High Time to Stop Piracy

By Brigitte L. Nacos
As the crew of a U.S. Navy destroyer looked on, four Somali pirates continued to hold the captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship hostage in an un-powered lifeboat off the coast of Africa. Hours earlier, the armed pirates had boarded the Maersk Lines' "Alabama” and taken the unarmed crew hostage. While details of the incident, the captain’s predicament, and the crew’s ability to regain control over their ship remained sketchy, it is known that there have been six such pirate attacks in the region within the last week and more than 150 last year. Moreover, at the time of this latest incident more than a dozen ships and more than 200 sailors are held by pirates who demand many millions of dollars in ransom.

Last fall, the United Nation’s Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution asking member-states to deploy naval vessels and military aircraft to actively fight against rampant piracy on the high seas. Resolution 1838 called “upon all states interested in the security of maritime activities to take part actively in the fight against piracy.” But while pirates have been fought off and in some instances captured by war-ships of several nations, there has not been an effective response to the UN resolution, no concerted military action. When Somali pirates were captured in the past, they were typically handed over to Kenyan authorities since most aggrieved nations seem unwilling to bring these gangs to justice in their own courts. The United Nations should therefore to direct the International Criminal Court to try captured pirates.  

While the container ship Alabama was the first American vessel to be taken over temporarily in the waters near the Horn of Africa, last December pirates chased and shot at the U.S. cruise M/S Nautica with more than 1,000 people on board but failed to hijack the vessel because the Nautica was faster than the pirates’ boats.

According to the latest news, an FBI team of negotiators was assisting the crew of the Navy destroyer in negotiations with the pirates. If this means that the U.S. government and/or the company that owns the cargo ship follow the example set in hundreds of previous piracy attacks and pay millions of dollars in ransom, this would free the ship’s captain and at the same time threaten the crews and passengers of every ship sailing in an ever larger part off the coast of Africa.

It is time to stop giving in to pirates and end piracy by rallying the international community for an all-out offensive against these outlaws and, just as important, against those who support and profit from them, most of all in Somalia. 

Contrary to terrorists who have political objectives, pirates are criminals who aim simply at collecting the highest possible ransom sums. But as the piracy of old is making a big come back these days, terrorists must watch with growing interest a method of attack that assures both the publicity they need and the face-off against powerful nations and governments they seek.

Surely, another reason for fighting piracy and for the United States to take the lead!

Comments

[Tony Facade]

Dershowitz could write "Why Piracy Works."

[Brigitte]

Hi, Tony, great to see your comment--and, yes, piracy is not unlike terrorism and it works for the same reason terrorism works.

[jason]

While I agree that something ought to be done, I can see why there's been no concerted military action. Surely the navies of the world can't fix this. Anything short of a job-building program in anarchic Somalia wouldn't even begin to address the problem. Our past results occupying the country aren't encouraging and if America were to lead it after six years in Iraq we'd have to send troops straight from the mental hospital.