The United States is seeking international authorisation allowing foreign navies to pursue Somali pirates on land as well as at sea in an effort to curb the growing threat to international shipping lines.
A draft proposal granting nations that are combating piracy permission to “take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia” is being circulated among UN Security Council members before a key meeting on the crisis next week.
The US’s Deputy Ambassador to the UN said that the right of “hot pursuit” on to land was a logical extension of international maritime efforts to combat the pirate scourge. “We will leave no stone unturned in dealing with this issue,” Alejandro Wolff said. It remains far from clear, however, whether UN Security Council members would be prepared to give blanket approval to such aggressive interdiction, given its potential for misuse.
The anarchy and lawlessness pervading Somalia are largely to blame for incubating piracy there and while there is little appetite for intervention, most experts believe that stabilising the country is the only real solution to the problem.
Somalia’s neighbours are also suspicious of American motives after its disastrous decision to back Ethiopian troops in overthrowing the Islamic Courts Government at the end of 2007. The invasion threw Somalia back into violent civil war with the ousted Islamists locked in battle with the Ethiopians, government troops and a small, beleaguered African Union force.
Ethiopia plans to pull out its troops at the end of this year, setting the stage for an Islamist overthrow of the weak Western-backed transitional Government, reigniting American fears that Somalia will become an al-Qaeda haven.
Many of the details of the proposal remain unclear. Some interpretations suggest that it would permit foreign forces to launch attacks on pirate bases on land regardless of circumstances. Others suggested it would only allow “hot pursuit”.
British officials declined to say whether they would support the proposal, which they were studying for legal difficulties and implications. International antipiracy efforts have repeatedly run into legal mazes over sovereignty, human rights issues and jurisdiction.
The only country to chase Somali pirates on to land is France, which sent commandos on shore this year in pursuit of pirates fleeing with their ransom after releasing a captured French yacht. They did so with the permission of the Somali Government, which the US-backed resolution would also insist on.
The UN mandate under which Nato, EU, US and other foreign navies operate there authorises war-ships to pursue pirates into Somali territorial waters only, allowing pirates to escape to well-established bases on land.
At least 16 ships are being held for ransom close to the pirate lairs of Eyl and Haradheere, once sleepy fishing villages that have grown wealthy on the proceeds of ransoms. Among them are the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million (£67 million) of crude oil, and the Faina, a Ukrainian cargo ship carrying 30 Soviet-era tanks bound for southern Sudan.
Somali pirates have earned as much as $120 million this year in ransoms, according to the UN envoy to the country.
Maritime experts, diplomats and ministers meeting in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, agreed to work together to develop a common position on ransom payments and to formulate a more coordinated approach to piracy.
Lord West of Spithead, the British Security MInister, said that the UK had signed a memorandum of understanding to allow pirate suspects picked up at sea by the Royal Navy to be handed over to Kenya in an attempt to clarify some of the legal difficulties. “Nations are very wary of taking pirates on board their ships,” he said. “It’s extremely difficult. Where can you put them if you are not going back to your home country.”
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