Indian Navy Sinks Pirate Mothership

An Indian navy frigate has sunk a pirate “mothership” in the Gulf of Aden. With the pirates on the East African coast taking over a supertanker earlier this week, one began to wonder if the good guys had a prayer. The INS Tabar showed that they do.

The Indian navy released a statement that read in part, “On repeated calls, the vessel's threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship. INS Tabar retaliated in self defence and opened fire on the mother vessel. As a result of the firing by INS Tabar, fire broke out on the vessel and explosions were heard, possibly due to exploding ammunition that was stored on the vessel.”

The pirates operate from small speedboats, and the mothership appears to have been the base for a couple of smaller vessels. The Tabar's crew reported seeing two speedboats making a run for it after the incident.

Until and unless a proper government arises in Somalia, this piracy problem will continue. The people there are quite poor, and the taking of a ship is no big deal to men who have little to lose. In September, a 21-man crew were released along with their Japanese flagged ship three months after being taken – the $2 million ransom almost certainly was worth it to the owners. The problem is that is will only encourage more piracy.

So it is vital that the INS Tabar's action get as much positive attention as possible. Yielding to pirates is no different than yielding to terrorists. Indeed, there is little difference between them. Sending one to the bottom every now and then might prove to be insufficient, but it is a place to start. Well done, Tabar.

© 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.

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