High Seas Piracy in the Modern Age posted 10/1/2008 10:43:24 AM | 0 kudos what's this?     report abuse

eastham

Several years ago, I have the pleasure via Matchdoctor of conversing with a gentleman from Scotland, who was both a writer of children’s books and a foremost expert on modern piracy. Terry died in Mombasa, while consulting on efforts to curb the growing rate of piracy in the seas off Africa’s east coast. I would have liked to be able to send him an email about the hijacking of the MV Faina.

Piracy is defined as “robbery committed, usually at sea, without a commission from a sovereign nation.” Piracy is as old as trade itself. In the late Bronze Age, the “Sea Peoples” preyed upon Egyptian trading boats and battles with pirates were mentioned in the cuneiforms on the tombs of several pharaohs. The first treaty signed by the newly established American government was with the Barbary pirates – pirates who operated out of many of the ports of North Africa, such as Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli.

But as we have seen this week, piracy is not a relic of the past nor is it a romantic comedy starring Johnny Depp. This week, pirates off the coast of Somalia commandeered a cargo ship, but this was no ordinary commercial vessel. The ship, which sailed from the Ukraine, was bound for Kenya and carries heavy military equipment, including tanks. The pirates don’t want the tanks. They want money – $20 million. They’ll use the money to buy faster boats, better guns, etc and hijack more ships.

The waters off the coast of Somalia are some of the most dangerous in the world, but piracy is a world-wide problem. Since the 1980’s, high seas piracy has re-emerged as a threat to global commerce and politics. In 1981 and 1982, the IRA sunk two coal ships in Lough Foyle, the Achille Lauro was hijacked in the Mediterranean, and several boats have been hijacked off the coast of Brazil, the South China Sea and in the Strait of Malacca.

The construction and efficiencies afforded by the modern container ship make the vessels prime targets for pirates. Their large size allows the ships to carry tremendously large and valuable cargo, they lie relatively low in the water making boarding easier, and their high level of mechanization means that smaller crews are needed to operate the ship. The MV Faina has a crew of twenty-one, including one 14-year-old boy, despite being able to ship over 32,000 tons of cargo.

World governments have been slow to act. Two years ago, a select committee of the British Parliament stated in a report that practical action to address piracy was woefully inadequate. Will the events unfolding this week, including the prospect that the heavy weapons on the MV Faina will find their way into the hands of warlords in Mogadishu, propel a concerted effort to address high seas piracy? Or will the advice of Terry or the members of the select committee continue to be ignored?

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