Marine Log - January 2009 - (Page 4)

Nick Blenkey Senior Editorial Consultant Second Thoughts Time to get real on piracy s we report in this month’s feature on maritime security, the UN Security Council has now given the go ahead for anti-piracy forces to strike at pirates on shore, with the permission of the Somali Transitional Federal Government for up to a year. Don’t get your hopes up that this will disrupt the pirates for too long. All the evidence is that the piracy infrastructure is pretty much the Somali fishing industry infrastructure. Any pirates that do get killed in shore strikes will be portrayed as innocent fishermen and, as the pirates likely keep their AK-47’s under their beds, there won’t be any great arms and ammunition caches to detonate. Blow up fuel supplies and you’ll stop local fishermen from fishing. That’s not good when it’s generally acknowledged that the root of the problem is that Somalia is not a functioning state. Which brings us to the Transitional Federal Government. All the indications are that it won’t last the year during which its permission will be required for shore strikes—at least not in its present form. Shipowners will remember that there was a long spell when the Somali piracy problem simply went away. That was when a group called the Islamic Courts were in control. The foreign policy geniuses in the Bush Administration saw the word “Islamic” and went into full panic mode. The Ethiopian Government was persuaded to send troops to restore the Transitional Federal Government, the pirates got back into business—and A some real Islamist extremists were able to exploit the situation to portray themselves as resisting the foreign (Ethiopian) occupiers. As this was written, the Ethiopians were getting set to pull out, the UN Secretary General had completely failed to find any nation willing to contribute to an alternative peacekeeping force and prospects for stability in Somalia seemed as far away as ever. So, where does that leave the shipping community? Obviously, the more naval forces that can be contributed to make life harder for the pirates the better. Meantime, as noted in our feature, the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has proposed a number of practical steps to help in dealing with the problem. Essentially they boil down to persuading (i.e funding) regional governments to prosecute, try and imprison pirates handed over to them. Police officers from those countries would ride along in warships conducting anti-piracy operations and formally arrest the pirates. The Executive Director of UNODC Antonio Maria Costa (whose office bill’s him as “The UN’s Chief Crime Fighter”) says this tactic has worked against drug gangs in the Caribbean. UNODC also proposes going after the financial flows. “Somali pirates are in it for the money, so we should try to capture their treasure,” said Costa. “Unlike buccaneers of old, Somali mafias are not burying their booty in the sand. While some transactions are made in cash or the hawala system, pirates are increasingly working through intermediaries in financial centers. This is where we need to hit them.” Continued Costa: “Piracy is organized crime, and should be confronted as such. Gunboats are necessary, but not sufficient. These bandits can be defeated in the courts, the banks, the ports as well as on the high seas using the weapons of international law and multi-lateral cooperation.” Meantime, a ship under pirate attack has to figure out what to do until naval assistance arrives (with or without a Kenyan policeman riding along.) One lesson coming out of the region appears to be that shipowners need to pay more attention to strengthening the ship’s own defensive methods. Some gun-shy shipping leaders simply don’t want to hear this message. But they could learn a lesson from the crew of the Chinese ship Zhenhua 4. They held off Somali pirates for hours, using weapons that included homemade Molotov cocktails. When pirates did board the ship, the crew barricaded themselves in their living quarters and arriving naval helicopters were able to drive off the pirates without fear of harming hostages. Shipping leaders should not keep saying that their flag states don’t allow them to carry guns on board. They should be pressing flag states for rules setting standards for the carriage of professional armed security personnel and making it clear that it is lawful to kill any pirate attempting to make an armed attack on a merchant ship. nblenkey@sbpub.com ARMED& DANGEROUS What should you do? Join the discussion at: www.marinelog.com/DOCS/conf.html JAN. 27-28, 2009 Arlington, VA 4 MARINE LOG JANUARY 2009 www.marinelog.com http://www.marinelog.com/DOCS/conf.html http://www.marinelog.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Marine Log - January 2009

Marine Log - January 2009 Contents Editorial Second Thoughts Update Inside Washington What's On Your Hull? That Sinking Feeling Newsmakers Tech News Contracts Wake Up Call From Mumbai Events Security Guide Vietnam Stretches its Portfolio ML Buyer's Guide ML Marketplace Marine Salvage

Marine Log - January 2009

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