No doubt about it. In the 21st century piracy is reborn and growing into such a widespread problem that piracy has actually become a real threat to international trade. Today’s pirates are real, armed to the tits and they will rob you blind without thinking twice about it. They are greedy, desperate and willing to die for the chance at a ransom. On the other hand they have little interest in hurting you because fanatical ideologues they are not. In the rapidly growing world of maritime piracy today’s elite pirates come from Somalia. In Somalia piracy is an industry and a way of life. In this part of the world piracy is supporting the last ditch hopes of an impoverished people and they are making a real go of it.
Battling even an average pirate is no easy task. And Battling Somalia’s booming pirate industry is a task requiring the best international efforts. One of the obstacles working against those trying to bring this problem under control is that pirates lack a proper classification under international law. They are not war criminals so they should not traditionally be dealt with by a military presence. But no adequate civilian naval presence exists. Furthermore, if a criminal pirate gang is captured in international waters, who is responsible for prosecuting the offenders? Should the arresting nation be responsible? Should the nation where the attacked vessel is registered take charge? Or should the criminals be handed back to the country from which they came? These are all legal issues waiting to be resolved because at the moment no international treaty exists and no properly organized international force is in place to protect international trade routes. As a result piracy is now big business and maritime transport is in jeopardy.
So what is being done? As recently as 1992 there was no organization set up specifically to deal with piracy. But with threats steadily rising since the early 1970’s the International Maritime Bureau finally stepped in and created its IMB Piracy Reporting Centre. The problem is that the IMB is not a response service. The IMB is only a reporting service. And as useful a service as it may be to seafarers in the event of an attack the IMB is not going to help you. The best it can do is report the incident to an authority (which one is anyone’s guess) and hope for the best. But it is a step in the right direction.
Another organization tied to battling the problem of Maritime Piracy is the Combined Task Force 150 which boasts an excellent name but is still woefully inadequate to tackle the scale of the current problem. If Task Force 150 was restricted to the waters off Somalia’s coast it is doubtful if even this response would be enough. The real problem exists on shore. In the specific sense the conditions of Somalia itself need to be addressed and a stable government put in place. In the general sense Forces like 150 need the legal authority and mandate to counter the problem effectively. Until an International agreement is in place with law and force behind it pirate attacks will to continue to rise.
Somalia’s pirate industry is born from the kind of human desperation that comes from government corruption and absolute poverty. A good old fashioned civil war helps as well. You basically need to create a condition of perfect human misery for a population of people living near the sea and chances are they will turn to piracy. If drug, diamond and slave trading are not an option piracy may be the perfect choice. Somalia has established these conditions better than anywhere else in the world and as result the Somali pirate industry is the Ipod of pirating. They do it better than anyone else. In fact, they do it so well that Somalia’s pirate industry is no longer just a small gang of armed thugs in speed boats. In the 21st century Somalia’s pirates are well organized, well armed and well focused with an onshore support system and an entire population devoted to sustaining this network of criminal activity.
Now let’s look at some recent success stories. Recently Somali pirates hijacked the Sirius Star (pictured above), a Saudi oil tanker which measures out longer than an aircraft carrier. We’ve all heard the news. The hijacking went off without a hitch and at the time of writing the Star is anchored off the coast of Harardhere. Consider that it takes more than just a few thugs with machine guns to take control of such a vessel. In a case like this armed force is the smallest of logistical concerns. What is important is having a team in place that can pilot such a massive tanker without running aground. If you kill the Captain who is going to make this thing move? It takes organizational skills that go way beyond the abilities of armed thugs. This is the result of very well trained and well financed crime syndicate.
In another audacious example of Somalia’s pirate capabilities the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, holding 33 Russian-designed T-72 tanks, was hijacked. The vessel and its cargo are, at the time of writing, still in possession of the pirates despite a strong international military presence that is monitoring closely to make sure the weapons don’t fall into the wrong hands. And there are only the cases that were notorious enough to grab the attention of the international press. Imagine the thousands of smaller vessels hijacked on a daily basis. Pirates are not just after cargo ships. They will take down a pleasure craft too if they think the chance at a modest score is reasonable.
And yet the thing we need to consider is that pirates are not interested in old Soviet military hardware and they are certainly not interested in the oil aboard the Sirius Star. The pirates are after cash, loot and ransom and nothing else. They have no interest in harming captives and, in fact, rarely do. They have no misguided ideologies, no mission from god and don’t care if the world insults their sensibilities. They want cash and they want it now and as much of a nuisance as they are greed is something that we, in the Western world, would be hypocrites to pretend we don’t understand. All of this is what makes the industry profitable. In most cases ship owners are willing to pay a ransom to get the cargo back while the pirates are more than willing to do so if the ransom is paid. Add to the fact that news headlines are unable to include hostage killings and you start to understand why the industry of pirating has gone relatively unnoticed for so long.
If all this makes you think that pirating might be a good business to get into think again. Remember that these pirates come from some of the most desperate human populations on earth. You can be absolutely sure that for every man getting rich there are a few thousand underneath him taking the big risks and still only managing to scrape a meager living. Plus you don’t want to land yourself in a Somali prison. Because if you do happen to get captured pirating, there is a good chance you will land yourself in a place you really do not want to be. And the cold, hard facts of that reality, is that you would rather be blown up by whatever nation’s warship happened to be the one to intervene. A Somali prison is a death sentence for anyone reading this article.
But if the living quarters in the images above look like something you could survive for more than 30 seconds by all means go try your hand in Somalia’s thriving pirate industry. If you think you’re coming out alive, though, think again. There are dark places in this world that you don’t want to be a part of and you can bet that Somalia’s prison system is one of the darkest. Remember, if you are apprehended by ANY authority whatsoever during a pirate endeavor they can pretty much do whatever they like with you. There is no legal process set up for dealing with you and you essentially have no rights whatsoever. If you’re caught you’re rolling the dice with your life and that’s it. Pirating, particularly off the coast of Somalia is dangerous business.
Yet the danger is still not enough of a deterrent for the thousands upon thousand of people attempting to pirate worldwide. Where there are riches to be had and people desperate enough to go after them you can bet that they will. At the moment Somalia happens to be leading the charge and they are getting very good at what they do. Seizing a supertanker full of Saudi oil and getting away with it is no small feat and even James Bond would have trouble stealing a fleet of Russian T-72 tanks. It is also no small feat to stare down the barrel of a Task 150 Warship without flinching. It is a shame that diplomatic solutions are not a viable answer to such problems. Piracy is a crime and international as stipulated originally by Hugot Grotius allows for private navies to defend themselves for deeds that would cause a Canadian criminal background here at home but such acts go unpunished now.
In the 21st century Somali pirates are a naval force to be reckoned with.
