Somali pirates

[Major Catastrophe]

you are wrong about piracy not carrying the death penalty, in fact it does!



http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998/ukpga_19980037_en_4#pt2-pb3

And as posted above, the death penalty is substituted by "imprisonment for life".

(5) In section 2 of the [1837 c. 88.] Piracy Act 1837 (punishment of piracy when murder is attempted), for the words “and being convicted thereof shall suffer death” there shall be substituted the words “and being convicted thereof shall be liable to imprisonment for life”.

 

[puddock]

It's certainly an important point of prison, and there are certainly people who need kept securely locked up for the benefit of the rest of us. However, I think I'd put reform just as high on my list of priorities. After all, it's an awful lot more expensive to stop a burglar burgling for thirty years by locking him up for thirty years than it is by locking him up for two years and having him out on the streets as a reformed ex-burglar for the next 28.

Orbister, can I ask where you live? It sounds like a lovely place, all pink and fluffy.....

 

[Ubergeekian]

Orbister, can I ask where you live? It sounds like a lovely place, all pink and fluffy.....

Currently around 80% of those released from HMP Barlinnie are back inside within a year. That means they have committed more crimes, which I think we would agree is a Bad Thing, OK?

In order to prevent them committing those crimes we have straight choice: either

(a) keep them in prison or

(b) change them in prison so that they don't commit more crimes on the outside

The former indubitably works (if we ignore the fact that a lot of Scotland's drug trade is run from inside prisons) but is extremely expensive and (literally) a holding measure only. I've no problem with using prison for punishment, but unless it also reforms it's not doing all it could.

A typical prisoner in for burglary is illiterate, unskilled and on drugs. Sending him out illiterate, unskilled, desperate for drugs and scared of going back to prison is never going to work as well as sending him out able to read and write, employable and clean.

I'm an almost complete pragmatist here. As long as what we do meets basic standards of human decency, I am in favour of anything which reduces crime. Don't we agree there too?

 

[TheBoatman]

Q ships

Maybe what we need is a number of Q ships patroling the area?

On frist glance look like regular bog standard boats but underneath they are boats armed to the teeth and willing to do "battle" with any pirates?

Just a thought?

Peter.

 

[David_Jersey]

It's certainly an important point of prison, and there are certainly people who need kept securely locked up for the benefit of the rest of us. However, I think I'd put reform just as high on my list of priorities. After all, it's an awful lot more expensive to stop a burglar burgling for thirty years by locking him up for thirty years than it is by locking him up for two years and having him out on the streets as a reformed ex-burglar for the next 28.

Yes. And 2 years for a first burgalry offence is probably fair enuf (ignoring the fact that for only 1 in 100 will it actually be there first offence). But for a repeat offender it is 5 years. 3rd time 7 years. locking a burglar up for 30 years may be too expensive, but IMO need to at least take him out of circulation during the prime time of his career. Rehab during that time is a bonus and for that the more time inside the better Any effect from an example to others is similarly simply a bonus.

I would favour a fixed tariff, 1st offence is a minimum of 50% the possible sentence, 2nd offence 2/3rds and 3rd the maximum.......just so folks can easily understand the potential penalties (for those who care).

Initially (first 10 years ) I think this approach would be a lot more expensive, but a tipping point would be reached and savings could then be made from a virtuous cicrle being created, less active criminals being quickly recycled = less crime = more prevention / detection = less crime.

Of course could get this approach for no extra cost if we medicalised the drug problem..........

But I doubt anything sensible will ever be done on crime or drugs - too much money and vested interests in keeping these industries going strong. and that's just from the law enforcement side!

 

[Bajansailor]

Longest Range Pirate Attack off Somalia

From an article in the e-news letter Marinelink here at http://marinelink.com/en-US/News/Article/332437.aspx

Around noon local time, 9 November 2009 the BW Lion, a Hong Kong flagged, 160,000 tons and 1,083-ft Crude Oil Tanker was attacked by pirates in two fast attack skiffs in the Indian Ocean, 400 nautical miles North East of the Seychelles and 1000 nautical miles East of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. This was the longest range of a pirate attack off the Somali coast ever.

Automatic weapons and Rocket Propelled Grenades were fired. With increasing speed and evasive maneuvers the master managed to evade the attack. No casualties were reported.

On indication of the attack an EU NAVFOR Luxemburg Maritime Patrol Aircraft, operating from the Seychelles was tasked to localize these pirates and to investigate possible further pirate activity in the vicinity of the attack position. The EU NAVFOR French warship FS Floreal was the closest available warship.

FS Floreal and the Maritime Patrol Aircraft take part in the EU NAVFOR mission Operation ATALANTA. The main tasks of Operation ATALANTA are to escort merchant vessels carrying food of the ‘World Food Program’ (WFP), the protection of vulnerable ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean and to deter and disrupt piracy.

 

[Genoa]

Piracy and kidnapping do not, in civilised countries, carry the death penalty. And no, we can't make an exception if the pirates and kidnappers are black.

Errr.... I think my poor recollection of archaic British Law does actually still say something about "Treason and trespass on royal naval property still having a death penalty..." never repeelled because it was in a seperate Act.
If we said flying the red ensign made you naval property, then there you have it.

 

[Kukri]

It is not quite correct to say that there have been no deaths; there have been killings where crew members have attempted to resist the pirates.

There are currently 165 merchant seamen being held by Somali pirates, plus the Chandlers.

It is possible to launch a small boat off the beach pretty well anywhere along the Somali coast. The "motherships" used for long range attacks are fishing boats (Yemeni, Thai, Korean, pretty well any flag) which have been captured by the pirates; the crews are retained on board and the "mothership" is released once a target vessel is captured. Unfortunately there are rather a large number of fishing vessels in the Indian Ocean at any given time.

 

[Kukri]

This piracy was active in the immediate post-WW2 period.
In 1950 I was navigating officer of a frigate given the task of suppressing or inhibiting both piracy and slavery (which the somalis are also good at). Incidentally our crew contained 16 locally entered Somali seamen.
Of course the scale was less dramatic than now. It was mostly confined to 50 miles off-shore and the boats used were slower (but our own max speed was only 17 knots) but the problem was much the same.
In a wardroom conference it was agreed that we could do little as one solitary ship patrolling the coast between Cape Gardafui and the Kenyan border. The Captain's decision was to start at Socotra and work our way southwards, sending landing parties ashore at all ports and harbours to demand of the headman that he hand over those engaged in piracy. (Remember this was a British colony/protectorate at the time.) If he did not co-operate, we destroyed all boats in the harbour over 35 feet in length.
This solved the problem, but do remember that the Royal Navy at that time had considerable discretion. We were not controlled by a Minister and his bum-boys and only reported the results, not the methods used. At that time we had an effective navy.
Dealing with Somalis is not an ideal pleasure. The 16 we bore were a surly and difficult lot, especially when compared with the 18 Goanese who were civilised.
Please also note that at that period, with much of the interior farming etc in the hands of white settlers, there was no famine or any other shortages. Those communities that remained peaceful enjoyed some small prosperity: their small-scale epidemics were sorted out. The suppresssion of slavery was popular, and there was a semblance of justice.
I say semblance; that is another story.
The Empire was by no means all bad.

Just a pedantic little point; Somalia was not a British colony or protectorate in 1950; it had been handed back to Italian administration in 1949. I was living in Mogadishu in the late Fifties so I am fairly confident about this. I do incidentally recall helping to take care of an RN rating who was landed to us for treatment following an injury; his ship was on anti-piracy patrol, but I don't recall her name.

 

[dolphin]

seized vessel

news from this morning

qte
Greek bulker seized
Order Shipping’s handysize Filitsa taken by pirates over 1,000 miles off Mogadishu.
unqte

with the weather improvement the pirate become more activ !

regards


www.neatcss.com

 

[binch]

Sorry, but Britain took over Italian Somaliland after the war (exact date not known, but it was before 1949). In 1951, there were riots in Mog when Britain wanted to hand the country back to the Italians and we had to land a party to restore order and authority to the Civil Power.
I do not know what happened after that as we were relieved by another ship and had the pleasure of going on a hydrographic cruise of Mauritius, Cocos, Chagos etc. Much more nicer.

 

[lenseman]

Colonial

By the end of the 19 th century the Somali homeland was partitioned into the five colonial territories referred to earlier: French Somaliland, British Somaliland, the British area known as the Northern Frontier District (NFD) indirectly ruled by Kenya, Italian Somaliland and Ethiopian-controlled parts of the Ogaden. During the late 19 th century, the Ethiopian king Menelik II fought with the competing European powers to secure the Ogaden (Somali-inhabited areas) and claim them as Ethiopian territories. These divisions crossed traditional clan boundaries and disrupted centuries old seasonal migrations. The British colonial government meanwhile encouraged the commercialisation of livestock production. It was a policy that affected the entire social, economic and political culture of the pastoralists; their livelihood, security of food supplies and their relationship with the environment.

From 1899-1920, a local sufi brotherhood leader, was able to launch a successful dervish resistance to Ethiopian and British imperial designs. The resistance ended with his death following a Royal Air Force bombardment. The years 1900-1920 served as a period for colonial consolidation. The British were eager to seize northern Somalia (the former kingdom of Adal) as it could serve as an important source of food produce for its strategically important naval base at Aden in Yemen. The French desired an outpost along the Red Sea to strengthen links with French Indo-China, while the Italians sought to claim territory in the colonial race and thus were able to secure the Banaadir coast. The 1930s Italy, then ruled by Mussolini, recruited more than 40 000 Somali to pursue its claims to Ethiopia, particularly the Ogaden region. The Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie also recruited smaller numbers of Somali nomads. Hostilities between the two imperial powers continued after Italy took the Ogaden and had not come to an end at the time when Italy entered World War 2 in 1940.

That year Somali troops helped Italy take the British Somaliland Protectorate but seven months later, in March 1941, the allied army retook both Somalia and the Ogaden. For the period 1941-1949, Great Britain held all Somali areas except French Somaliland. This period of unity in a region that had originally been under the control of separate groups and then divided among different imperial rulers, helped create a pan Somali identity that would become stronger during the independence struggle. During this period, the British and Somalis also came to accept each other as quasi allies in light of Italian settlements and political organisation within the region. Thus, the British encouraged the Somalis in the southern parts to organise politically. This ushered in the establishment of the first political party in Somalia in 1943; the Somali Youth Club, renamed the Somali Youth League (SYL) in 1947. The SYL enjoyed support mainly from the Marjeerteen clan of the Daarood clan-family. In response to this, another political party sprung up in the south; the Hisbia Digil Mirifle (HDM) that enjoyed tacit support from the Italians against the SYL. The SYL enjoyed some measure of support in northern parts of British Somaliland, however the two main parties that emerged in this area were the Somali National League (SNL) which enjoyed Isaaq clan support and the United Somali Party (USP) which enjoyed Dir and Daarood clan support. With the end of World War 2 in 1945, southern Somalia was however still legally an Italian colony, and the future of Somalia fell to the Allied Council of Foreign Ministers.


In January 1948, the Council sent a Commission to Mogadishu to ascertain the desires of the Somalis themselves. The SYL assumed a pro-independence stance with other groups protesting in favour of Italian rule. The SYL presented a proposal to the Commission calling for Somalia to be reunited under a 10 year trusteeship by an international body as a precursor to independence. The HDM departed from its pro-Italian stance and made a similar proposal, but calling for a 30 year trusteeship period. A mix of groups also put in a proposal for a return to Italian rule. Within the Council, under pressure from the USA and USSR, and despite mass Somali protests, the British returned the Ogaden and parts of the hinterlands, such as the Haud region, to Ethiopia. The Commission presented a plan similar to the SYL proposal to the Council, however, the matter was never taken up as in-fighting amongst the Ministers prevented a resolution resulting in the matter being referred to the UN General Assembly for consideration. In 1949, the UN GA voted for southern Somalia to be placed under Italian trusteeship while north western Somalia remained a British protectorate. The UN established the Italian Trusteeship Administration, known by its Italian acronym AFIS (Admministrazione Fiduciaria Italiana della Somalia), to prepare the territory for independence. A UN Advisory Council was to observe AFIS and report to the UN Trusteeship Council situated at UN headquarters.

The separate colonial policies and development objectives of the imperial powers would have a profound effect on the development of the Somali post-independence political culture and precipitate integration problems. While British Somaliland stagnated, the Italians, under the auspices of AFIS, made positive progress in terms of empowering the Somalis to politically prepare themselves for independence. While there was an initial distrust between AFIS and the SYL, positive political empowerment via Somali-led initiatives granted AFIS legitimacy in the eyes of most Somalis. In 1950, AFIS established the Territorial Council, which was to act as a nascent legislative body for Somalia. The Territorial Council consisted of 35 members, dominated by the SYL and HDM. The Council gained experience in procedural and legislative matters as it participated in debates of proposed AFIS legislation for the territory. AFIS also set-up Municipal and Rural Councils to facilitate local participation in political affairs. Moreover, in addition to these political developments, AFIS also implemented a 7 year development plan in 1954, based on USAID and UNDP blueprints. These plans had positive pay-offs, education enrolment doubled and exports trebled in the period 1954-1960. However, educational progress was hampered by use of numerous languages (Arabic, English, Italian), and despite increased exports, balance of payments deficits persisted. In 1956, elections were held for the first time in Italian Somaliland to elect a new 70 seat Legislative Assembly that was to replace the Territorial Council. The SYL won the majority, claiming 43 of the 70 seats. The SYL leader of the assembly, Mr. Abdulaahi Iise was the first Prime Minister of a local government that would prepare for independence. Iise composed a government of 5 ministerial level posts that was responsible for domestic affairs. AFIS continued controlling areas of foreign policy, defense, external finance and also retained a veto on all affairs brought before the Legislative Assembly until 1958. The Iise government, whose term was from 1956-1960, was perhaps one of the most stable periods in Somali politics. However, it was a period fraught with intra-SYL squabbles as opposed to SYL/HDM squabbles across party lines. A pivotal debate in the Legislative Assembly of Italian Somaliland centred on the question of a unitary versus federal state. The HDM pushed for federalism fearing domination by the SYL, who won the debate in favour of a unitary state based on its numerical strength in the Assembly. Mr. Aadan Abdillah Usmaan, who served as the speaker of parliament under the Iise government, was to be the first President of an independent Somalia.

These empowering political developments led the Somalis in British Somaliland to protest in 1956 calling for a local representative government to be established and to prepare for integration of the two Somalilands. While the Italians had taken progressive steps in southern Somaliland, the British made little effort to administratively and politically prepare northern Somaliland for independence and unification. Thus, in 1957 a Legislative Council was created in British Somaliland. It consisted of 6 members appointed by the British governor to represent the major clan-families in the region. It was further expanded in 1958.


In 1958, elections were held in Italian Somaliland for its respective legislative body that would merge with the British Somaliland Assembly into a new National Assembly following independence. The independence National Assembly was to consist of 123 seats: 90 for Italian Somaliland and 33 for British Somaliland. In the Italian Somaliland elections, the HDM and other political parties boycotted the elections based on accusations that the SYL had tampered with the electoral process. This resulted in the SYL winning 81 of the 90 seats allocated to Italian Somaliland. The SYL had expanded its base, and gave representation to most of the major clan-families in Italian Somaliland. Iise continued as leader in Italian Somaliland. In early 1960, elections were held in British Somaliland for its respective body that would merge to form the National Assembly. The SNL and USP won all but one of the 33 seats allocated to the protectorate. Mohammad Ibrahim Egal (SNL) was chosen as the Prime Minister in British Somaliland to lead a four-man government in the north just prior to independence.

Somalia became independent from Italian and British colonial rule in 1960.

http://www.iss.co.za/AF/profiles/Somalia/Politics.html

 

[Kukri]

I wan't around in '51, but this is an interesting historical digression! I am fairly sure that Italy occupied British Somaliland in 1940 but Britain reoccupied it and took over the rest of Italian Somaliland in 1941-ish. Italian Somaliland was given to Italy to administer under a UN Mandate in '49.

I fancy your "support of the civil power" may have been more because a Somali political party wanted Independence Now (standard form in fifties Africa) than because the Somalis liked the British better than the Italians. I don't think they drew much of a distinction between us.

Since '91, of course, the former British Somaliland has been operating as an independent and fairly well governed country under the name of Somaliland, but no nation has recognised it.

I must agree that even at its zenith of peace and prosperity, immediately before independence, Mogadishu was a bit of a dump.

The water that came out of the taps was brackish, and to get drinking water one had to drive into the town centre taking a couple of suitable containers. There was electric power but there was a short spell of darkness each evening as the power station switched from the smaller to the larger diesel engine.

 

[Ubergeekian]

Errr.... I think my poor recollection of archaic British Law does actually still say something about "Treason and trespass on royal naval property still having a death penalty..." never repeelled because it was in a seperate Act.
If we said flying the red ensign made you naval property, then there you have it.

Sorry, but it's poor recollection. The maximum sentence was changed to life imprisonment in 1998. Since then we have become bound by international treaty obligations neither to have nor to introduce the death penalty for any crimes at all, ever.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1998...7_en_4#pt2-pb3

 

[Kukri]

I think that the economics of shipping probably have quite a significant effect here, where ship owners are always looking for ways to cut costs, especially manning costs.

I visited a container ship in the harbour here today - 17,000 tonnes deadweight, and only 16 crew, including the 4 engine room staff (2 engineers and 2 oilers).
The Emma Maersk is one of the largest container ships in the world (she can carry 12,000 20' TEU containers), and has (I think) only a few more crew than the one I saw today.
Emma would have size and speed on her side as a deterrent to pirates - have you seen the freeboard on these huge ships?

The 'little' (relatively) ship I visited has 'low' freeboard (compared to Emma) - it would be relatively easy for a gang of pirates to sling their grappling hooks over the rails on a dark night - especially as they know that the odds of anybody seeing them are very low, as the ship manning levels are often barely above the minimum required by the Safe Manning Document.
And as for a little (relatively) loaded tanker, proceeding at a relatively sedate speed - they could almost step on board from a 'fishing boat'. Easy pickings. Especially as they know that the cargo is worth millions of US$.

By way of contrast, a typical general cargo ship of 10,000 tonnes deadweight in the 50's might have had well over 60 crew on board - my Dad was on one of these vessels going through the South China Seas (or maybe Malacca Straits) and he told me about how they had fire teams on constant watch on deck with fire hoses ready when passing through pirate infested waters. Modern day ships just do not have the man power to do this, and it would be unreasonable to expect the operating crew to do this in addition to their normal jobs on the ship.

Maybe the vessels' P & I Clubs will now start insisting on additional armed guards (working shifts around the clock?) being carried on board ships running the gauntlet of the Somali pirates - but this then leads to further possible complications re lifeboat and liferaft capacity being exceeded..... 3 men per shift would not be unreasonable (port, starboard and stern?), and if they do 4 hours on, 8 off then that is another 9 crew members on the list. They would still need 6 extra crew if they just did 'only' 6 hours on and 6 off at night.

Quite right, except for the technical detail that piracy is covered by hull underwriters under ITC Hulls and not by the P&I Club (although, interestingly, it is covered by the War Clubs, if you get your war cover from a War Club)

The extension of activity further out into the Indian Ocean has "changed the game" a bit; I think this is in part because of the sucess of EUNAVFOR in stopping attacks in the Aden-Socotra corridor, but one has to start assuming that any ship transiting the Indian Ocean would need such guards, if they are the solution.