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The Wacky World Of Piracy In Somalia - And How A Brave American Crew Turned The Tables On Their Attackers |
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Issue 377
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Robert Blevins - AB of Seattle It's official. Somalia is at war with the world, and their weapon is piracy. It is no longer a few renegade ex-fishermen looking for easy victims. These pirates now have the cooperation of the highest officials in Somalia's strange and fractured government. This is a government rife with deals and payoffs, with more corruption than Chicago in the 1920's. People jockey for power, sometimes gathering support for another try at splitting the country into a smaller piece, just so they can have themselves elected President of that particular piece. Using the money collected from previous ransoms, the pirates have purchased better weapons, faster boats, GPS units, even rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine guns. Their latest attack was the first time they tried to take an American ship, the 500-foot container vessel Maersk Alabama. But this time the pirates ran into more than they bargained for, as the Alabama crew realized they were being chased and fought back with fire hoses and smart maneuvering. The short version of this heroic story is that after about five hours the pirates finally managed to board the ship where one of them was later captured by the crew. Somehow during the boarding process, the pirates' boat sank. The captain, in order to avoid a bloody standoff on the decks of his ship, offered himself up as a hostage. The pirates then abandoned the ship in one of the Maersk Alabama's lifeboats, taking the captain with them. First Officer Shane Murphy assumed command and tried to bargain with the pirates, offering the captured pirate for the captain's release. The pirates accepted this deal, and the crew released the pirate into the lifeboat. But the pirates reneged on the deal and continued to keep Captain Phillips prisoner. Shane Murphy then tried offering food, but this was rebuffed. Meanwhile, the pirates were unaware that a U.S. Navy destroyer 350 miles distant was steaming at flank speed toward the Alabama. Reports indicate it has now arrived on the scene. The lifeboat cannot make shore on its own, since they are roughly four hundred kilometers from land. There may be a 'mother ship' in the area though, as the Somalia pirates often use them as a resupply base. This is a story still in progress, and should be resolved soon - hopefully by the U.S. Navy. But what is the story on piracy in Somalia, and why has it become so prevelent lately? There are actually three Somalias. Simply put, two are 'bad' and one is 'good'. You have the main part of Somalia in the south, the home of Mogadishu and Black Hawk Down. (bad) To the north is the breakaway republic of Somaliland (good), which holds fair elections and takes a firm stand against terrorism. There is also Puntland (bad) along the northeast coast, and it is here where much of the piracy is now based. Until recently, the pirates worked out of the coastal towns near Mogadishu named Harardheere and Hobyo. But the better pickings up near the Gulf of Aden, with more than 16,000 ships passing through each year, made moving to Puntland a no-brainer. Puntland broke away from Somaliland and now owns the piece of coast closest to the Gulf of Aden. It's a good spot to both monitor ships and launch attacks. Piracy in Somalia is nothing new. There is a long tradition of piracy in Somalia, going back hundreds of years. It is believed the pirates pay off members of the Al-Shibaab, some warlords, and government officials who allow them to use ports both in Somalia and Puntland to park their plunder and wait for ransom payments. Reaching for that aspirin yet? As Martin Sheen said in the film Apocalypse Now, 'the bull@!$%# was piled so high in Vietnam (substitute 'Somalia') you needed wings to stay above it.' There is a constant jockeying for power in Somalia among warlords, English-speaking educated Somalians, or anyone with a few guns and some support. The remainder of the population are busy avoiding being killed, starving to death, or they've already packed their bags for Kenya. Since the central government collapsed in 1991, 500,000 people have fled Mogadishu. Much of the city has been shelled and fought over for so many years that it looks like Berlin at the end of World War 2. The pirate-fishermen who now plague the waters off Somalia say they were forced into this way of life because foreign fishing vessels plying their coast stripped the fish. There is some truth in this. The Somali fishing industry has collapsed in the last fifteen years, and much of it IS due to heavy commercial fishing. This does not justify piracy, but with the other problems onshore, it could be a reason. These modern-day versions of Captain Kidd have used cash received from earlier ransoms to upgrade their equipment. They access the internet for ship information and track the same ships with GPS units. It's almost certain some terrorists have joined their ranks, since portions of ransom payments have gone to leaders of organizations like Al-Shibaab, warlords with ties to terrorists, and other not-so-nice folks. Until the recent attack on the Maersk Alabama the pirates' biggest seizure was a tanker three times the size of an aircraft carrier. You have to give it to them for nerve, snatching a hundred million dollars' worth of crude. It's almost romantic to imagine these guys zipping around the Arabian Sea stalking ships like paparazzi seeking a money shot. It's now big business. The pirates have taken about ninety ships since January 1, 2008 and currently hold about two hundred crew members hostage. However, once supertankers start getting snatched, it becomes international. The days of the pirates are numbered and soon many of them will be blown from the water. Several governments have begun instituting armed patrols, and recently the U.N. certified the right to chase pirates onto Somalian territory, if necessary. This writer suggests that fishing rights along the Somali coast once again become the property of Somalia only. It's certain not many citizens can make a decent living on land - unless they are part of the crooked government, of course. Author Note - A good source of news in Somalia is the Somaliland Times. They do have a free press, although you will find the occasional article has been deleted. Most of the paper survives any attempt at censorship, though. Source: Newsvine.com, Thu Apr 9, 2009
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