international law of the sea, will offer insights into pathways of future cooperation. It may also portend the ways in which China will attempt to shape the future of global maritime governance.

Governance and Security at Sea

Historically, coastal states exercised little authority at sea beyond the narrow territorial margin that could be easily controlled from the shore. The vast oceanic expanses remained available for the free and equal use of all states to pursue economic, security and defense activities. The lack of maritime governance had its benefits to be sure. It fostered free commercial communication, allowed effective use of marine resources by those best positioned to exploit them and enabled great maritime powers to create a global trading system by pacifying the seas without offending the sovereignty of littoral states. However, piracy and raiding were at least as persistent a problem then as they are today.3 As a result, two particular legal constructs developed out of early state practice that enabled sovereign states to assert extraterritorial policing authority to keep order on the high seas.

Addressing the problem of jurisdiction aboard ships at sea, all vessels were required to carry the flag of the state from which they emanated. Flag state jurisdiction carries with it the state´s exclusive authority to regulate the activities on board while at sea and remains the primary basis of jurisdiction over vessels.4

However, flag state authority is supplemented with international law that enables states to police the global maritime commons and provide order where coastal states have no authority or ability to do so. This premise forms the basis of the cooperative international anti-piracy activities off the Horn of Africa.

The legal construct of universal jurisdiction is the most well developed of these international law tools, providing the authority for states to confront piracy and statelessness at sea. Universal jurisdiction allows all states to use their naval forces to capture offending vessels, assert prosecutorial authority over pirate crews and try them according to the captor´s domestic law.5

Similarly, vessels at sea without nationality6 are subject to the authority of any state. In order to enforce their universal jurisdiction authority, the naval forces of any state may approach civilian vessels of concern and determine whether reasonable grounds exist to suspect piracy or statelessness. If reasonable grounds develop, an officer and boarding party may visit the vessel to inquire further and, if necessary, seize it without regard for the interests of the vessel´s flag state.7

Thus, for a very few crimes at sea - including piracy and statelessness - the paradigm of the primacy of flag state jurisdiction is turned on its head and all states have equal law enforcement authority over the vessel.8 This unusual degree of extraterritorial jurisdiction is based on the idea that some crimes are so disruptive that the entire community of states has an interest in suppressing them. This traditional framework is preserved in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It reflects the long history of overlapping national and international law to balance coastal state and international interests while maintaining security at sea.9

In addition to traditional international law authorities, several international conventions also provide a framework for cooperation on matters of policing powers at sea. Each of these conventions preserves the authority of the flag state to enforce its law on its vessels, but also contains mechanisms to gain case-by-case consent for a foreign naval vessel to enforce law on the flag state´s behalf.

These conventions cover three additional law enforcement areas that are critical to maritime security: drug trafficking, human trafficking and international terrorism.10 The 1988 Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation and its 2005 Protocols, for instance, are perhaps the most important tools in the fight against terrorism at sea.11 The convention calls upon states to cooperate at sea through strenuous enforcement of national and international law authorities. The protocols address the use of vessels to carry out terrorist attacks, transport terrorists or transport cargo destined to aid the development of unlawful programs of weapons of mass destruction. However, to date international law does not recognize these crimes as subject to universal jurisdiction. Accordingly, law enforcement at sea for these types of crimes remains limited to direct flag state enforcement or to enforcement by a foreign naval vessel upon the specific request of the flag state.12

Fundamentally, this combination of national and international law allows maritime states to effectively safeguard commerce and generally ensure the stability of the global maritime system.

A Complicating Factor

Alongside the development of jurisdictional authority over vessels arose the development of coastal state jurisdiction over zones at sea. Coastal states once had only one zone of jurisdiction, the territorial sea. During the 20th century, however, three new zones of special coastal state jurisdiction beyond the territorial sea were added: the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and the continental shelf. Now, in addition to flag states and maritime powers, coastal states also have a law enforcement interest at sea. The development of overlapping jurisdictional bases inevitably led to conflicts over what states have authority to enforce what law and where. UNCLOS clearly resolved many of these issues, but others are open to different interpretations or to future legal development.

For instance, although the substantial majority of states accept the right of all states to apply universal jurisdiction in the exclusive economic zone of other states, China´s perspective on the right balance of legal authorities in this zone is weighted in favor of the coastal state. China´s reluctance to participate directly with a number of US-led maritime security operations stems from this divergence. The Chinese position appears to be that when operating in the exclusive economic zone of another state, naval vessels must gain coastal state consent to undertake any activities other than those necessary for passage. Chinese scholars have offered the perspective that conducting other military activities without coastal state consent constitutes an abuse of "freedom of navigation," and that it "undermines the peace, tranquility and good legal order in their exclusive economic zones, and thus violates [the coastal state´s] sovereign rights and exclusive jurisdiction".13

At international conferences, Chinese scholars and officials argue that use of the exclusive economic zone for military purposes represents a "frozen agenda" set by major maritime powers and enforced for too long without consultation with weaker coastal states.14 Coastal states, they argue, should seek to establish a "new balance" that protects the unique role of the exclusive economic zone in protecting national sovereignty and security when dealing with nontraditional threats. Specifically, Chinese scholars seek to define as "hostile", any "…action that would infringe upon the national security interests of coastal countries ... [including] carrying out military activities or employing forces in a foreign EEZ".15 Chinese scholars also argue that although UNCLOS Article 56 requires that "in the exclusive economic zone, the coastal State shall have due regard to the rights and duties of other states", Article 58 requires that the international community "have due regard to the rights and duties of the coastal State and shall comply with the laws and regulations of the coastal State". The Chinese further point out that Article 59 requires that "conflict [between these two ´due regards´] should be resolved … taking into account the respective importance of the interests involved to the parties".16

In prioritizing coastal state interests in the EEZ over those of the international community, Chinese scholars argue that UNCLOS affords the coastal state sovereign rights over resources,17 jurisdiction to manage them18 and responsibility to protect and preserve the environment.19 Since coastal states have additional security interests near their shores, it is self-evident to Chinese scholars that in the balance of "due regards" there is no room for international military activities in the exclusive economic zone without the coastal state´s express consent.20 As a result, the Chinese authorities have so far declined to accept the automatic enforcement of international law by navy ships in the 40 percent of the world´s oceans that comprise the exclusive economic zones of other states - even for the important purpose of preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.21

Despite its current views, China is increasingly becoming a global maritime user state with strategic concerns increasingly similar to those of other major maritime powers. As some observers have noted, China´s harbors import and export more than any in the world, which connects the Chinese to all the regions and seas of the world.22 Accordingly, China´s views on its maritime interests have broadened to include concerns about international terrorist organizations, disruptions to the global economy, protection of the oceans as a "vehicle for mutual commerce", protection of China´s enterprises overseas, and its dependence on distant supplies of raw materials.23 China and the United States now share many security considerations. Both, for instance, want to preserve a peaceful international environment and agree that the further spread of nuclear weapons would be a grave danger.24 Unfortunately, China´s perspectives on international law of the sea have the collateral effect of limiting its own growing naval power to provide order and security where the vast majority of disruptive, nontraditional threats occur, in the exclusive economic zones of other states. Consequently, comprehensive US-Chinese naval cooperation to provide maritime security remains elusive, although a few notable successes have nonetheless been achieved.

Comparative Chinese Maritime Security Decisions

The United States Container Security Initiative—Opting In

CSI enhances maritime and port safety by enforcing port state regulatory and security standards over the 108 million cargo containers carrying the vast majority of seaborne trade each year.25 The enormous volume of trade between China and the United States makes container security a mutual interest. In 2006, 21 percent of all Chinese exports went to the United States with a total value of approximately $250 billion, which perhaps accounts for China´s decision to participate in the program.26 Under the auspices of CSI, unarmed officers of the US Customs and Border Protection Service are stationed in key ports around the world to work with host nation counterparts to administer non-intrusive inspections and radiation screening of all containers bound for the United States that pose a potential threat. It is a truly bilateral program. Port states have a reciprocal right to send their customs officers to major American ports should they choose, and the US Customs and Border Protection Service shares relevant information with partner states. Additionally, although US customs agents stationed at the overseas port have the right to reject the shipment of any particular container to the United States, only the customs law of the exporting state governs whether its customs laws have been violated. Accordingly, law enforcement remains fully in the hands of and under the control of the port state and therefore fully respects the sovereignty of the port state. Currently, two mainland Chinese cities - Shanghai and Shenzhen - are full participants, which may provide some competitive advantage to trade since prescreened cargo receives expedited acceptance at US ports.27

Similarly, successful cooperation also exists between the coast guards of the United States and the People´s Republic of China. Together, they enforce the national fishery laws of both countries through joint patrols against illegal driftnet fishing under the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum.28 Under this program, Chinese officers have sailed aboard US Coast Guard cutters to enforce Chinese domestic fisheries law against Chinese fishing vessels on the high seas. Chinese officers have also studied at the US Coast Guard Academy. In addition, China has allowed US Coast Guard inspectors access to Chinese ports to inspect US flagged vessels and port security requirements for nearly three decades.29 This program entails the reciprocal enforcement of each state´s domestic law, which is the key to its success. It is free of the barriers posed by differing interpretation of international law authority, which unfortunately plagues wider US-Chinese cooperation.

United Nations Sponsored Anti-Piracy Activities—Opting In

At the UN Security Council, China voted in favor of international military action in the territorial waters of Somalia, as officials acknowledged that Somalia has insufficient capacity to prevent piracy against international shipping in its waters. However, China´s statement of support for Resolution 1816 clearly underscores the importance of Somalia´s consent for assistance.

International assistance, it states, "should be based on the wishes of the [Somali] Government and be applied only to the … waters of Somalia".30 Given China´s restrictive views on the authority of the international community to operate in the exclusive economic zones of other states, the Somali request to the United Nations was crucial because it specifically invited the international community to help fight piracy in Somalia´s territory and waters under Somalia´s jurisdiction.31

In deciding to send its own naval forces to help maintain maritime security, China made clear it has specific national interests in sending naval forces abroad for operations for the first time since the voyages of Zheng He. Chinese strategic rationales behind the decision began with a statement that China has a duty to protect ships that sail under its flag, and that it would also protect vessels sailing under the flags of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan if requested.

Additionally, officials noted that six Chinese-flagged vessels were attacked in the region during 2008 and 17 crewmembers of a captured Chinese fishing vessel remain in captivity.

Despite these interests, Chinese policy-makers had to strike a delicate balance in order to avoid offending its policy of nonintervention in what China characterizes as the domestic affairs of other states. It has repeatedly criticized "hegemons", who use power to "bully" less powerful countries. This was another key reason why it was important to China that the Somali government requested the Security Council´s assistance and the council unanimously decided to provide it.32 The request is therefore critical both to China´s perception of the efforts as politically legitimate and to its view that they comport with international law. Therefore, in sum the Chinese government´s legal and political approach to the problem of piracy in the waters off the Somali coast is consistent with its perspective that the international community does not have the right to undertake military activities in the exclusive economic zone of another state without that state´s consent.

To add its own emphasis to the point, the Legal Affairs Bureau of the Central Military Commission officially opined that the lawfulness of the PLAN anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden rests on three pillars: the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions authorize it; the government of Somalia requested international support and consented to naval operations by the international community in its territorial sea and exclusive economic zone; and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which China is a signatory, allows anti-piracy operations "in sea areas beyond territorial waters… [and] which have been authorized by that government".33

Strategically, the decision by China´s leaders to send a small flotilla of ships to join the anti-piracy efforts has been described as an "adjustment" in China´s maritime strategy. Given China´s historically defensive maritime posture, this is an accurate assessment even though prominent Chinese analysts insist that China´s "naval strategy will still focus on off-shore defense".34 Nonetheless, this is a change long presaged by the architects of China´s Peaceful Rise and Peaceful Development policies, who called for a greater role for China as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in multilateral operations to enhance international security.35 These thinkers have attempted to articulate a "new security concept" based on "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation".36

Even given these expressions of the political and legal legitimacy of the operations, China´s leaders are walking a narrow line. In undertaking anti-piracy activities, the Chinese navy must be perceived as contributing to global governance without threatening status quo powers in order to avoid a possible backlash of balancing behavior from other Asian states concerned about China´s growing military prowess.37 Accordingly, Chinese leaders have prescribed a narrow set of missions for the deployed naval forces: to deter piracy; safeguard vessels carrying humanitarian supplies for the people of Somalia; escort Chinese-flagged merchant vessels (including from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, upon request); provide information to other merchant vessels about potentially dangerous areas; and to provide "necessary rescue services" to merchant ships that find themselves under attack.38 Notably, the Chinese admiral in command of the PLAN flotilla specifically ruled out disembarking and going ashore.39

Senior US Navy leaders welcomed China´s decision to participate in counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and pledged to work closely together with Chinese forces in the region, including sharing relevant intelligence and establishing lines of communication.40 This is a good omen, since it reflects American respect for China´s interests and a willingness to accept a role for China in providing regional stability beyond East Asia.

As one senior Chinese official put it, no country, not even a powerful country like the United States, can tackle all the challenges and problems alone. …Our countries have common views on more and more strategic issues. … [But to] realize greater growth of US-China relations, it is essential for China and the United States to show mutual support [and to] treat each other as equals.41

This statement provides some insights into the unique opportunity presented for China-US cooperation by this operation off the coast of Somalia. First, they can work together in mutual support. That is, their activities can be independent, but coordinated. This allows each the freedom to define the scope of its action according to its capacities, and each is likewise free to define the scope of authorities it views as legitimate to employ. Thus, China can freely pursue its own interests alongside the United States and other members of the international community without having to compromise its perspectives on the limits of international law. Additionally, since the Somali operations were debated and directed from the UN Security Council, China as a permanent member is ensured an equal voice in framing the issue.

Combined Task Force 150—Opting Out

Even before piracy from Somalia became a serious international concern in 2008, the waters off the coast of the Horn of Africa were some of the most dangerous in the world. In these critical sea lanes fishing vessels, chemical tankers, cargo ships, cruise liners and other vessels have all been targets of attacks in recent years. Human trafficking and smuggling were also a concern. These have caused serious disruption to free navigation in this major international sea lane.42

To address these sources of instability, a coalition of willing countries with capable naval forces established CTF 150.43 Although the primary mission of the task force is to "deny the use of the sea by terrorists", the coalition also works to "prevent piracy, [and] reduce illegal trafficking of people and drugs". 44 To do this the task force employs the full range of international law policing authorities to suppress piracy and stateless vessels, but also operates under post-Sept. 11 national and collective self-defense authorities.45 To accomplish these objectives, the navies of CTF 150 have combined their capacities to enhance international security for civilian vessels in these troubled waters, assisting ships flagged by Panama, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, the Comoros Islands and North Korea in the month of November 2007 alone.46 Contrary to China´s current decision to send forces to Somalia, it never provided direct support for similar longstanding operations carried out by CTF 150.

The activities of CTF 150 reflect an evolution of maritime governance from its history of international competition to a much more robust model based on coordinated action. Yet, these operations make full use of the available legitimate international law authorities to use force over crimes of universal jurisdiction and to achieve national and collective self-defense. Contrary to the Chinese position, CTF 150 member states accept these legal authorities as a matter of sovereign right, without need for recourse to the United Nations or for coastal state consent. These premises are fundamentally unacceptable to China, which has never participated in the activities of CTF 150 despite the fact the task force has long been operating to protect many of the same interests that China is currently safeguarding with its own flotilla in the Gulf of Aden.

Another sticking point for China is the chain of command under which CTF 150 operates. CTF 150 was established shortly after the initiation of Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), and like this operation, is based on national and collective self-defense. In addition, CTF 150 involved a large area of operations - the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Most critical is the fact that although CTF 150 has been commanded by British, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, French, German and Pakistani naval officers, the task force commander reports directly to the US admiral in charge of the 5th Fleet.47 These factors are obviously incompatible with China´s perspective on the political and legal legitimacy of maritime security operations and run counter to its insistence that China must operate fully as an equal to all other participating states in any international effort.

The Proliferation Security Initiative—Opting Out

Despite China´s port-security cooperation under CSI, it remains reluctant to join more informal international efforts. The Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) is a case in point. This initiative is described by the US government as "a global effort that aims to stop trafficking of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), their delivery systems and related materials to and from states and non-state actors of proliferation concern".48 It is not a treaty organization. Rather, PSI is simply a loose affiliation of like-minded states that agree on a basic set of principles, articulated in a document known as the Statement of Interdiction Principles.49 Currently, 91 countries have publicly expressed support for the Statement of Interdiction Principles.50 China is not among them.

In addition to employing national and international law to interdict and seize proliferation cargoes, PSI calls on participant states to facilitate rapid exchange of information and to strengthen national legal authorities and relevant international law frameworks.

Nine states have chosen to cooperate with US nonproliferation efforts by entering into ship boarding agreements. These facilitate a process by which the flag state can consent to a boarding of its vessel by other parties for the purpose of enforcing nonproliferation laws.51 Other than this, PSI intentionally lacks a well-defined organizational structure, which allows it the widest latitude for international cooperation by enabling each state to participate as it sees fit. When a case of suspected proliferation is identified, PSI seeks to maximize flexibility by allowing for the coordination of an ad hoc response by states with the will and the capacity to intervene.

Chinese scholars lodge three basic objections to PSI. First, they view the interdiction principles as lacking a "solid basis in international law" and perhaps even in violation of "existing international legal instruments". Second, they object to the lack of a direct role in PSI activities for the UN Security Council. Lastly, they question whether "interdiction operations [will be] conducted based on accurate, unbiased and non-politicized intelligence".52 The first objection reflects a consistent Chinese preference for narrow interpretations of international law authorities that make it difficult for strong maritime powers to overcome flag state and coastal state jurisdictional authorities.

The second objection reflects China´s preference for international cooperation through the Security Council, where China has a voice and vote equal to each of the other major powers. The third objection, like the first, reflects Chinese mistrust of broad international law authorities that might enable states to act on inaccurate or inconclusive evidence of proliferation activity - as occurred in the 1993 Yin He incident.53 This incident deepened China´s suspicion of the US approach to enforcement of international nonproliferation norms and resulted in a renewed Chinese commitment to protect the sovereign interests of flag states against what it perceived as "abusive" American practices.54

Nonetheless, many Chinese officials and scholars recognize the pressing need for cooperative action. As one researcher at the PLA Naval Military Academic Institute recently put it, "maritime security represents both the common interest of the concerned nations and the common responsibility of the international community...[and] the involvement of military strength becomes inevitable and the cooperation on international maritime security becomes very necessary".55 He believes it wise to focus cooperative efforts on the high seas beyond the exclusive economic zone or other non-sensitive areas in order to avoid offending the sovereign sensibilities of some coastal states. This approach could facilitate information sharing, especially in cases involving long transit times that allow for the communication, diplomatic coordination and preparation of a naval response. However, this approach avoids whole categories of proven effective measures that enable more timely and efficient responses, such as those based on principles of universal jurisdiction, national self-defense and ship boarding agreements.

In sum, China´s responses to these four opportunities for US-China maritime cooperation reveal that the two successful avenues for future cooperative action are mutual state-to-state enforcement of sovereign law (as with CSI and the North Pacific Coast Guard Forum), and operations with Security Council oversight at the receiving state´s request (as in recent anti-piracy operations in Somalia). These may provide some very real reason to hope for a future of broader cooperation between the United States and China - even under the rubric of the PSI, since time and experience have taught cooperating states that the most effective and efficient means of counter-proliferation is through strict enforcement of domestic customs laws, import-export licensing laws, immigration laws, and other national authorities that prohibit transportation of materials that are ultimately intended to be used to create weapons of mass destruction.

The Horn of Africa and Beyond

Restraint has been clearly expressed by US and Chinese leaders concerning the potential for increased maritime cooperation. While common interests exist, the capability to provide governance on the oceans is more than simply a function of bringing together physical capacity - ships, aircraft, trained personnel, communications and information systems, etc. It also requires at least a fundamental level of agreement over the authority on which to employ that capability. In other words, a common basis for action is requisite for joining forces in the service of policing.56 Despite difficulties, however, coordinated independent national actions, based on national perspectives of international law authorities, can still be an effective mechanism to achieve maritime security.

The current operations in the Gulf of Aden demonstrate the critical role still available for a mix of national and international maritime arrangements. Indeed, the international will for cooperation, even through loosely coordinated, independent activities, has never been higher. But it is increasingly evident that maritime security requires far more than the sum total of national capacities alone. Even as the drive toward maximum participation will require states that favor strong international powers to act at sea to find avenues for collective action that accommodate less expansive views of the law, the availability of the full measure of traditional international law authorities must be preserved for states willing to create order at sea in those cases where the political will to cooperate is slow to develop or in fact never develops at all.

These authorities allow for a rapid international response to destabilizing activity in coastal zones in which some states have insufficient capacity to provide order. In short, they are critical to preventing the development of ungoverned spaces at sea. However, as China accepts a maritime leadership role it will be increasingly difficult to lead from outside the legal fold. China will be faced with the imperative of either aligning its perspectives on international law to prevailing interpretations, or articulating a new vision of maritime security that is both effective and supports its perspectives on international law of the sea.

In the meantime, three broad areas of agreement between the United States and China chart a clear course toward greater maritime security cooperation. First, both countries seem to agree that they should work together to prevent the expansion of ungoverned maritime space. Additionally, since operations in the Horn of Africa today are necessary due to the implosion of Somali governance nearly two decades ago, coordinated action at the Security Council will need to address the root problem early on by strengthening failing states, both at sea and on land. Building on the broad cooperation achieved by the Security Council in 2008, this work should continue and expand to other regions of maritime instability. Strengthening governance in maritime spaces where current capacity is weak, such as in some areas of the South China Sea, can be an area of focus in the future.

Second, while international authorities must always remain strong for possible contingencies, the most effective and legitimate means of building maritime governance is to strengthen the sovereign forces of the coastal states so they can effectively police their own waters. Global and regional capacity-building is critical in such areas as maritime Southeast Asia, where the Indonesian and Philippine archipelagoes form two of the four longest coastlines of any coastal state.57 US-China cooperation in providing economic support, training, information-sharing and, when asked, direct operational support, could be critical to ensuring future maritime stability in the sea lanes of the South China Sea.

Finally, the United States and China should work to strengthen communication at all levels. An open exchange of information and views between the government, military, commercial and academic communities by both sides is essential to developing a productive partnership. Too often, the result of disagreement has been to shut off communication. Such behavior stunts progress in mutual understanding, which comes at the cost of cooperative solutions toward better maritime governance. China and the United States may never converge in their perspectives concerning international law, but with coordinated actions that respect each other´s sovereignty and are based on mutual interest and a relationship between equals, the two nations can work together toward the common goal of stability at sea.

Notes

1 A more thorough treatment of this article will appear as a chapter in the forthcoming volume, Andrew S. Erickson, Lyle J. Goldstein, and Nan Li (eds.), Defining a Maritime Security Partnership with China (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press).

2 "Sailing to Strengthen Global Security," China Daily, December 26, 2008, www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/26/content_7342612.htm.

3 See, e.g., The Mariana Flora, 24 United States Reports 1, March 26, 1826.

4 This history is reflected in United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Articles 91, 92 and 94.

5 Alfred P. Rubin, The Law of Piracy (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1988), 144. Rubin discusses the US Congressional decision in 1819 to assert jurisdiction over any person who, having committed a crime of piracy on the high seas, was later brought within US territorial jurisdiction. Modern law, as reflected by the terms of UNCLOS, holds that sovereign waters include internal waters (Articles 10(4), 35(a) and 50), the territorial sea (Articles 2 and 3) and archipelagic waters (Article 49). Outside sovereign waters, high seas freedoms apply (Articles 58(1) and 87), including international policing power to impose minimum order and security, such as the right of approach and visit to suppress piracy, sailing without nationality, engaging in slave trade, and a relative newcomer, engaging in unlawful broadcasting. (Article 110). See also Mackenzie M. Eaglen, James Dolbow, Martin Edwin Anderson and James Jay Carofano, "Securing the High Seas: America´s Global Maritime Constabulary Power," Special Report SR-20, The Heritage Foundation, March 12, 2008, 3.

6 Vessels without nationality, or "stateless vessels", are those that sail without sufficient jurisdictional connection to a sovereign state.

7 UNCLOS Article 111; A.R. Thomas and James C. Duncan, Annotated Supplement to the Commander´s Handbook on the Law of Naval Operations, International Law Studies 73 (Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1999), 221.

8 UNCLOS Article 110 includes slave trade as an additional crime of universal jurisdiction.

9 Chinese maritime theorists are giving considerable attention to the nature of international and coastal state interests in the maritime domain and providing a Chinese perspective on how international and sovereign law should be balanced to meet the interest of both. See, for example, Senior Col. Zhang Wei, "Exploring National Sea Security Theories", Zhongguo Junshi Kexue, January 1, 2007, 84; and Dr. Ren Xiaofeng and Senior Col. Cheng Xizhong, "A Chinese Perspective", Marine Policy 29 (2005): 139.

10 UNCLOS Article 108 encourages cooperation to suppress drug crimes at sea. The United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, Vienna, December 20, 1988, entered into force November 11, 1990, available at http://www.unodc.org/pdf/convention_1988_en.pdf. The UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its related Protocols entered into force in September 2003 and as of June 2008 had 147 signatories and 144 states parties. The convention and its protocols are available at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/index.html. Thirteen major conventions and protocols dealing with terrorism were developed under the auspices of the United Nations For a comprehensive list of UN treaties and protocols related to terrorism, see http://www.un.org/terrorism/instruments.html.

11 Available at http://untreaty.un.org/English/Terrorism/Conv8.pdf, and United Nations Treaty Series, Vol. 1678, I-29004, 223.

12 Although the protocols have not yet entered into force, eighteen states, including the United States, have signed the protocols and two have ratified; they will come into force when twelve states have completed ratification. For the provisions of the 2005 protocols, see www.imo.org.

13 Dr. Ren Xiaofeng and Senior Col. Cheng Xizhong, "A Chinese Perspective", Marine Policy 29, (2005), 139.

14 See, for example, Cheng Xizhong, "A Chinese perspective on ´Operational Modalities´", Marine Policy 28 (2004), 25-26.

15 Cheng Xizhong, "A Chinese perspective on ´Operational Modalities´", Marine Policy 28 (2004), 25-26.

16 It should be noted that this legal interpretation diverges from the perspective of the substantial majority of member states and from the US position. Additionally, Tommy T.B. Koh, who represented Singapore and served as the president of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea, said, "Nowhere is it clearly stated [in the 1982 Convention] whether a third state may or may not conduct military activities in the exclusive economic zone of a coastal state. But, it was the general understanding that the text we negotiated and agreed upon would permit such activities to be conducted". Jon M. Van Dyke (ed.), Consensus and Confrontation: The United States and the Law of the Sea Convention (Honolulu: Law of the Sea Institute, 1985), 303-304.

17 Article 56(1)(a)

18 Article 56(1)(b)

19 Article 56(1)(b)(iii)

20 For a good detailed articulation of these arguments by Chinese scholars, see, e.g., Dr. Ren Xiaofeng and Senior Col. Cheng Xizhong, "A Chinese Perspective", Marine Policy 29 (2005), 139-146. Dr. Ren, it should be noted, is in the faculty of the China Institute for International Strategic Studies in Beijing.

21 The Chinese legal argument concerning the primacy of coastal state security interests in the exclusive economic zone over international navigational freedoms - including military freedoms - is based on a clever, though erroneous, intellectual sleight of hand. It takes the language of Article 58 regarding the responsibility of the international community to give "due regard to the rights of … the coastal state" in the exclusive economic zone and inserts a coastal interest in its place. The rights referred to, of course, are those enumerated in Article 56 and elsewhere in UNCLOS concerning sovereign coastal state rights to the resources. What has been substituted in the Chinese argument is the state´s security interest - not protected in the exclusive economic zone by UNCLOS, but by international law related to national self-defense.

22 Senior Col. Feng Liang and Lieutentant Col. Duan Tingzhi, "Characteristics of China´s Sea Geostrategic Security and Sea Security Strategy in the New Century", Zhongguo Junshi Kexue, January 1, 2007, 22.

23 Ibid.

24 See, e.g., Speech by Hu Jintao at the United Nations 60th Anniversary Session, available at http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/cehu/hu/xwdt/t213375.htm, and Chas W. Freeman Jr., The Promise of Sino-American Relations, Barnett-Oksenberg Lecture, February 21, 2008, reprinted in Notes: National Committee on United States-China Relations 38, no. 1, Winter-Spring 2009, 21.

25 Andrew Erickson, et al, "The Container Security Initiative and U.S.-China Relations", Defining a Maritime Security Partnership with China (Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute Press).

26 CIA World Factbook, www.cia.gov.

27 US Customs and Border Protection Service Fact Sheet, October 2, 2007, available at www.cbp.gov.

28 Li Mingjiang, "China´s Gulf of Aden Expedition and Maritime Cooperation in East Asia", China Brief 9, no. 1, January 12, 2009, 3.

29 Lyle J. Goldstein, "China: A New Maritime Partner?" U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, August 2007, 26, 30.

30 When Somalia´s Transitional Federal Government sent a letter requesting Security Council assistance in fighting pirates sheltered inside Somalia´s territorial sea, China voted in favor of Resolution 1816 authorizing members of the international community to "enter the territorial waters of Somalia for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea". See Report of Security Council 5902nd Meeting (PM) of June 2, 2008, http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2008/sc9344.doc.htm.

31 See, e.g., Zhang Zhingwei, "China Adjusts Its Maritime Power Strategy at the Right Moment", Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, December 29, 2008; Li Ta-kuang, "Chinese Navy Has Capacity to Fight Against Piracy". Wen Wei Po, December 25, 2008; "Discreet Naval Development Proves Shared Responsibility of World Peace (Commentary)", Xinhua Economic News Service, December 29, 2008.

32 See e.g., "Faced With Myanmar Protests, China Reaffirms Nonintervention", Associated Press, September 25, 2007.

33 Bai Ruixue and Zhu Hongliang, "Central Military Commission Legal Affairs Bureau Official Says for Chinese Warships to Protect Ships in Somalian Waters is Entirely Legal", Xinhua, December 20, 2008.

34 Zhang Zhingwei, "China Adjusts Its Maritime Power Strategy at the Right Moment", Hong Kong Ta Kung Pao, 29 December 29, 2008. The quote reflects the words of Beijing defense analyst Peng Guangqian published in, "Sailing to Strengthen Global Security", China Daily, December 26, 2008.

35 See generally the comments on China´s global role as a "major country", China´s interest in suppressing nontraditional security threats, pacification of "hot spots", and participation in joint efforts to maintain international order found in China´s Peaceful Rise: Speeches of Zheng Bijian, 1997-2005 (Brookings Institution Press: Washington, D.C.: 2005); Tao Shelan, "Rear Admiral: Chinese Navy Provides ´Public Good´ to International Community with its Fight against Pirates", Beijing Zhongguo Xinwen She, December 24, 2008; "China to Bolster Image as Responsible Big Nation", People´s Daily, December 24, 2008.

36 China´s Peaceful Rise: Speeches of Zheng Bijian, 1997-2005 (Brookings Institution Press: Washington, 2005), 35.

37 It is worth noting that after the Chinese began seriously discussing sending a group of navy ships to the Gulf of Aden, East Asian rival Japan began public discussions about reinterpreting constitutional restrictions on expeditionary operations in order to potentially allow a JMSDF vessel also to proceed to the Gulf of Aden to escort Japanese-flagged vessels. "MSDF May Get Anti-piracy Duty Off Somalia", Kyodo News, December 26, 2008.

38 "Naval Escort Fleet To Protect 15 Chinese Merchant Vessels From Pirates", Xinhua, January 6, 2008.

39 He stated that his authority does not include undertaking missions requiring his personnel to disembark or go ashore, even though United Nations Security Council Resolution 1851 permits it. See "PRC Fleet Commander Rear-Admiral Du Jingcheng on escort tasks off Somalia", Xinhua, December 26, 2008; Margaret Besheer, "UN Security Council Approves Anti-Piracy Measure", Voice of America, December 16, 2008, http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-12-16-voa62.cfm.

40 Donna Miles, "U.S. Welcomes Chinese Plans to Fight Piracy, Admiral Says", American Forces Press Service, December 18, 2008. In response, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of National Defense stated that China is "willing to cooperate with … other countries, including the U.S., in strengthening informational and intelligence sharing". Cary Huang, "Warships Will Also Protect Taiwanese Vessels, Crews; Navy Fleet Sent to Somalia to Cooperate with US, Says Beijing", South China Morning Post, December 24, 2008.

41 Dai Bingguo, State Councilor of the People´s Republic of China, Address at the Dinner Marking the 30th Anniversary of the Establishment of China-US Diplomatic Relations Hosted By the Brookings Institution, Washington, D.C., December 11, 2008, translation available at www.brookings.edu/events/2008/1211_china.aspx.

42 See, e.g., United Nations Security Council Resolution 1816 (2008), which expresses "grave concern" for the safety of commercial vessels in the waters off the coast of Somalia and for vessels bringing humanitarian aid to Somalia. See also, "Cruise ship repels Somali pirates", BBC News, November 5, 2005, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4409662.stm, "Chinese Fishing Boat Hijacked by Somali Pirates", Xinhua, November 14, 2008, http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/14/content_10359203.htm; "Pirates capture Saudi oil tanker," BBC News, November 18, 2008, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7733482.stm.

43 http://www.cusnc.navy.mil/command/ctf150.html. CTF 150 has been commanded variously by naval officers from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Germany and France.

44 "CTF 150: Maintaining a Lawful Maritime Order", U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Public Affairs Press Release, May 31, 2008.

45 "Pakistan to assume anti-terror coalition naval task force command", Deutsche-Presse-Agentur, August 1, 2007. The task force was established in December 2001 in response to the attacks of September 11, 2001 and pursuant to UNSC Resolution 1373, which calls upon states to cooperate in the suppression of international terrorist activities.

46 Andrew Scutro, "Pirates!", Navy Times, November 12, 2007, 8; Katherine Houreld, "Pirates Terrorize Ships Off Somali Coast", Washington Times, December 6, 2007, 13.

47 In his capacity as Commander, Combined Maritime Forces. Photographer´s Mate 2nd Class Carolla Bennett, "Pakistani Admiral Becomes First Regional Commander of Maritime Task Force", Commander, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Press Release, April 24, 2006. For description of the relevant chain of command, see http://www.cusnc.navy.mil/mission/rhumblines.html.

48 US Department of State Fact Sheet, http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c10390.htm.

49 According to the Statement, PSI is in order to, "involve in some capacity all states that have a stake in nonproliferation and the ability and willingness to stop the flow of such items at sea, in the air, or on land. The PSI also seeks cooperation from any state whose vessels, flags, ports, territorial waters, airspace, or land might be used for proliferation purposes by states and non-state actors of proliferation concern". See Fact Sheet, The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Washington, D.C., September 4, 2003, http://www.state.gov/t/isn/rls/fs/23764.htm.

50 http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c19310.htm. Data current as of October 10, 2008, and accessed on January 15, 2009.

51 http://www.state.gov/t/isn/c12386.htm.

52 Ye Ru´an and Zhao Qinghai, "The PSI: Chinese Thinking and Concern," The Monitor, University of Georgia Center for International Trade and Security 10, no. 1 (Spring 2004): 22-24, www.uda.edu/cits/TheMonitor.

53 Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People´s Republic of China on the ´Yin He´ Incident, Dated 4 September 1993, http://www.nti.org/db/china/engdocs/ynhe0993.htm; "China Says Cargo Ship Will Anchor Off Oman", The New York Times, August 15, 1993; "Saudis Board a Chinese Ship in Search for Chemical Arms", New York Times, August 28, 1993. Acting on intelligence reports that apparently turned out to be erroneous, the US government accused the Chinese vessel Yin He (Milky Way), bound for Iran, of carrying thiodiglycol and thionyl chloride, two chemicals agents used in chemical warfare. The Chinese government provided assurances to the United States that the vessel was not carrying such materials, but the US insisted that the vessel submit to inspection. An inspection was arranged in a Saudi port by Saudi officials in the presence of Chinese officials and American observers. No chemicals were located.

54 Li Mingjiang, "China´s Gulf of Aden Expedition and Maritime Cooperation in East Asia", China Brief 9, no. 1, January 12, 2009, 4.

55 "PRC Military Expert on International Maritime Security Cooperation", Zhongguo Xinwen She, July 3, 2007. (In Chinese, OSC translation provided).

56 See, e.g., Li Mingjiang, "China´s Gulf of Aden Expedition and Maritime Cooperation in East Asia", China Brief 9, no. 1, January 12, 2009, 4, in which the author describes Chinese skepticism of PSI and the Global Maritime Partnership as American "grand schemes" as "aggressive" and "coercive" mechanisms tied to the US "pre-emptive strategy" and "unilateralism".

57 The Philippines has the fourth longest coastline of any state at 36,289 kilometers and Indonesia´s is second at 54,716 kilometers. Canada´s, at 202,080 kilometers, is the longest and Russia´s, at 37,653, ranks third. Comparatively, the length of the US coastline is 19,924 kilometers, Somalia 3,360 km. The World Factbook, Central Intelligence Agency, available at www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook.

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Note

Picture: The murderers of the Somalis, the racist soldiers of the AMISOM occupation forces

From: http://www.ceegaag.com/amisom.jpg