Conference discusses possibilities to set bounds to African pirates; Moscow joins anti-piracy campaign in Somalia

07:08 GMT, September 26, 2008 Down to the present day people are fascinated about pirates like Captain Blackbeard who sailed the seven seas some 300 years ago. However, today’s decision makers should wipe off far too romantic sentimentalities and take resolute action against exploding piracy activities at the Somali coast, the Gulf of Aden and the Niger Delta international experts at the first Maritime Security and Defence (MS&D) conference in Hamburg, Germany stated Wednesday. Therefore, one major demand of the predominantly high-ranking military audience was: “Commercial shipping operators as well as insurance agencies have to put their governments under pressure to give their Navies green light for decisive intervention at sea.”


“Piracy is one of the most desirable careers Somalia has to offer. Hundreds of volunteers are waiting for their assignment.” Mr. Pottengal Mukundan of the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) cited a local African newspaper. More than 90 per cent of overall world trade today is conducted by sea. For this reason even landlocked nations strongly depend on a comprehensive maritime security strategy. According to a recent report of NATO’s Shipping Centre pirate attacks on vessels in the Gulf of Aden increased from three in 2007 to ninety in 2008 – till now. “Referring to the figures there are currently 13 vessels and more than 250 hostages held by the pirates,” Mukundan added, explaining that the attacks seems to move back from the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian Sea.


Piracy: A criminal not a terrorist event

Mr. Arild Wegener of the Norwegian Shipowner’s Association made clear that the increasing number of attacks on commercial vessels is unacceptable. The representative of the world’s fourth strongest commercial fleet calls the current security situation as disgraceful. “Put in more vessels” he demanded, underlining that for ship operators criminal piracy is a much bigger daily threat than terrorism. Mukundan concurs with that remark pointing out that there were only 200 maritime terrorist attacks since the 1960’s, compared to an overall of more than 10.000 piracy attacks in the same period: “There are no terrorist links right now. Criminal piracy is by far more profitable.”


How to handle piracy

Recent IMB numbers suggest the assumption that especially EU members and the United States should be interested in a containment of piracy activities. “More than 37 per cent of the ships attacked by pirates are controlled by European or American owners.” Under the U.N. Security Council resolution 1816 – adopted this June – foreign countries are authorised to combat piracy and armed robbery at sea in the territorial waters of Somalia. “To be honest this did create – If at all – only limited results,” Wegener judged the topical situation, criticising again that the deployment of the multilateral Combined Task Force (CTF) 150 with its 15 vessels is not enough to secure the whole Somali coastline.

The most critical question about every anti-piracy measure at sea is about the actual involved authority. Within the sea borders of Somalia foreign navies proceed to deal with the pirates according to the law of the attacked vessel, the so called flag-state-principal. Some months ago a spectacular example of this procedure took place when Somali pirates who tried to high jack a Kenyan vessel at the Somali coastline got caught and judged a few days later by a court in Kenya.

The French government took the lead in fighting piracy delivering two successful commando operations to free 30 kidnapped crew members of a French-flagged vessel in April and two French passengers of a hijacked luxury yacht this month. While six pirates that were involved in the April high jacking were captured and brought to a French court, one pirate has been killed during the September operation. As Thomas Wiegold of the German magazine ‘Focus’ reported in his blog a Somali pirate delivered an interview to Voice of America threatening that his group is going to kill any European they capture if Paris does not release their imprisoned comrades.

However, IMB Director Mukundan made clear: “We commend the actions of the French military in helping to end this incident. In our view this is exactly what should be done when a vessel is hijacked and the coastal state, by its own admission, is unable to control this crime. We call upon the international community to use this intervention as a springboard for a more proactive approach to protecting shipping in this region.”


Commercial pressure needed

Armed interventions like the French are only possible if legal conditions are indisputable. “Military capability is not an issue, law is.” Admiral David Cooke, Commander (Operations) of the U.K. Royal Navy explained at MS&D in Hamburg. “Considering that Lloyds insurance rates for vessels that cross the Gulf of Aden increased a tenfold since 2007 that clearly shows the maritime security is a business of us all and not only the uniformed.” he said, calling for insurances and commercial shipping associations to put pressure on politics “to get the Navies going.”

Beside the countries that are involved in the Combined Task Force 150, especially Yemeni Navy units (trained by the British Navy) and Malaysian forces fight piracy within Somali waters. According to ‘RIA Novosti’ these countries will find Russian support very soon. However, Moscow wants to conduct its operations independently. "We are planning to participate in international efforts to fight piracy off the Somalia coast, but the Russian warships will conduct operations on their own," Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky told the news agency