The jolly life of a pirate ring By Asia Times Online staff
With a reported nine commercial ships hijacked over the past 12 days -
including a spectacular strike on a Saudi Arabian oil supertanker - the world
has become captivated by pirates. Specifically, a loose band of some 1,500
freebooters drawn from Somalia's ranks of unemployed fishermen and hardscrabble
Islamic militias by the lure of easy money and, one can only assume, a life of
high adventure.
They zip around the waters of the strategic Gulf of Aden and off the Horn of
Africa in speedboats, bristling with automatic weapons and talking on the
latest mobile phones. They use SOS signals to lure unsuspecting ships into
rescue missions, or use radar to prey on unguarded vessels that have strayed
from protected trade lanes.
According to reports, the pirates have attacked nearly 100 vessels
this year and successfully seized almost 40, among the seized ships comes
everything from oil tankers to grain trawlers and luxury yachts. The cartel of
raiders has reportedly taken in some US$30 million in ransoms this year alone
and is currently holding more than 14 vessels - including a Ukrainian ship
containing 33 armored tanks - hostage in strongholds along the Somali coast.
Through guile, fearlessness and terror, this ragtag bunch of modern-day
buccaneers is defying the world's navies, pillaging at will, and tightening its
grip on essential trade lines to Europe and especially Asia.
Across the globe, governments, shipowners and media are calling for a
crackdown. In a November 18 editorial the Los Angeles Times described the
attack on the Saudi-owned Sirius Star hundreds of kilometers off the
coast of Kenya as "the maritime equivalent of a bull elephant being taken down
by a hyena". The paper then asked, "Is it time to declare a war on piracy?"
In a similar vein, the Wall Street Journal on November 19 wondered if the
problem could be solved by building "... a Captain Jack Sparrow wing at
Guantanamo", referring to the US terror detention facility in Cuba.
In Africa, the Daily Monitor offered its own opinion, "The Gulf of Aden is a
key transit route for goods from Europe and Asia to East Africa. But with
piracy thriving almost as a business, and warlords demanding huge ransoms for
ships they seize, this problem takes on even greater proportions."
On Thursday in Cairo, officials from Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and
Sudan were due to meet to discuss an anti-piracy strategy, according to The
Associated Press. On Monday, South Korea announced plans to deploy a battleship
to fight the pirates, and the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization are already on patrol in the pirate-infested waters.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was quoted by the BBC as saying piracy
was "a scourge wherever it appears anywhere in the world and at the moment the
scourge is focused in the Gulf of Aden".
As the world prepares to batten down the hatches ahead of its inevitable clash
with pirate gangs, it's not inconceivable that top-ranking figures around the
world are asking three elusive questions: who are these guys, how are they
getting away with this, and what can be done to stop them?
A 21st century Barbary Coast
In a BBC article titled "Somali pirates living the high life", the pirates are
described as between the ages of 20 and 25 and originating mostly from the
Puntland region of Somali.
In the same article, BBC Somalia analyst Mohamed Mohamed says the pirate gangs
are usually made up of three different types:
"Ex-fishermen, who are considered the brains of the operation because they know
the sea.
Ex-militiamen, who are considered the muscle - having fought for various Somali
clan warlords.
The technical experts, who are the computer geeks and know how to operate the
hi-tech equipment needed to operate as a pirate - satellite phones, GPS and
military hardware."
Although the article links the pirates to sophisticated weapons, smuggling and
drugs such as hashish, and khat (a mild stimulant), it does little to
debunk the romantic myths surrounding piracy.
"They have money; they have power and they are getting stronger by the day," a
local named Abdi Farah Juha was quoted by the BBC. "They wed the most beautiful
girls; they are building big houses; they have new cars; new guns ... Piracy in
many ways is socially acceptable. They have become fashionable," he said.
Others in the press are groaning about such seemingly positive portrayals.
Columnist Bill Virgin of the Seattle Post-Intelligence has railed against such
recent depictions, writing on November 19:
Between movies, Halloween
costumes, the recent International Talk Like a Pirate Day ... the buccaneer has
become a raffish, roguish and somewhat romantic figure with an iconic status to
rival the cowboy or the astronaut. But here is a bit of modern pirate argot
that should immediately wipe out any romantic notions about the occupation or
the practice: we hijacked your oil tanker.
In the first six
months of 2008, 71 vessels were boarded, 12 vessels were hijacked and 11
vessels were fired on. A total of 190 crew were taken hostage. Seven were
killed, and another seven are missing, presumed dead, according to the
International Maritime Bureau (IMB). The IMB is a non-profit organization
established in 1981 as a focal point in the fight against maritime crimes and
malpractices.
"The overall number [of incidents] is slightly higher than last year ... but in
the Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Somalia there has been an increase of
hijacking incidents with hostages, of incidents with guns and rocket-propelled
grenades, of fire aboard the ships. The level of violence associated is a lot
higher," IMB manager Cyrus Mody told Inter Press Service from London.
And as Asia Times Online reported in
Hell and high water for Filipino seamen on November 18, Asian seamen
have been increasingly victimized by pirates off the coast of Africa "in a
spate of high-sea hijackings that threatens to stifle crucial Middle
Eastern-Asian trade at a time of global economic weakening".
"To that you also have to add the less well publicized acts of theft by gangs
in ports and inshore waters on several continents and in many nations," David
Cockroft, general secretary of the International Transport Workers' Federation
(ITF), told Inter Press Service also from London. The ITF includes 654 unions
representing about 4.5 million transport workers in 148 countries.
"The pirates do not allow outsiders to visit the crews they kidnap," said
Cockroft. "From those released we know that conditions vary from months of
boredom and being penned up to gross maltreatment and, for a few, death."
Still, the stark disconnect between romantic notions and grim reality may stem
from the cloud of deep secrecy from which the pirates operate. Very little is
actually known about the pirates. "Between 1,000 and 1,200 people are
associated with them," said Mody. "They are probably different groups loosely
connected with each other."
Somali pirates, he said, "are showing a growing confidence in their attacks,
they are organizing themselves a lot better because of their previous
successes. So now they able to attack such a big vessel and hold it for ransom.
They have the capacity to sustain themselves out at sea for a number of days.
Attacks are happening further away from the land."
According to Mody, piracy off Somalia increased in 2007 after Ethiopian forces
backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops to oust the Islamic Courts
in December 2006.
Somalia has experienced constant conflict since the collapse of Mohammed Siad
Barre's regime in 1991. An interim government called the Transitional Federal
Government (TFG) was formed in 2001, with a five-year mandate. Abdullahi Yusuf
Ahmed was chosen president. But not all Somali factions accepted the
government.
Its authority was put into question in 2006, after Islamists gained control of
much of the south. With the military support of Ethiopia, forces loyal to the
TFG ousted the Islamist militia at the end of 2006. Since then, Al-Shabab and
other Islamist insurgents have been fighting back.
Mody believes lawlessness in Somalia has given pirates free rein without any
sort of deterrence from the law, suggesting that the problem should be solved
inland.
"There appears to be steady growth in the numbers of pirates coming from
Somalia as local warlords see their neighbors' power and influence growing
after expanding into this area of criminal activity," said Cockroft. "So you
now have not just criminals working close to the coast in fast inflatables, but
fishing boats getting into piracy as freelances, and now organized gangs
working far out in international waters using bigger fishing vessels and mother
ships."
The pirates have so far not been linked by any media reports to well-known
al-Qaeda militants in Somalia. But some analysts have speculated that Islamic
militants could be inspired by shipping's vulnerability and launch their own
pirate attacks.
As Olivier Jakob, managing director of the Swiss oil market research firm
Petromatrix, told The Associated Press, "If some pirates with a few machine
guns are able to hijack a supertanker, you can imagine what al-Qaeda could do
if it really wanted to."
A blast from the past
History's centuries-old answer to the problem of piracy - international naval
patrols and fierce crackdowns on pirates' safe havens on land - simply hasn't
worked in today's Somalia.
According to Angus Konstam, author of Piracy:The Complete History, as
early as 67 BC, the Roman general Pompey was awarded an immense budget and over
120,000 troops to clear the Mediterranean of pirates. Later, the British Royal
Navy needed all its resources to clear the pirate-infested waters of the
Caribbean, America and West Africa - and continued its anti-piracy patrols from
the mid-17th century until after World War II.
Yet even as a massive international armada comes together to confront the pesky
pirates, the plunder and hijacking of commercial ships has continued with
unprecedented pace and proportion. Armed pirates using ropes and ladders to
board ships and seize their crew continue to find success against fishing boats
and multi-million dollar tankers alike.
A range of recent reports suggests that the reasons the marauders have been so
brazen and successful are the vast 2.5 million square miles in which they
operate and a reluctance from the world's powers to engage them.
"Shipping companies have to understand that naval forces cannot be everywhere.
Self-protection measures are the best way to protect their vessels," US Vice
Admiral Bill Gortney, commander of the Combined Maritime Forces under the US
5th Fleet, told The Associated Press after the Sirius Star's capture.
The pirates' strongholds on the Somali coast - Eyl and Garowe, to name just two
- have been widely reported on. However, no government has suggested the idea
of military strikes on the pirate towns - perhaps leery of reliving the US
military's disastrous campaign in Somalia. Some believe an attack would
undermine Somalia's central government, and empower Islamic terror operations.
In any case, any strike on Somalia would require a UN Security Council
resolution.
Other reports claim that victimized nations and shipowners have been
hand-cuffed by outdated maritime rules and regulations.
The American military's solution has allegedly been to advise ships to hire
private security. This has proved a boon to at least one well known private
military contractor. According to Forbes, Blackwater Worldwide, the North
Carolina-based private military contractor, is currently "finalizing plans to
dispatch the MV MacArthur, a 183-foot vessel with a crew of 14 and a helicopter
pad, to the Gulf of Aden to provide escort services for ships in need of
security".
"Billions of dollars of goods move through the Gulf of Aden each year," said
Bill Matthews, executive vice president of Blackwater, in a press release this
month. "We have been contacted by shipowners who say they need our help in
making sure those goods get to their destination safely. The MacArthur can help
us accomplish that."
According to the Forbes report, Blackwater "has tentative plans to build a
small fleet of two or three anti-piracy vessels, each able to carry several
dozen armed security personnel. Although the Blackwater vessels will not be
armed, the crew will be."
Without an imminent solution to an escalating problem with global piracy - be
it from private mercenaries or a massive multinational navy - the Gulf of Aden,
where 20,000 merchant ships pass each year on the quickest route from Asia to
Europe and the Americas - will remain a dangerous no-man's land.
(With reporting by Inter Press News Service)
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