UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - Russia on Tuesday pressed for a stronger UN mechanism to ensure effective legal action is taken against pirates caught off Somalia.
Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that the "weak link" in international efforts to combat piracy off lawless Somalia was "the legal process which would allow us to be sure that there is no impunity once pirates are caught."
He said he introduced a draft resolution in the 15-member body that would direct UN chief Ban Ki-moon "within three months to prepare a report outlining various options of a stronger international legal system" to deal with the pirates caught off the coast of Somalia.
Churkin said despite joint efforts by navies of several countries, including Russia, to deter piracy, the scourge was continuing unabated.
"So far the results have not been entirely satisfactory... The problem continues to be there and... is growing," he noted.
And Churkin said Moscow was concerned by reports that littoral countries such as Kenya decided to stop prosecution of suspected Somali pirates because of the heavy strain on their over-populated prisons and congested courts.
The Russian envoy said discussion of his proposal by Security Council experts would take some time.
Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, the council chair this month, said there was an initial positive reaction to the Russian proposal.
But he added that several members felt that the issue of piracy could not be treated in isolation from the root causes of the chronic instability in Somalia.
Kenya has formally announced it wished to stop the prosecution of suspected Somali pirates and cancel the agreements it has to that effect with several naval powers, diplomats said Thursday.
Kenya has memoranda of understanding with the European Union, United States, Canada, Denmark, China and Britain whereby it takes in suspects intercepted at sea and prosecutes them in courts in Mombasa.
An international armada of warships has patrolled an area in the north of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden for more than a year in a bid to curb piracy.
But countries which have captured pirates have often had difficulty bringing them to justice because of legal technicalities.
Somalia has had no effective central authority since former president Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, setting off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival factions.
Islamist fighters including the hardline Shebab militia have waged battles against Somalia's wobbly transitional government, vowing to fight until all foreign forces withdraw and sharia, or Islamic law, is imposed.