Russian navy don’t fuck around.
“Unfortunately, at present there exist no legal rules for prosecuting in court the pirates operating in the region of Somali,” the source said. “This means they do not fall under the jurisdiction of any state or international law.”
The Russian Navy has been accused of attacking Yemeni fishermen and destroying seven fishing boats in an incident last month, Arab News learned on Wednesday following a sit-in demonstration in the coastal city of Mukalla by Yemeni fishermen. They claim harassment by naval armadas is getting more aggressive.
“They used to mistreat us at sea but would set us free with our possessions,” said Awadh Abdullah Bamagad, a 30-year-old Yemeni fisherman. “Now they don’t just confiscate fishermen’s proprieties, they destroy the boats.”
“They used to mistreat us at sea but would set us free with our possessions,” said Awadh Abdullah Bamagad, a 30-year-old Yemeni fisherman. “Now they don’t just confiscate fishermen’s proprieties, they destroy the boats.”
The rival militants al-Shabab, Somalia’s most dangerous rebel group, sent scouts into Harardhere last month. Abdiwali Gadid, a self-proclaimed pirate, said: “Two days ago Hizbul Islam sent agents to the coastal towns saying they wished to move into the area before al-Shabab and demanded a slice of the business, but the pirate leaders ignored the request. That is why they moved in today.”
The Islamic Courts Union was the only group to ever shut down the pirates in Somalia, but this faction isn’t them. Hizbul Islam needs cash and a stronger base of power. They don’t have much use for the western hostages they could probably lay hands on, but a piracy tax might be just the thing to prop them up.
I count 18 ships.
Speaking of Somalia:
“The US promised to pay the salaries of 1,800 soldiers, while other donor countries pledged to pay for some 3,300 soldiers. This is part of plans to fund the upkeep of 10,000 soldiers that would help the government retain the security,” he said.
He added that the soldiers did not receive their wages for nearly one year.
According to Somali officials, the troops were supposed to earn $100 a month, but about half of those trained in neighbouring Djibouti deserted after realizing that they are not going to get their payments.
“Some gave up the army and returned to their ordinary life and others joined the rebels,” Somali army Col. Ahmed Aden Dhayow told AP.
This next story is a little more interesting than most. It illustrates the fog of war surrounding most of these piracy stories, and the politics going on in the background. Let’s start with the story as it’s generally reported:
A Spanish trawler captain released by Somali pirates said he is haunted by his failure to save a 12-year-old Ukrainian girl held captive for more than six months, a newspaper reported Sunday.
Ricardo Blach, skipper of the Alakrana, which was freed Tuesday after being held by pirates for some six weeks, told how he saw the young girl aboard another hijacked ship, in logbook extracts published in El Mundo.
A little strange that the BBC story never mentions the kidnapped girl, but not too unusual for someone to miss part of the story, especially if they have to read another language to source it. If you don’t want to read both of those, here’s what the wikipedia has to say about it:
Somali pirates captured the Ariana on May 2 with its 24 Ukrainian crew in the Indian Ocean on route from Brazil to the Middle East.[204] In November, with the release of Spanish ship Alakrana, that was in contact during captivity with the Ariana to give fuel, was known that within this vessel are kidnapped two women and a girl of 12 years old. One of the abducted women, Larisa Salinska, 39 years old ship’s cook, was raped by pirates. Then she had a miscarriage (it is unknown if she became pregnant as a result of the rape or not) with a large hemorrhage, heavy infection, and serious health problems. The Alakrana’s skipper tried to convey to the Ariana medicines to help Salinska, but Adan Jama, one of the pirates who had hijacked the Spanish ship, threw overboard those medicines. Also, according to the testimony from the driver’s Alakrana, on board were two women, one of whom had given birth during the hijacking of the ship, having the baby about four months; also said the girl wich twelve years old was raped by a pirate very young. The ship was released on 10 December 2009 after a ransom of almost $3,000,000 was paid.
This already has a few elements that are unique to this particular story. Now along comes this article in an online paper from Salem, OR:
tl;dr version: the miscarriage resulted when the woman was beaten by a fellow crew member, the captain refused to let her be evacuated although the pirates agreed, the crew of the Alakrana “invented” the story of visiting the Ariana, the 12-year old girl is implied to have been invented as well, and the Ariana’s owner has cut the ship loose and doesn’t want the cargo inspected.
This article’s conclusion:
All this is believed now to be part of spin-doctoring between Ukrainian, Spanish and Greek politicians of ministerial level to distract from their own failures and to aid a stronger European military approach for which the misled public outcry over these atrocities was seen as necessary to be approved by the European ministerial conference.
And to obscure matters even more, the author of this article relies on an interview in the Kyiv Post, a couple of quotes from Ecoterra International, and a number of unattributed statements such as the one above: “all this is now believed to be….”
The author herself has a name that sounds a lot like a pseudonym to me, and the google has never heard of her outside of reporting on this ship. The Salem News looks like an interesting paper to check out, but it all seems to be filtered pretty strongly through the publisher’s personality and opinions.
Now, I don’t trust the official press to get a story right, but that doesn’t mean I have to trust any alternate version of the story either. I’m drawing no conclusions and taking no sides, just demonstrating an excellent case of how we really don’t know anything that’s going on out there. I don’t know if we’ll ever get answers about this one, or how many other stories really turn out to be more or less than they seem.
Meanwhile, a funny thing happened on the way to Antarctica…. tl;dr the Steve Irwin visited some nice Frenchies for a couple of days while they tried to shake the Japanese whalers off their tail, and the Ady Gil is underway after its third try.
And since we’re on naval matters:
Piracy this week, maybe.
Here’s some pirates a long way from Somalia:
Pirate attacks on local fishermen are common in the Bay of Bengal. Fishermen and boat owners say authorities don’t do enough to police the waters.
Salamat Ullah, the owner of the missing boat, said he filed a complaint with police.
”We are continuing our regular patrol,” Cox’s Bazar coast guard official Lt. A.K. Chakrabarty said.
Maybe this is a diplomatic broadside, but “piracy” is political hyperbole here:
Meanwhile, the big action is still off Somalia:
But one key topic raised at discussions, hosted by the International Criminal Law Network, a Hague-based think tank, was whether the International Criminal Court (ICC), also based in The Hague, could expand its jurisdiction to include piracy.
While experts said they expect the ICC — which was set up in 2002 as the world’s first permanent war crimes court — to take up the issue of piracy at its Review Conference in Uganda in May of 2010, they don’t expect an expansion of jurisdiction.
Moreover, countries in the Horn of Africa most affected by piracy — Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea — are not signatories to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC.
Enforcement, however, would be the biggest problem.
“Four months ago, during the monsoon rains, we decided to set up this stock exchange. We started with 15 ‘maritime companies’ and now we are hosting 72. Ten of them have so far been successful at hijacking,” Mohammed said.
“The shares are open to all and everybody can take part, whether personally at sea or on land by providing cash, weapons or useful materials … we’ve made piracy a community activity.”
No idea whether to believe this one:
Information has filtered out of Somalia about allegations of “widespread wildlife theft” allegedly undertaken by military helicopters flying off warships engaged in anti- piracy operations around the Horn of Africa.
Several such reports were availed to this correspondent, but could not be independently verified. One of the reports spoke of helicopters flying with “nets full of deer” dangling below the crafts, and also of “spraying the animals which killed livestock.”
You don’t need me for the big pirate news- it’s all over the headlines. Here’s a quick review:
The rescue and promised anti-piracy crusade are getting predictable reactions from the Somali government (such as it is) and the pirates. The support from Islamic militants is new, and a reversal of their prior relationship. But the stated cause is interesting, and something to look deeper into.
Militant Islamists in Somalia who once vowed to stop acts of piracy are now portraying pirates as national heroes. The change follows the recent signing of an agreement between Kenya and Somalia regarding maritime boundaries. Somalis have become increasingly suspicious of the agreement amid claims that the government of Sharif Sheik Ahmed has signed away Somali territorial waters to Kenya.
Your best source is jailed. You track high-sea hijacks by text and email. You get through to captors on a satellite phone but are then roundly abused.
Reporting on Somali piracy can be surreal.
And without comment, this from China’s state news agency:
The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China’s fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China’s.
The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in Somalia:
It’s worth noting that this new Somali government actually operates from Mogadishu.
First US ship to be seized by pirates since the Barbary Wars:
And they’ve been busy elsewhere too:
Some backgrounders:
And kickin it old school:
Recovered ship of Blackbeard unveils treasure
The pirates have been extending the range of their attacks, and the taking of the Seychelles boat looks like another long-distance strike.
And here’s a couple that aren’t from Somalia. Thailand:
And Indonesia: