Piracy -v- Human Rights
A not un-expected comment on the new EU flotilla being deployed to the Gulf of Aden: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...an-rights.html
What effect will this have on piracy? Little more than media hype and a few comfotable ships when escorted. If there are three hundred ships a day in the area, how about convoys or designated routes?
From the comfort of a landlubber's armchair.
davidbfpo
Blackwater meet Blackbeard
Blackwater's a little too small and just late
Hoorah, the Brits finally got a few pirates with an exchange of gunfire.
Well, the HMS Cumberland slightly outclasses a rubbermaid dhingi
Navy shoots pirate suspects dead
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the incident took place on Tuesday, when HMS Cumberland crew members tried to board a traditional wooden dhow.
If you want to blend in, take the bus
Escalation
450 miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya is stretching their AO...
Pirates take 'super tanker' towards SomaliaNAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Pirates who hijacked a crude oil tanker off the coast of Kenya are approaching a Somali port, the U.S. Navy said Monday.
The Sirius Star -- a crude "super tanker" flagged in Liberia and owned by the Saudi Arabian-based Saudi Aramco company -- was attacked on Saturday more than 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.
The crew of 25, including British, Croatian, Polish, Filippino and Saudi nationals, are reported to be safe
U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet Cmdr. Jane Campbell said the super tanker weighs more than 300,000 metric tons and "is more than three times the size of a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier."
The Good Guys Strike Back
Here's a great story from Hurriyet on-line.
Who'd a thunk the Indian Navy would be the guys to strike this kind of blow?The Indian frigate INS Tabar, one of dozens of warships from several countries protecting shipping lanes in the area, attacked the Somali pirate ship late Tuesday after coming under fire, navy spokesman Nirad Sinha was quoted by AFP as saying.
The incident came as shipping groups reported a new surge in hijackings off Somalia and the International Maritime Bureau said pirates based in the lawless African nation were now "out of control".
"The INS Tabar closed in on the mother vessel and asked her to stop for investigation," the New Delhi navy spokesman said.
"But on repeated calls, the vessels threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship" if it approached," he added.
An exchange of fire ensued, causing explosions and the Indian navy ships then used heavy guns.
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit
The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris
The pirates were dumb to threaten the ship - such a threat legitimizes a deadly response. That is all assuming the Indians didn't just blow them out of the water and then later claim they were threatened!Originally Posted by wm
Agreed. The Indian military I had contact with were professional and not hesitate to act. Good for them! A pox on all pirates, arrrggggggh!The pirates were dumb to threaten the ship - such a threat legitimizes a deadly response. That is all assuming the Indians didn't just blow them out of the water and then later claim they were threatened!
Tom
I would thunk, only the Indian Navy might do this.
What is more I fear this might be a distinctly "Indian" version of events. There were some very troubling accounts from Sierra Leone and else where as to Indian ROE.
To say it is "robust" is an understatement. Stuff goes down in Kashmir, that if done by others in other places, would cause a good deal of comment. Nuff said.
...but frankly if it was only bad guys who got hurt, who cares.
Infinity Journal "I don't care if this works in practice. I want to see it work in theory!"
- The job of the British Army out here is to kill or capture Communist Terrorists in Malaya.
- If we can double the ratio of kills per contact, we will soon put an end to the shooting in Malaya.
Sir Gerald Templer, foreword to the "Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya," 1958 Edition
The Indians are no slouches when it comes to using force, or even projecting it into the Indian Ocean....
oops
BBC News, Tuesday, 25 November 2008
Indian navy 'sank Thai trawler'
The owner of a Thai fishing trawler has said the Indian navy sank it off Somalia's coast last week after wrongly assuming it was a pirate "mother ship".
Wicharn Sirichaiekawat said the Indian frigate had attacked the Ekawat Nava 5 while it was being hijacked by pirates.
He said one of the crew had been found alive after six days in the Gulf of Aden, but that another 14 were missing.
Piracy: a few points
Given the map showing where pirate attacks happen (on BBC News weblink http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7749245.stm ), why has no convoy system been imposed? Why do ships - presumably - sail alone; is there no east/west channel designated (like the English Channel). What onshore radar coverage exists? I note the US-supported installation of ground radar in the Straits of Malacca. Radar on the island of Socotra (Yemeni territory) would be a start.
In view of the concentration in the Gulf of Aden I would be mindful of the reported refugee / people smuggling from Somalia to the Yemen; i.e. small boats full of desperate people, probably moving slowly, which could conceal pirate boats.
Given that the Indian Navy patrol alone (when originally deployed) and are not part of the Combined Task Force (CTF150 NATO plus) I am not surprised at their action. I too was sceptical the Indian frigate was challenged by pirates and then bombarded a "mother" ship - so it is now being reported it was a Thai trawler being attacked.
Will all the navies officially co-operate, under different ROE or leave it to commanders local arrangements?
What is a Thai-owned trawler doing there anyway? Never heard of commercial fishing in that area, although fishing is an unknown activity to me.
From a "landlubber" in his breakfast armchair.
davidbfpo
Last edited by davidbfpo; 11-26-2008 at 08:37 AM. Reason: Add weblink and clarify two points
well, I wouldn't hire those guards again...
Somali pirates hijack ship, British guards escape
By KATHARINE HOURELD – 28 November 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Somali pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with dozens of Indian crew members on board Friday, and three British security guards were rescued by helicopter after jumping into the sea, officials said.
A warship on patrol nearby had sent helicopters to intervene in the attack, but they arrived after pirates had taken control of the Liberian-flagged ship, diplomatic officials said on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak with media.
Still on board were 25 Indian and two Bangladeshi crew members, after the British security guards escaped by jumping into the water, the diplomats said.
the struggle against pirates
FIIA - Making a big problem smaller – extracting a functioning mini-state from a larger failed-state?
Topical comedians everywhere are having endless pirate-related fun but the story, of course, has a darker side when you look at what is happening on land and not just on the high seas.
A new country of Somaliland will not solve the problems of the Horn of Africa, but as all other international policies on Somalia seem to have failed, recognising Somaliland is surely worth considering.
If you want to blend in, take the bus
He makes good points. Conserving, supporting, and protecting a functional state makes more sense than approaching "Somalia" as an entity.
Then again, my friend as you know too well, I have been saying the same thing about the Congo for nearly 2 decades. The military dictum of reoinforcing success applies to states as well. Belgian (and certain elements of the US government) support of the Katanga Secession was the right thing to do, even though it was for the wrong reasons. Instead we tried for 40 years to do the wrong thing--preserving a region as a state--for all the right reasons. All the best intentions in the world are fruitless when the end state is unachievable.
Back on Somalia. We make a big deal about "saving" Somalia from Muslim extremism; everytime I hear that I chuckle for someday the extremists will need saving from the Somalis.
best
Tom
Words of wisdom from Thomas
With present day other locale applicability..."...Instead we tried for 40 years to do the wrong thing--preserving a region as a state--for all the right reasons. All the best intentions in the world are fruitless when the end state is unachievable."
I was thinking that the salient points made by Stan and reinforced by Tom and Ken may have much to do with this thread. But of course the rub is that in this second area, at least one of the incumbent "nations" that would be a source of a new set of possible states seems to think it is fully functional. The US/NATO coaltion also seems to be trying its damnedest to make the other main player the poster child for successful nation building efforts.
Vir prudens non contra ventum mingit
The greatest educational dogma is also its greatest fallacy: the belief that what must be learned can necessarily be taught. — Sydney J. Harris
Blackwater Plans Effort Against Piracy
Looks like Blackwater intends to send these Corsairs to Davy Jones' locker. Perhaps the real booty is in the contract, not the hijack.
And if the booty is anything like this article describes, the Corsairs will come fit with guns and lawyers, and a meager link to Barclay's (bank)
... such operations cost about $1m, not including the ransom.
...the ship-owners hire professionals, from specialist negotiators to private security firms, to transfer the ransoms.
"The professional negotiators, acting on behalf of the ship owners, get about $100,000 for their services and the lawyers receive a fee of about $300,000 for ensuring that the shipping companies are not putting themselves in any dubious positions," he explains.
If you want to blend in, take the bus
Tom
Back in grad school I took a course on African history (before it was fashionable!) and the prof said that even reasonable changes to colonial boundaries, for whatever reason, would unleash chaos across the continent. In effect, he said there was an unwritten agreement among the former colonial powers, the Superpowers (there were two back then), and the African states themselves to maintain the colonial boundaries. Bottom line was that the only thing worse than the current dysfunctional borders would be an attempt to fix them.
I take it you disagree with that line of reasoning?
I disagree in that there is a natural process that forces change: it is called war in all its various forms. Where we have consistently gone wrong in cases like the Congo --or Somalia--was that we rushed to restore and maintain rather than sort out the underlying reasons for the conflict. That the African governments themselves held similar fears is true but hardly surprising.
In the case to the Congo/Zaire, that government was a Western creation. In the era of the Cold War with proxies in either side, your professor was correct. Better to avoid conflict or if unavoidable support conflict that ends in stalemate. I would class Angola and our support first to the FNLA and later UNITA as prime examples.
Don't get me wrong: I am not an advocate of border change as a solution to be imposed from the outside. The borders in the Middle East are truly screwed up; overtime they will adjust, Should we try to adjust them, we would indeed unleash chaos.
In the case of the Congo, some of this has been going on for decades. While I was there in 1994 Shaba province was renamed Katanga and the governor drove to the ceremony in Moise Tshmobe's old car (from his days as head of the Katangan Secession in 1960-63).
Since the 'end of the Cold War' of course, the old paradigm of strategic checkmate fell apart. We have however continued to approach long standing issues like the Congo or Somalia as if we were determined to maintain that paradigm--at least in respect to maintaining borders. I found Museveni's speech/transcript in the latest Mil Review to be quite good in getting at this tendency.
I also found this to be true in 1994-1996 when warning DC that Rwanda under the RPF saw a conquest of Zaire only as an exercise in logistics. A local UNHCR Director in Goma in late 1994 was appalled when I told him that unless the killer militias in the camps were disarmed he would see an RPA brigade marching past his office. Took 24 months but it happened. Instead he--the UNHCR guy and a hell of lot of others--saw that border as a barrier.
Where does this leave us though? I would suggest that in cases like the Congo the regional players will have to work it out. I see MONUC and its 17,000 troops as a testament to UN futility. Absent a mandate to engage in offensive operations and actually take charge, MONUC is part of the problem. ultimately I believe Rwanda will reaquire territory in the Congo based on ethnic ties as well as its own historical claims.
In the case of Somalia, I believe supporting a breakway Somaliland that shows it can function as a state is the right thing to do. Djibouti is another example. Support the governments that work and allow them to draw in those who wish to join them.
best
Tom
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