U.S. Steps Up War Against Somali Pirates
The Nation (Nairobi)
February 11, 2006
Peter Mwaura
Nairobi
The United States Navy has put Somali pirates operating in the Indian
Ocean on notice: They will be intercepted, pursued, arrested and
handed over to coastal states for trial (or taken to US navy base at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba).
On January 20 the United States fired the first warning shots when it
dispatched the guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill and
other US naval forces to intercept a suspected pirate ship in the
Indian Ocean. The destroyer located the vessel approximately 87
kilometres off the coast of Somalia and pursued it through the night
and into the next morning.
According to one account, it took the US warship several hours of
manoeuvring and firing warning shots to get the suspect pirate ship to
surrender. Then the US marines arrested a gang of 10 suspected Somali
pirates aboard the India-registered vessel MV Safina al-Birsarat with
16 crew members. The US Navy handed over to Kenyan authorities the
suspected pirates, who were last week charged in a Mombasa court.
Territorial waters
The US Navy acted on a report from the Piracy Reporting Centre of the
International Maritime Bureau's (IMB). Based in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, the centre monitors piracy all over the world and publishes
piracy warnings round-the-clock. By ordering its destroyer to
intercept the suspected pirates, the Navy moved away from its
traditional reluctance to take on pirates outside US territorial
waters.
It is now official. Pirates, like terrorists, can run but they cannot
hide. Not only along the coast of Somalia, which is currently the
world's most dangerous waters for pirate activities, but also along
areas in Southeast Asia such as the Straits of Malacca that are
traditional havens for pirates.
The United States does not anymore see the difference between pirates
and terrorists, and with good reason. A study carried out by the
Piracy Reporting Centre says that freighters carrying payloads of fuel
could be hijacked and used in terror operations similar to the 11
September attacks on America. There is real fear that terrorists
could, for example, use a ship transporting liquefied natural gas as a
weapon.
In any case, action by the US Navy will benefit Kenya because of the
dangers posed by pirates to the country's tourism and maritime trade.
The shores off the East African coast are important sea-lanes for
cargo ships and luxury cruise liners. And many of the cargo ships are
oil supertankers and attacks on them could trigger environmental
disasters through crude oil spillage.
The modus operandi of the pirates makes such possibilities real.
Pirates in Somali waters attack with heavy firearms everything that
floats, from fishing vessels and yachts to bulk carriers, general
cargo ships and tankers. Their aim is to steal valuables from the
ship, or hold the crew for ransom. IMB says it has received reports of
Somali pirates armed with automatic weapons and rocket propelled
grenades, firing indiscriminately in attempts to force such vessels to
stop.
"The lack of any stable or coherent government in Somalia is
contributing to this lawlessness in its waters. Local warlords are
interested in making money above all else, and hijacking commercial
vessels has proven to be an expedient method of doing so," notes
Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of IMB.
The good news is that all pirates are international outlaws triable by
any and every state. Any state may seize a pirate ship or aircraft,
arrest the persons, seize the property on board and try the persons or
hand them over to another state.
International law has long recognised a general duty of all states to
cooperate in repressing piracy. The 1982 Law of the Sea Convention
provides that all states "shall cooperate to the fullest possible
extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other
place outside the jurisdiction of any state."
Kenya, incidentally, is not only a signatory of the Convention but
also was very influential in its formulation through its principal
delegates to the Convention, lawyers Felix Njenga and Andronico Adede.
In apprehending the 10 suspected Somali pirates, USS Winston S.
Churchill did just what international law requires of any warship. But
while the US Navy has shown that it will take all appropriate measures
to respond to incidents of piracy on the high seas, it is obvious that
it will not always be on hand to do so on the entire 3,898 kilometres
of Somali coastline, the longest in Africa. Ships may still have to
rely on their own vigilance and resources to prevent attacks.