A couple of years ago, the area located in Arabian sea between Yemen on South
coast of Arabian Peninsula and Somalia in the Horn of Africa were regularly in
news as being the hotbed of criminal
activities. This very important shipping
route between the Mediterranean sea and the Arabian sea with tens of thousands
of ship crossing the gulf annually literally became the ‘Pirate alley’. But if one thinks, that such incidents occur
only in that bay with the involvement of Somalis alone, then one is sadly
mistaken. Besides the Gulf of Aden,
there reportedly had been incidents of piracy at many other places.
I had earlier circulated something on Piracy
- robbery committed at sea. The English
term pirate is derived from latin pirata
- an attempt to find luck on sea.
Kadal Kollaiar (Sea pirates) would often be portrayed in old movies as
people with masks, paints all over body with crude arms, jumping into boats,
killing people on board and usurping all wealth that was carried as
merchandise. Maritime piracy, according
to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) of 1982,
consists of any criminal acts of violence, detention, or depredation committed
for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or aircraft
that is directed on the high seas against another ship, aircraft, or against
persons or property on board a ship or aircraft. Pirates have been around as
long as people have used the oceans as trade routes.
Arising out of Piracy of Puntland, the
Indian market’s response was not uniform
– some Insurers hiked their rates; some
imposed additional conditions – some practical and some impractical –
whilst some remained mute spectators to the occurrences. If you have observed, there has been no news
recently about Piracy …… yes, because, as Daily Mail reports - not one
hijacking has taken place in last two years in the Indian Ocean after 126
pirates were jailed.
A recent post
reveals that - Sailors navigating the coast of East
Africa no longer have to fear an ordeal like that of Kent couple Paul and
Rachel Chandler who were captured by Somali pirates, thanks to British efforts
to put hijackers behind bars. Prosecutors have successfully jailed 126 pirates
and there have been no hijackings off the Horn of Africa in the last 24 months,
new figures reveal. Hijackings similar to the experience of the Chandlers and
the hijacking of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama which inspired the
blockbuster film Captain Phillips, are a thing of the past due to the success
of a scheme to prosecute the pirates on remote islands in the Indian Ocean.
Lawyers from the
Crown Prosecution Service used to dealing with serious crime in towns across
Britain have been helping their counterparts in the Seychelles deal with the
new work load. The group of Islands, popular with holidaymakers, is 1,000 miles
off the coast of Africa and previously had only a dozen lawyers, many of whom
were part-time. But scores of pirates have now been jailed - first in a
specially built facility in the Seychelles and then transferred to UN monitored
facilities in Somaliland and Puntland, provinces
of Somalia. The pirates have also been offered education, most of whom 'grab it
with both hands', according to Charles Brown, a prosecutor who returned to
Britain in March after two-and-a-half years as 'State Counsel'.
'Generally those
captured have had no other means of earning a livelihood and now they are being
offered an education and the chance to learn English and it's unlikely they
will be back in an open skiff on the Indian Ocean,' he added. Most of the
pirates have now been repatriated to prisons mentored by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Hargeisa in Somaliland and Garowe, Puntland,
where they will serve out their sentences, which range from two to 24 years. Britain donated £2.58million to the UNODC
Maritime Crime Programme for the Horn of Africa in 2013 and another £1million
in 2014, most of which has gone towards the new prison in Hargeisa, and the
refurbishment in Garowe.
A move by the
Somali government to pardon the pirates was headed off after pressure from the
UN and, unusually for Somalia, the better off pirates have been unable to pay
substitutes to serve their sentences. The Somali coast contains one of the
world's busiest shipping lanes but has suffered regular attacks by pirates
since 2005, peaking at 52 in 2009, when pirates were taking in an estimated
$100m (£650,000) a year in ransoms.
In October that
year, Paul and Rachel Chandler were sailing around the world and were captured
by Somali pirates just 90 miles off the Seychelles. In the space of just a few
minutes on the Indian Ocean, their trip of a lifetime – a long-planned escape
from the petty suburban pressures of the Home Counties – became a journey that
really did change everything. Transported to a series of makeshift encampments
in the baking heat of the Somali bush, the Chandlers were whipped, beaten,
separated from each other and from everything they knew. In Jan 2012, an Australian reconnaissance aircraft located
and photographed a dhow towing two skiffs which they suspected were being
operated by pirates. An intelligence
analyst identified the dhow from a database of known and suspected pirate
vessels as the Yemini 18. The following day a tanker called the Happy Bird was
approached by two skiffs travelling at speed around 150 nautical miles
southeast of Oman. British warship, the Fort Victoria, responding to the call was able to locate and
board the Yemini 18 and 13 suspected pirates were detained. With the help of British prosecutors, all the
men were convicted of operating a pirate ship, and lying in wait to attack
peaceful seafarers, but acquitted of attacking the Happy Bird because the court
could not be sure that they were responsible. Eight of the accused were
sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, three aged between 16 and 18 were sentenced
to two-and-a-half years imprisonment and one, aged 12, was conditionally
discharged. Another youth was acquitted because he was under the age of
criminal responsibility.
Somehow , Paul and
Rachel survived 13 months in captivity before their eventual release in
November 2010. Western nations responded by sending multinational naval forces
to conduct patrols in order to secure a safe corridor for shipping, which
included a combined EU unit called Operation Atalanta. As piracy began to affect fishing and tourism
in the Seychelles in 2010, British prosecutors were invited to the islands to
begin a scheme, funded by the Foreign Office and the United Nations. The Seychelles project comes to an end in
March 2015 when British prosecutors leave the islands and local prosecutors
take over the job themselves.
The last,
unsuccessful, pirate attack off the Somali coast took place exactly a year ago
on February 13 2014, although Somali pirates are still holding 30 hostages. By
comparison, however, four years ago they were holding 736 hostages and 32
ships. The EU Naval Force, known as NavFor had its mandate extended until
December 2016 and plans to help other countries in the region strengthen their
own maritime capabilities. A spokesman said that 'whilst Somali piracy has
reduced significantly, the threat from piracy still remains'.
Very
interesting – sailors and those involved in the trade would feel relieved
indeed.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
16th Feb
2015.
Article excerpted from DailyMail.co.uk.
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