Farah Abdi Warsameh/Associated Press
Wednesday, July 31, 2013
U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for three Somalis
convicted of murdering four Americans whose yacht was captured by
pirates in the Indian Ocean off Oman in 2011. Although nearly two dozen
Somali pirates have now been convicted in U.S. courts, these three men
are the first to potentially face the death penalty.
Against the backdrop of the U.S. trial, a largely unknown and
underreported humanitarian tragedy caused by the brutality of pirates is
unfolding: Unlike the Americans killed by pirates after negotiations
for their release failed, the crews of many smaller ships, known as
dhows, operating in the Indian Ocean often end up as slaves, never to
return to their homelands because their Indian, Pakistani or Iranian
owners cannot afford to pay their ransom.
In 2011, ships participating in NATO’s Operation Ocean Shield, a
counterpiracy action, helped free more than a hundred fishermen and
small-ship owners from captivity. Their rescue occurred when NATO
disrupted pirate attack groups using captured dhows as mother ships from
which to operate. Many of the hostages had spent more than a year in
captivity and reported severe maltreatment by the pirates.
Beyond such violations of human rights and opportunistic kidnapping of
Western nationals, pirates have also demonstrated a systematic pursuit
of human trafficking, arms trading and drug smuggling. The United
Nations believes that northern Somalia is a focal point for such
trafficking — with skiffs ferrying migrants across to Yemen and then
returning loaded with weapons.
Stopping this trafficking is no easy matter. Although the Gulf of Aden
is heavily patrolled by international warships safeguarding the sea
lanes, their U.N. mandate only allows them to apprehend traffickers when
human lives are in immediate danger. Meanwhile, the traffickers slip
through with ease to pursue their criminal activities.
To combat piracy and trafficking, the international community should
work with the F.B.I., Europol and Interpol to take on the land-based
criminal networks that control the pirates by disrupting their money
flows. Arresting and prosecuting the leaders and financiers of piracy
groups could severely disrupt their businesses. Often the ringleaders
who operate these gangs reside outside of Somalia and so have escaped
prosecution. A concerted international effort must be made to identify
the individuals involved, shut down their operations and bring them to
justice.
The international community should also continue to support initiatives
like the European Union’s Eucap Nestor, a civilian mission backed by
military expertise to help Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti, the Seychelles and
Somalia combat piracy and terrorism. As a complement, the E.U. Training
Mission Somalia, operating in Uganda, has provided military instruction
for 3,000 Somali soldiers. These troops are already working to enhance
their country’s security.
Thanks to such efforts, the number of pirate attacks in the Indian Ocean
and the Gulf of Aden has decreased significantly. But off of West
Africa, a region noted for political instability and widespread
corruption, pirate attacks have risen sharply. Here, piracy is even more
profitable than on the other side of Africa. Ships and their crews are
not typically held for ransom; instead the robbers violently seize
ships, steal all the valuables they can, and move the precious cargo,
like oil, onto smaller vessels.
To deal with this problem, West African nations met in Cameroon in late
June and adopted a code of conduct for dealing with piracy. Based on the
Djibouti code of conduct established by East African and Arab states in
2009 to fight piracy in the Indian Ocean, the Cameroon code calls on
governments to apprehend and prosecute pirates, interdict ships
suspected of engaging in piracy and help repatriate fishermen and others
who are victims of piracy.
Given the limited maritime capabilities of the littoral states,
achieving these goals won’t be simple. The international community can
help by providing funding and using “soft power” to ensure that the code
is enforced.
Arab states can and should play a more important role in the fight
against piracy in the Indian Ocean. Drawing upon their historical ties
to Somalia, members of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Islamic
Development Bank could play a lead role in funding development
initiatives while also strengthening partnerships with tribal leaders
across Somalia. The G.C.C. and the I.D.B. could also help fund regional
initiatives in West Africa to strengthen security there.
If the human costs of piracy are to be reduced, strong leadership will
be required from the European Union and the United States, preferably in
close coordination with the United Nations and other important
stakeholders like China, India and Russia. It is also critical for
Washington to support existing U.N., NATO, E.U. and other counterpiracy
initiatives and to work closely with these organizations and countries
until piracy once again becomes an activity that takes place largely in
the movies.