Somali piracy and the enchanting water circus

[ensho]

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_4086.shtml


If you ever felt this whole saga of these invincible maritime desperadoes getting away with the most fantastic piracy operations along the Somali coast is so incredibly bizarre, you are not alone.

Regardless of what many media groups have sensationally been reporting, there is not enough information available to adequately explain the nature of this high sea drama or to pinpoint all those who are involved. However, there are some, state and non-state actors, who are openly positioning themselves to be the beneficiary.

That said, let there be no mistake, the pirates are real. And, like chemical waste dumping, illegal fishing, weapons smuggling, drug trafficking, illegal oil exploration, illegal human trafficking, and a host of other criminal activities, piracy is a thriving business in Somalia. These lucrative enterprises have steadily soared in the past two decades while Somalia was rapidly descending into a deadly spiral of anarchy.

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Going back to the pirates, if they did not exist, they would have been invented! Their almost daily criminal activities have dwarfed all other criminal enterprises. The unintended consequence of their actions is paving a way for the architects of chaos, the so-called independent security contractors (ISC) -- clandestine military forces immune from all laws and accountabilities.

Already the American and European ISCs are actively out-maneuvering each other to position themselves for hefty contracts to escort ships through the troubled waters of Somalia and to fight piracy. But, if history is a reliable mechanism to forecast political outcomes, this all too familiar approach has only one plausible result, disaster.

Pirates in Somalia are said to have hijacked over 90 ships and vessels since January. Currently, there are over a dozen ships parked along the coastal area of the northeastern region of Somalia waiting to be bailed out with hefty ransoms. These hijacked ships include a weapons smuggling Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, rifles and heavy weapons destined for Southern Sudan and a super tanker bigger than three football fields carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil worth US$100 million dollars. The latter was hijacked near Mombasa, Kenya, in broad daylight.

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There are widespread anecdotal accounts of “wealthy businessmen” from the U.S., Australia, and Western Europe being sighted in remote areas of the piracy infested region. Meanwhile, the mightiest nations of the world continue to send their war ships to “the world’s most dangerous waters.”

Piracy in Somalia cannot be solved militarily. Solving this problem will require objective focus on the root cause -- the political quandary that broke down law and order and made Somalia a free-zone for crime, exploitation, and human suffering. A starting point for the soon-to-take-office new U.S. administration is to put this issue on top of its foreign policy agenda and to develop a sound policy toward Somalia.
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money, money, money