WardheerNews Editorial
Lately, the western media has particularly focused on stories of the Somalia piracy, which in effect has received more coverage than the often-talked clan conflicts, or the ever-growing muscle of the Youth fundamentalist group Al-Shabab that hostage the fate of the Somali people.
Armed with speed boats and sophisticated light arms, Somali pirates, overtly supported by local and regional authorities, have undoubtedly enabled the highly effective and organized piracy to go on the Indian Ocean and disrupt a key shipping lane and a transit corridor for “20 percent of world’s oil” supply without any signs of slowing down.
To date, the Somalia piracy covers a large area on the Indian Ocean stretching between the Red Sea to the coast of Kenya. So far over 15 ships and close to 400 hostages have fallen victim to this enterprise.
The West has yet to fully understand the growing phenomenon of Somalia piracy. The most common view in the west summarily dismisses the whole piracy enterprise in the Somalia coast as a banditry, opportunist and criminal cartel that feeds on the vacuum created by the demise of the Somalia state. Some even brand it as “terrorism.”
But a more comprehensive view, often held by those who know Somalia well, persuasively explains it in terms of Somali’s national interest, whatever that is, and the protection and preservation of that nation’s marine resources. The kidnapping and abduction of ships and boats within the boundaries of the internationally recognized waters of Somalia, which is where most piracy took place, maintains this view point, is in essence a form of loosely organized national defense mechanism of what legally belongs to Somalia.
WardherNews conducted an unscientific survey and called its regular focus groups (two groups with each consisting of 15 Somali citizens) to gauge the collective opinion on the piracy in Somalia. About 70 percent of those who participated in our sampling strongly viewed the piracy as a form of crude, primitive, if you will, national defense of the country’s territorial waters.
Almost all of those participated in the focus groups agreed that with the absence of any meaningful national defense system (Somalia has not had its own government for the last 17 years), any protection to their territorial waters from violators is dubbed as “people defending their God-given” natural marine resources. Despite that piracy is illegal internationally, most Somalis seem to agree that it is the only way available to protect what is left off of the Somali national existence.
Since 2000, commercial ships have illegally fished in Somali waters and dumped nuclear waste materials and urban refuse from EU countries (in particular European based Mafiosi companies that have a long history of illegal dumping of radioactive and waste materials) with impunity. By some accounts, Somalia’s rare corral ecosystem has been damaged beyond repair, thus risking the loss of fish and marine resources for good. This is a fact that both Western countries, their one-track minded journalists and the United Nations Organization are well aware of, yet chose to remain silent and oblivious to the complaints registered by Somalis
Piracy is not that uncommon in societies where the national state is either weak or non-existent. For example, during the revolutionary war of America, George Washington and the founding fathers strategically commissioned pirates to protect the nation’s waters. For that America of 1776, involved in a bitter war with a disproportionately more powerful Britain, there was no other way for George Washington and the revolutionary leadership to protect the territorial waters of the nation. Despite that Britain dismissed the commissioned pirates as banditry and criminals, Americans in general viewed their pirate militia as volunteer sons and daughters responding to a call for a higher purpose.
When observed closely, it appears a parallel reality is taking place in Somalia. Regional governments are implicitly supporting the piracy in the Indian Ocean; some of the ransoms so far paid, as much as $150 million by some estimates, is trickling down to the region’s mainland residents and authorities. In return, the militia who is conducting the piracy are getting protection and are being welcomed by their communities. How else can one explain that a disorganized pirate group can successfully abduct a tanker like the Sirus Star carrying crude oil worth of over $100 million or a first class ship carrying Russian-made T72 tanks?
Neither the West nor the rest of the world have any sway or an effective channel of communication with the abductors, thus leaving the respective owners of the ships abducted to directly negotiate with the pirates. But here comes a freelance interlocutor in the person of Michelle Ballarin. Ballarin, an American business women based in Virginia, notes that “she is trying to market a solution for failed states through Black Star,” a private “fortune soldier” type army. She proposed that she would train 500 Somali seafarers to patrol their own waters and discourage locals from turning to piracy. Call this clarion call a charlatan call coming from someone who understands less about the complex Somalia problem than about making business venture.
The Somalia piracy is part and parcel of the larger crisis resulting from the failed Somali state and the negligent and hands-off attitude of the world community. Neither a band aid approach, like the one suggested by the Virginia millionaire, Ballarin, nor organizing more aggressive military actions, like the proposed naval blockade touted by the current Newsweek article, could be a solution to the Somalia piracy crisis. As a matter of fact Newsweek’s suggestion of military blockade would prove to be more disruptive to this key transit corridor.
WardheerNews believes that the real solution lays off-shore. Short of reinstating the Somali nation state would successfully solve either the piracy problem at hand or larger terrorist activities which lately became a main stay in Somalia. The world community must articulate a comprehensive strategy to stop the piracy in Somalia without further violating the territorial integrity of Somalia.
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