Over the weekend, yet another incident of pirates hijacking a cargo ship at sea occurred in the Indian Ocean off of the coast of guess where....? Somalia, of course. Somali pirates are thought to have hijacked a South Korean vessel carrying about $150 million dollars worth of crude oil.
This is by no means an isolated incident. The incidence of pirates hijacking foreign flagged cargo ships has increased greatly over the last few years. However, there really is no question as to why this increase has occurred. Most of the owners of the hijacked vessels have paid huge ransoms of millions of dollars to these pirates to get their ship, cargoes and crews back. Ransoms of millions of dollars present a huge incentive for people who perhaps used to be fishermen to resort to crime to get money to feed themselves, and their families. Well, at least it probably started out that way. The first few times that someone got away with doing this, it was probably done just to survive and to be able to buy food.
Life in most of Somalia has been terrible for decades. Civil war and infighting left this country without a formal government for a long time. After the government fell, foreign fishermen began the practice of predatory fishing off the coast of Somalia. This left little fish for the Somali fishermen to catch to make a living. The first incidents of this modern form of piracy occurred when Somali fishermen acted against the predatory foreign fishermen. The Asian tsunami of 2004 also devastated what was left of the fishing industry in Somalia. With little or no fish available to catch to making a living, Somalis have turned to other means to make money. The situation has morphed into this more recent form of piracy; piracy as a way to make BIG MONEY.
What exists now is a system where pirates hijack a foreign cargo ship-preferably a ship that is carrying valuable cargo such as crude oil, and then they demand a ransom from either the company that owns the ship or the nation whose flag the ship sails under. When a ransom is paid, the pirates release the ship and crew, and take the millions of dollars ransom money back to spend in an economy where millions can go a very long way. These pirates are not doing this to put food on the table anymore. It has gone way beyond that for many of them. They are now building luxurious mansions, neighborhoods, towns with stores and restaurants. This whole new community is built on the house of cards that is the piracy situation. For those Somalis, this house of cards could fall at any time, and it should. It is not right to build your mansion on the backs of honest businesses trying to transport a product from port A to port B. Piracy is a CRIME, not a career.
This situation in Somalia continues to be in flux. The US and the UN tried in the early 1990's to stabilize the region when the government of Somalia fell. That was an impossible situation where the only Somali people "in charge" were warlords fighting over territory and the food that had been donated by the UN. Food donations would be delivered only to be taken by the warlords and not given to the innocent civilians it was designated for. There is a tentative governmental situation in Somalia right now, but the country is not ruled by one authority. A lot of the southern part of Somalia is ruled by an Islamic Courts Union, and that practices Islamic Shari'a law. The northern part of the country is still under dispute at this time. One thing is for sure, the whole situation there is a breeding ground for al Qaeda, and al Shaabab, the newer terrorist organization. It is an unstable environment and there are several forms of law being loosely practiced all over the country. Any attempt to prosecute the Somali pirates in their own country would be almost impossible.
Clearly there was and is still no easy solution for dealing with the Somali pirates through governmental channels. We need to take away the incentive for them to hijack. But how do we do that? Do we let them continue to hijack ships that are merely passing through the area and not pay ransoms? Do we let their Somali ports fill with hijacked ships and hostages and not attempt to get them back? This could result in the deaths of the crew and passengers of these hijacked ships. This could also result in the Somali pirates stealing the cargo or releasing toxic chemicals and/or crude oil into the sea a la Saddam Hussein's scorched earth policy of dumping 1.5 million barrels of oil into the Persian Gulf to thwart the US Marines from coming ashore and setting the Kuwaiti oil wells on fire. We can't have that!! Disincentiving the pirates could be a risky endeavour for our planet.
Fighting back and fighting big may be the only short term options for the civilized world to deal with this piracy menace. Fighting back can consist of cargo ships carrying armed security forces on board, on every voyage. Some ship owners are using this method as we speak. They will need to stay one step ahead of the pirates when deciding on what kind of arms to employ and what defensive measures are needed. This extra security may add significantly to the shipping costs of goods, but may in the long run serve as a deterrent for future hijacking attempts. If potential pirates know that these big ships are not going to take it anymore and are going to fight back, they will realize they have less than a 50% chance of escaping with their lives. This could end up being a kind of war of attrition. Eventually there will be fewer and fewer potential pirates willing to take that chance and eventually maybe there will be none left wanting to make the attempt. That could take a while, though. In the meantime, some will still be successful and that might spur on more attempts.
Fighting big may have to include some more intelligence gathering kinds of warfare. We may need to use some special forces to take the pirates out where they live. This could involve covert operations, boots on the ground, killing pirates before they leave for the next hijacking, bombing the new luxurious glam cities where they have taken up residence. The US and other nations that want to combat this for good are going to have to stomach the idea of killing these pirates where they live. There is almost no other short term option that will halt the attacks.
In the long run, a stable government in Somalia that has diplomatic ties to other countries will be the solution for the unrest and dire poverty that has created this piracy threat. This will not happen until the people of Somalia want it to happen or the people of the world make it happen by going to war with Somalia. This may not happen for a very long time, if ever in our lifetime.
Since I am not sure that the US and other civilized countries will have the stomach to do what it would take to end piracy as it currently stands, I do not see a quick end to this crisis on the horizon. As a human being, it is infuriating though, to watch these pirate punks get away with it.
FYI: This is staggering when you see the escalation from 2007 to 2010
A list of all ships that have been subject to attempted (some successful) pirate hijackings off of the coast of Somalia since 2005:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_attacked_by_Somali_pirates
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