Pirates of Somalia
Pirates ahead: A boarding team from the USS Winston S. Churchill approaches a suspected pirate vessel in the Indian Ocean, in 2006. Somali pirates have turned the waters of the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden into the world's most dangerous seas. (Kenneth Anderson/U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
They don't call the waters off Somalia the most dangerous seas in the world for nothing. According to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center, 55 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January while 11 are still being held for ransom.
This week, Somali pirates 200 miles south of Mogadishu seized the Greek-owned, Maltese-flagged freighter Centauri with its crew of 25 Filippinos and a Hong-Kong-flagged Great Creation, with a crew of 24 Chinese and one Sri Lankan. That ship was reportedly taken to a place called Eyl in Somalia's breakaway state of Puntland to the north of the country, where pirates usually take their loot. The most high-profile case of piracy involves the recent seizure of a retired French couple and their yacht as they were sailing through the Gulf of Aden, god knows why. The demanded ransom: $1 million.
It's nothing short of terrorism. "These pirates," the Maritime Bureau says, "are firing automatic weapons and Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG) in an attempt to board and hijack vessels. Once the attack is successful and the vessel hijacked, the pirates sail towards the Somali coast and thereafter demand a ransom for the release of the vessel and crew." Often, governments pay the ransom, as the Spanish government did in April when the Spanish fishing boat Playa de Bakio and its crew of 26, out for skipjack tuna, were attacked, then freed a week later following the payment of a rumored $1.2 million ransom.
In June, the United Nations adopted Resolution 1816 urging "states whose naval vessels and military aircraft operate on the high seas and airspace off the coast of Somalia to be vigilant to acts of piracy and armed robbery"--which essentially authorizes military force against pirates.
Of course, it's not just a matter of Somalis suddenly deciding to be the world's most feared pirates. There's a reason behind the unreason. While holding the Spanish ship's men captive, The Economist reported in July, the pirates "regaled the crew with tales of famine in their villages." Some of the Spaniards felt sorry for them. When one of the pirates stripped his shirt off, 'he was all bones, no meat at all,' said a Basque crewman. The Spaniards were less enamoured of the pirates when they threatened them with machine guns and knives. 'They valued life less than cockroaches,' said the skipper."
Can you blame them? Yes, but not them alone. Somalia is one of the failed states of the world, shrugged off by the world community for having outlived its usefulness as a humanitarian mission while precluding further interventions: Bloodied and humiliated by Islamist militants in Mogadishu in 1993, the American military has sworn off Somalia except as a target of air raids against alleged al-Qaeda operatives. Somalia itself is in a constant state of civil war. Since the beginning of 2007, the United Nations reports, when Ethiopian troops ousted the Union of Islamic Courts, nearly 9,500 people have been killed in Somalia. An untold number have died from indirect causes of the war, famine chief among them. As the UN's humanitarian news agency reported in late July,
Drought, conflict, hyperinflation, high food and fuel prices, the weakness of the Somali shilling and a succession of poor harvests have increased the number of people needing food and other assistance to 2.6 million – up 40 percent from January.At a news conference in Nairobi on 22 July, Mark Bowden, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, called the situation “fluid” and warned that “we are months before a major crisis” as the situation was likely to deteriorate further, potentially affecting 3.5 million, or half the total population.Piracy in the waters off of Somalia, in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, is the humanitarian crisis' shrapnel.
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Comments
You know, we used used to hang pirates from the yardarm on the high seas. It is a time-honored tradition that needs to be revived.
Why are Somalies starving? Because there has been no government for 17 years due to civil war. You know, when you act like a bunch of savages, don’t expect prosperity in your country.
When the people decide that things like life (as in eating and breathing on a regular basis) are more important than power, and true leaders emerge as opposed to thugs that couldn’t effectively run an LA street gang, there might be some hope for Somalia.
Until then, mount guns on the decks and teach the sailors how to shoot.
The Somalies should just be eliminated- they are as necessary and wanted as rats in a kitchen. They contribute nothing do nothing and have cost important lives- people who actually make a difference in the world. Nuke the place and remove one trouble spot in the world. Not a bad place to start.
Jake, it’s poor form for a host to slam a visitor, but you manage to be disgusting, bigoted and misinformed all in the space of a few lines. It’d be even poorer form of me not to let you know that you’re making a fool of yourself before a good number of readers. I’m not into banning comments for mere stupidity, not even for outright racism (I prefer to let the evidence of small minds burn in sunshine) so I’m letting yours stand. But you might want to chill out a little. A good swim in the coolish waters of the Gulf of Aden wouldn’t be a bad start.
The ability to seize ships loaded with millions of dollars of crude and to receive ransom money to the tune of 30 million dollars maybe “savage’ and “thugish” but business and way of life in Somalia is improving with the capture of someoneelse’s loot. I say its a lot mightier than an LA Street gang. These pirates are living in luxury far more superior than a blood or a crip in Compton!
During WW2 shipping convoys, guarded by military vessels succeeded in evading the German U-boat attacks, why can’t the same approach be used today against the pirates?
NATO wants to fight and defeat the pirates so that they can continue with their illegal
activities like dumping of toxic wastes and
illegal fishing that nets upto $300mil/year
stealing from that poor country.
Somalis have been crying to the Internatinal
communnity about these issues for about 18 years,but what the UN did was to turn a blind
eye on these illegal activities.
And until now we don’t know when they going
to address root causes piracy in Somalia.
rats in the kitchen thats what jakes think of somalis.men dis 4 u,every human on dis planet deserves healthy living and not like the 100% of somalis starving with the whole world watching and when a skinny gets 1$million every head turns critism.jakes go home tell your mama…maaaam guess what i had a bad day.like christ u cant watch yor people starve this is called sacrifice
I say post a sub or gunship or aircraft carrier right off Somalia coast. Just a bunch of thugs. If I didn’t know any better I think opec have something to do with this to drive gas prices back up !!
Stop sending food to Somalia because the lives of those people who are giving humanitarian mission is in danger. they don’t deserve help.
Pirate attacked should be stopped. Never forgive this pirate and give a chance to live.
I think in todays world Governments should not allow Pirates to stay in there country. If Somali doesnt have a Government that can handle this problem they should get one in place. Because if things keep going at the rate they are there country will become a Terrorist Nation. some one will come and take them over. then they will Cry out for help from other countries to step in and save them.
Poverty is not an excuse nor a mitigating circumstance for PIRACY. These pirates should be hung in public with their rotting bodies on display as a warning. Worthless Somalia.