Fighting Piracy on Land and Sea
UN Crime Czar Addresses Piracy at US Congress
May 16, 2009 Christian Strohmann
Piracy continues unabated off the Horn of Africa - there have been 80 reported attacks already this year. Pirates are moving up the value added ladder. A few years ago they attacked fishing trawlers just off the coast. Now they take on oil tankers and container ships far out at sea. Ransom money is buying property, luxury goods, and power. Profits are also being used to buy satellite phones, GPSs, more powerful weapons and faster boats, or to bribe officials and collaborators. In a country wracked by poverty and instability, the profits of piracy are spreading corruption, perverting local economies, and empowering warlords and criminal groups. That poses a major threat to Somalia's Transitional Federal Government, the stability of the region, and the commercial and security interests of all UN Member States.
The Executive Director of the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, addressed these alarming tendencies on 14 May 2009 in his testimony to the United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight. Costa suggested a number of measures such as prevention, strengthening maritime security and law enforcement.
Piracy at the Horn of Africa a Problem as Big as Somalia Itself?
The UN official mentioned that in regard to prevention some may say that the problem is as big as Somalia itself: until there is law and order on land, there will be anarchy off the coast. However, a priority in restoring order in Somalia should be to dismantle the pirates' coastal bases and their support networks, in exchange for development aid to improve local administration, strengthen integrity, create job alternatives to piracy and smuggling, and restore much needed social services and infrastructure. Funds pledged at the recent donors’ conference for Somalia in Brussels are a good start.
Strengthening maritime security was essential to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the delivery of humanitarian assistance to the Horn of Africa. An unprecedented armada from the United States, Russia, China, the EU, NATO, and a number of other countries is now patrolling some of the world's most strategically significant waterways.
Ship Riders and Law Enforcement Detachments are Effective
The UN crime czar outlined a number of options for bringing piracy suspects to justice - an issue that has created some confusion among countries with warships in the region. Experts and ship captains alike have been navigating their way through these Conventions to figure out what to do with piracy suspects. Among the options were according to Costa trying suspects in the country where they come from, prosecuting pirates in flag states, establishing bilateral agreements with a country in the region, e.g. as the US and the EU have with Kenya, and as proposed by the UNODC using ship riders and law enforcement detachments who could join an international ship off the coast of Somalia and arrest the pirates in the name of a given country from the region. Antonio Maria Costa also called for increased efforts to track and recover the ransom money.
More than 60 piracy suspects are awaiting trial in Kenyan jails and more than two dozen in the Seychelles. Therefore, UNODC, in cooperation with the European Commission, is undertaking a joint programme to support the trial and related treatment of piracy suspects by boosting criminal justice capacity among Somalia's neighbors.
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