John Metzler Archive

Slaps on wrists for Somali pirates results in guess what? More piracy!

The Somali pirate scourge which has grabbed headlines and seen merchant vessel hijackings, leading to captivity and ransom for so many ships and crews continues. On occasion the pirates pick on the wrong vessels. Recently when a Russian tanker the Moscow University was seized, the buccaneers soon found themselves overpowered by Russian Special Forces and on the business end of automatic rifles.

Though the UN Security Council has passed a number of resolutions dealing with these latter-day buccaneers, the practical effect has been a slap on the wrist. Though multinational naval patrols are now active off East Africa, the symptoms may be somewhat contained but the problem certainly not solved.

Somalia’s dangerous political instability and the endemic lawlessness present an off-shore opportunity awaiting pirates, for seizing usually unarmed merchant ships. Many officials concede that Somalia’s “failed state” status allows for well-armed militants, some as young as 15, to take to the seas and hijack ships to demand ransom and earn lucrative payments.

Secretary General Ban states, “Stability on land would, undoubtedly, improve the situation at sea.” This is true, but sorting out Somalia’s political morass of militias, Islamic fundamentalists, tribal clans all bound by the undertow of poverty is easier said than done. The UN has confronted a political and humanitarian disaster plaguing the East African state for over twenty years.

Given the militia in-fighting on the ground, motivation for the “pirate life” allows for fast riches, usually without high risk for coastal fishermen. Let’s face it, Thomas Hobbes Leviathan’s dictum of Life being “nasty, brutish and short,” certainly applies in Somalia; fighting well-armed fellow militias presents risk without really any reward. For pirates, foreign merchant ships offer passive resistance from their crews, and present a lucrative opportunity for ransom and hard currency.

Pirate ports in Somalis such as Harardheere see a proliferation of cash, flashy SUVs, fast lives for previously impoverished militants. Over 300 crew members from the captured ships are held by the buccaneers. Cargo companies nervously ponder which ships may fall victim next.

There’s some good news. Pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, the key shipping channel exiting the Red Sea, have fallen from twenty per month in summer 2009 to between 4 and 5 today. Operation Atalanta, a European Union naval task force on station in the region, with ships from Belgium, France, Germany, and Sweden, has stemmed the tide but not reversed it. Still pirates are boldly striking deeper into the open Indian Ocean.

Rear Admiral Peter Hudson Operations Commander of the force briefed correspondents that the naval protection force is allowing for much needed, and indeed long targeted food delivery, into Somalia. “Over the last six moths, 32 WFP ships have been escorted into Somalia, delivering 350,000 tons of food to displaced persons.” Significantly since the operation commenced, no World Food Program ship has been hijacked. This is vital since pirates would capture UN food aid destined for fellow starving Somalis.

The commander stated, that this year European forces had dismantled over 60 pirate groups and processed 400 suspects. Herein lies a major problem; few countries except France have had the political will to try and convict the pirates. Most of the buccaneers have been set free. Officials concede that of the 400 captured, 40 had gone to prosecution.

So what message does this send concerning our willingness to seriously confront an enemy who does not represent a formal state or government? Capturing pirates only to then release them, holding the occasional trial, and passing additional Security Council resolutions are little more than a slap on the wrist and a business inconvenience to the buccaneers. Unless states get serious and use the lethal force available to stop or sink the pirate skiffs, the scourge will continue unabated, until there is a “whiff of grapeshot.”