Making Pirates Pay
By AMY L. WITTMAN, Editor in Chief
SEAPOWER
THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE
NAVY LEAGUE OF THE UNITED STATES
Volume 52, Number 2, February 2009
In poverty-ridden
Somalia, piracy
does pay. Somali pirates operating in the
Gulf of Aden and
along the country’s
east coast have
launched what the International Maritime
Bureau (IMB) calls
the biggest surge of
pirate activity in modern record.
Cape of Good Hope,
adding to the cost of
oil and goods from
the Middle East and
Asia; or damage a tanker creating an environmental disaster.
The town of Eyl, in the tribal
region of Puntland, is a symbol of
prosperity in one of the most desolate parts of the world because it is a
haven for pirates. Chatham House
Africa expert Roger Middleton, in
his October briefing paper “Piracy in
Somalia: Threatening global trade,
feeding local wars,” notes that “in a
region where legitimate business is
difficult, where drought means agriculture is nothing more than subsistence farming, and instability and
violence make death a very real
prospect, the dangers of engaging in
piracy must be weighed against the
potentially massive returns.”
Now several of
the world’s navies —
armed with U.N.
Security Council
resolutions — are
making an effort to reduce the
threat of piracy in the region.
The Security Council on June 2
approved Resolution 1816, which
says the nations “would be allowed,
for a period of six months, to enter
the territorial waters of Somalia and
use ‘all necessary means’ to repress
acts of piracy and armed robbery at
sea, in a manner consistent with relevant provisions of international law.”
With Resolutions 1846 and 1851,
approved Dec. 2 and Dec. 16, respectively, the council gave these navies
far more latitude in dealing with pirates at sea and ashore.
IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan told Seapower Special Correspondent Daisy R. Khalifa there
were 109 attacks in Somali waters
in 2008, with 42 vessels actually
hijacked and 828 hostages taken.
(See story on page 18.)
While the international cooperative approach to piracy may make
that trade route safer, it will do little to address the underlying issues
that fuel the problem.
While the potential payoff for
pirates is huge, their activity poses a
number of threats to the international community. In his paper, Middleton notes pirates could become
agents of terrorist networks; make
aid deliveries more difficult and costly; force commercial shipping to
avoid the area and go around the
As Middleton notes: “Whatever
the international community decides
to do, it must not be at the expense of
efforts to secure a political solution
inside Somalia. … Containing or ignoring Somalia and its problems is
not an option that will end well.”
PUBLISHER
J. Michael McGrath
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Stephen R. Pietropaoli
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Amy L. Wittman
DEPUTY EDITOR
Peter E. Atkinson
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Richard R. Burgess
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