UN Authorizes Navies to Attack Somali Pirates

In the movies, pirates are exciting characters of swashbuckling charm. From Peter Pan to Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp, they’ve been treated as baddies, but not quite evil. The truth is worse. Piracy persists on the high seas, and it remains a problem for mariners and world trade. The UN Security Council has just passed a resolution authorizing members to send naval assets into Somali waters to combat the local pirates.

Because they operate in Somali territorial waters, it is the responsibility of the Somali government to deal with them. However, the government there is far too weak to act. Somalia’s president, Abdullahi Yusuf, said right before the vote, “The issue of piracy is beyond our present means and capabilities. Hence, we would like to request the Security Council to urgently adopt the draft resolution on piracy off the coast of Somalia.”

To illustrate just how serious a problem Somali pirates are, the Guardian reports, “Already this year Somali bandits have carried out around 30 attacks - including three last week - on fishing trawlers, tugboats, cargo ships transporting food aid and even a luxury French yacht. Using high-powered speedboats to seek prey up to 200 miles off Somalia's east coast and in the Gulf of Aden, which links the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, the pirates have netted millions of pounds in ransoms in recent months. The government, struggling with its Ethiopian military allies to contain an Islamist insurgency on land, says it is powerless to intervene.”

All 15 members of the UNSC voted for Resolution 1816. According to the terms of the resolution, nations must cooperate with the Somali authorities but can send ships to the Somali coast and “enter the territorial waters of Somalia for the purpose of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea.” This is nothing new. It builds on the 1958 Geneva Convention and the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty. Both say “[A]ll 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.” Indonesia, which has troubles of its own with pirates in the Straits of Malacca, held the resolution up until it was clear that no new international law was being created. Jakarta doesn’t want foreign navies sailing its seas.

Nevertheless, there is a lot of work to do off the Somali coast. At present, a French-led flotilla (which includes US and German naval ships) patrols the Horn of Africa. The 30 hijackings this year occurred despite this patrol. With more ships and the backing of the international community to pursue the pirates right to the beaches, the tide may finally turn. A much better solution, though, would be peace in Somalia with a strong enough government to clean things up on its own – not feasible at this stage.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Kensington Review Home