Quote: The Militia Mindset

“We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”
Interview with the Somali Pirate, Sugule Ali, via satellite phone from deck of a seized Ukranian merchant ship carrying heavy weapons.

Comments

[moon]

queries: 1) how does Pirate Ali define "our seas"; 2) does a clear boundary exist between recognized Somali and international waters?

[Eminence Grise]

1) how does Pirate Ali define "our seas";

Probably much like pirates have always defined loot on captured ships: everything not nailed down is ours, and if we can pry it up it's not nailed down.

2) does a clear boundary exist between recognized Somali and international waters?

I have to think there was back when Somalia had a government and honored treaties and such, but now it rests on the willingness/ability of other nations to enforce international boundaries.

As I understand it from reading about the recent French navy raid, the problem is that shipping stopped going close to the Somali coast so the pirates (like Willie Sutton's remark about robbing banks) moved to open ocean where the ships are:

"The IMB says pirates off Somalia use “mother ships” that travel far out to sea and launch smaller boats to attack passing vessels, sometimes using rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs)."

(http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7618142.stm)

The old way of doing things is coming undone: with no Somali government to pressure to "do something" about the pirates within their jurisdiction, it will eventually fall to others to deal with them in the short term. I look to the early history of the US, and how Thomas Jefferson and Stephen Decatur dealt with the Barbary pirate states for precedent. But without someone (even a corrupt Ottoman dey) calling the shots, the pirate situation will continue to fester and probably grow worse.

More than anything else in the world, navies love going after pirates. Which is why the reluctance of the US Navy to do something is especially curious: see here (http://informationdissemination.blogspot.com/2008/09/5th-fleet-focus-pirates-not-our-problem.html) for a good overview. As I understand it, the chief problem is not tactical or operational, but political. Another datapoint in the decline of the state?

[complexfatwa]

"Another datapoint in the decline of the state?"

Definitely. Legitimacy is in the eye of the beholder. Imagine these pirates happen to seize a ship of agricultural products, and decide to redistribute those foodstuffs to the famine-plagued populace, i.e. Hizbollah or MEND. Not entirely likely given the orientation of most Somalia militias, but certainly within reasonable future-space.

[Metapundit Edgy]

If the NYT can call these guys on the satellite phone, they should ask them to dig around the ship and try to find more info on where the cargo came from and where it was heading. Could be a fun scoop for the NYT. (Here's betting that satphone link gets restricted.)

[gmoke]

from Loretta Napoleoni's _Rogue Economics_:

(165) One third of all fish consumed in the United Kingdom is poached from the Baltic and North Seas, a rogue business that is set to expand in the future. At the beginning of 2007, the Norwegian coast guard warned that in those waters illegal fishing will grow at a rate of 30% per year. Soon the majority of fish consumed in the United KIngdom will be "black fish." From fish-and-chips shops to sophisticated London restaurants, from organic markets to the frozen-food section of supermarkets, consumers will eat primarily stolen sea stock.

(176-177) Over the past decade, sea piracy has risen by 168%, and attacks have become more violent, warned the British House of Commons transport committee in July 2006. Ironically, the report on piracy came in the wake of two successful assaults on vessels carrying tsunami relief supplies to Indonesia.

Twenty-first-century pirates now look predominantly Asian, and they sail globally. They mainly operate in the Arabian Sea, Southern China, West Africa, and in the Straits of Malacca, a 500-mile corridor separating Indonesia and Malaysia, which alone every year suffer 42% of global pirate attacks. Modern Pirates have the latest technology and use hideouts in the South China Sea. "One pirate ship captured [in 1999] in Indonesia was outfitted with bogus immigration stamps, tools to forge ship documents and sophisticated radar, communications and satellite-tracking equipment."

Above all, modern pirates are businessmen engaged in the global trade of stolen goods, a trade that nets an estimated yearly $16 billion.

[Eminence Grise]

It ain't just Britain:

"The South Korean Coast Guard confirmed today that four unarmed Coast Guard officers were captured and severely beaten by the crew of a Chinese boat during a boarding operation. The Chinese boat was suspected of fishing in South Korea's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) without a permit."

"The incident began after a speedboat carrying 10 Coast Guard officers and a translator left their 3,000-ton cutter to check a suspicious fishing vessel near Gageo Island in the Yellow Sea (West Sea). Four of the 10 officers, including assistant inspector Lee Young-chul, boarded the vessel and started inspecting papers and the hold when the crew disregarded orders and sailed away from the cutter. Soon the boat was joined by a large fish cargo ship and 50 other Chinese boats in the vicinity."

"About 20 crewmembers from the cargo ship, armed with steel pipes, quickly took control of the fishing boat being inspected, beating the officers who remained in captivity for about an hour. They were released when the South Koreans released the captain of the Chinese fishing boat, who had been taken in custody to the Coast Guard cutter."

"Fishing is serious, rough business in the Yellow Sea. The numbers of Chinese fishing boats constitutes a significant threat to domestic fishing industries. South Korea only permits its inspectors to carry stun weapons, not side arms, which explains the beatings. One officer was killed recently by Chinese fisherman, the first coast guard officer killed in the line of duty in six years, according to coast guard records reported by Yonhap. North Korean coast guard officers do not get beaten by Chinese fishing crews."

http://nightwatch.afcea.org/NightWatch_20080930.htm

[lietkynes]

Just came back to the site to see what type of commentary or posts were here about the pirates. This incident of piracy off Somalia seems like an excellent example of the "hollow state" doesn't it?

[Duncan Kinder]

A similar mindset rules in Southern Italy, where the 'Ndrangheta flourishes.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-sanluca3-2008oct03,0,2350271.story

quote:

Mother and daughter railed against what they see as the national government's neglect of southern Italy, which deepens the region's poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunity. Calabria, the toe-of-the-boot region of Italy where San Luca is located, is the nation's poorest, on paper at least; the women complained that the only time they see an arm of the government it's in the form of police rounding up suspected gangsters.

"It is not fair," said Giampaolo, 34, a short woman with a quick laugh and a mane of black curls. "There are humble, respectful, generous people here. We'd like to see the presence here of the state, and not just the army."
:end_of_quote

[complexfatwa]

Found today, couple weeks after my first comment:

'Toxic waste' Behind Somali Piracy

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2008/10/2008109174223218644.html