Territorial waters of any country extend at 200 miles at sea and the Basque tuna-fishing vessel has been hijacked much further.
Monday, October 05, 2009
Territorial waters of any country extend at 200 miles at sea and the Basque tuna-fishing vessel has been hijacked much further. Some of the attacks took place a thousand kilometers away from Somalia, almost nearer to India than to Africa. So, neither the Alakrana nor any of the other ships were" looting Somalia's natural resources. They were fishing on international free-fishing waters. This holds up to ridicule the pirates' statement that claims they are Somali coastguards.
On the other hand, these pirates do not have any relationship with Somalia's Government, that just controls the capital city of Mogadiscio. Somalia stopped to be an only country a long time ago and it was replaced by two political entities called Somaliland and Puntland, that have not been recognized internationally but claim to be independents.
This raises the question of who to negotiate the release of the hijacked ships with. To negotiate with the Mogadiscio Government is to waste your time. So there is an intermediary network that have offices in Mombasa, Dubai and London, and of course, they work on a commission basis.
The pirates have set up a good business taking advantage of Somalia's strategic situation and the complete chaos due to the lack of a ruling government. They can not even say they are good Samaritans and they distribute the money among the poor people because reporters visiting the area have witnessed how the pirates show off while the people around live on poverty.
Source: EITB, Oct 05, 2009