The Somali government says the rampant piracy along its coasts can be suppressed, if it is given the money to do so. The VOA reports:
Somalia’s new government says it would be able to deal decisively with the piracy problems off its shores if the international community would provide logistical support and supervision to its navy. This comes after Somali pirates defied international naval powers and are holding hostage the capital of an American ship on a lifeboat in the Indian Ocean. The pirates tried to hijack U.S ship Maersk Alabama Wednesday, but Captain Phillips thwarted the takeover by offering himself as a hostage.
Abdulrahman Haji Ibbi is the Somali minister for Fisheries. He tells reporter Peter Clottey that if such support had been forthcoming, the pirates would not have posed the problems they now causing off the Somali coast.
All this this time, and the problem was a failure to communicate. And nothing communicates better than money.
“What they could have done, which we have told them many times is that the Somali new government wants to solve once and for all the problem of the piracy of the Somali seawaters. That the international community could help us in a very simple manner giving us the kind of support that our Somali coast guards will like to actually tackle all these problems and we will do it. We use to do it and we have been doing it during the Islamic Courts of Union we knew each other and the problem is not the water. The problem is land so and we don’t want the problems happening now to continue,” he said.
Haji Ibbi said the international community has been reluctant to help with the new government’s effort to resolve the piracy menace.
“We have presented requests to all of them, all of them. There is not a single member of the international community that my president or prime minister has not mentioned this problem to. They mention the problem of piracy to all the people of foreign governments that they have met since the new government was formed and none has actually given us the kind of response that we have expected from them. We are not actually complaining, but what we are saying is to help the community to help the people and we are saying please help us because we can actually do this job in a very secure manner. And they know very well that we can do it,” Haji Ibbi noted.
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16 Comments
1. bogie wheel:“If he’d just pay me the money he spends to get me to stop robbin’ him … I’d stop robbin’ him!”
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:20 pm 2. rumcrook:its bizzare on a scale I cant comprehend.
that these merchant ships dont keep a locked armory they can access if attacked.
thier is no law keeping them from having a hidden easily accesable armory and protecting themselves from pirates.
problem solved.
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:22 pm 3. Alexis:The problem with paying Danegeld is that the Dane always comes back.
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:45 pm 4. Walt:I say we take them at their word
Apr 9, 2009 - 8:56 pm 5. Mike:Though some word combos sound absurd
Somali is a word that sings
Trips off your tongue like bluebird wings
But trouble comes when e’re I hear
The word Somali placed too near
A word that sounds like government
It’s then I sniff a certain scent
That tells me something is not right
And caution forms afore I bite
The simplest thing I guess to do
Is arm the willing merchant crew
Then when the pirate grapple flies
The first man up the ladder dies
I have a better use for the money — return a battleship to service. Also takes care of the communication problem. Nothing says “Please stop pirating” like a broadside of 16-inch landing all over Piratetown.
Apr 9, 2009 - 9:44 pm 6. Beverly:Blow them out of the water on sight. Problem solved. As for the captain: if they refuse to return him, they get hulled. Start by blowing up their buddies: give them 10 minutes to think it over, them Blammo. Repeat as necessary until the Lesson Is Learned.
Never, never, never give them ransom. “When once you pay the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane.” –old English proverb, natch.
Apr 9, 2009 - 10:13 pm 7. Habu:I was unaware ACORN was speaking for the Somali gov’t and do’in shakedowns just like here in the States.
Add Somali to my Nuke List, or at least my carpet bombing list for what good does it do mankind?
Apr 9, 2009 - 10:13 pm 8. trangbang68:He’s just giving Obama an out. Why take military action when a bailout will work. As long as the warlords don’t get bonuses out of the bailout.
Apr 9, 2009 - 10:16 pm 9. NahnCee:“Add Somali to my Nuke List, or at least my carpet bombing list for what good does it do mankind?”
I’m perfectly satisfied with leaving them to kill each other and starve to death just like we have been doing for the past 20 years, since they decided it was such good idea to drag the dead body of an American soldier through their dusty towns. Why waste a perfectly good bomb when famine and their own insanity will take care of the majority of them?
Apr 9, 2009 - 10:31 pm 10. Bob Murphy:The thing that just cracks me up is that the naval assets in the area that are constrained by lawyers and wimpiness are probably worth more than the whole of Somalia and they are incapable of putting up a chopper and destroying every fast boat out at sea full of armed men.
Trial?
Bullshit.
Kill em all.
End of problem.
Why give someone far out in sea in a speedboat full of weapons the presumption of reason.
I’m embarrassed for my civilization.
Apr 9, 2009 - 11:24 pm 11. Brock:Mike for President.
Apr 10, 2009 - 3:56 am 12. Herb:The United States Navy made it’s bones by curing a piracy problem in the western Med in 1808.
All this is doing is showing impotence. Placing armed parties on (not even all) of the ships transiting this area and enabling them to go hot when necessary is the simple and time honored solution. If there is concern that some Somali fisherman in distress might get ignored, that can be addressed by a Spanish or Dutch or even French Safety Patrol.
In this area there are two kinds of vessels: potential victims and pirates. Size is the first sieve.
This isnt hard.
Apr 10, 2009 - 7:22 am 13. 49erDweet:Why waste time with their comic-opera national “government”? Don’t these “Piratetowns” try to make lawful livings off the sea?
If so, do some demonstration near-destruction of maritime harbor facilities in open water from a gazillion miles away, out of the blue, and let the locals sort it out.
If not, or if the locals can’t cut it, erase “near” from the previous sentence.
Else exchange our captain for a boatload of lawyers, and then steam away.
Apr 10, 2009 - 7:32 am 14. 49erDweet:Thanks, “W“, for the great edit feature. [Delete this after reading, if you wish]
Apr 10, 2009 - 7:36 am 15. Morenuancedthanyou:John Bolton in an interview currently on FOX News:
Apr 10, 2009 - 10:02 am 16. Herb:“Our military talked to NATO allies about this [pirate situation] before, and many of our other [sic] NATO allies didn’t want to do anything about it because they were worried that they would be accused of violating the human rights of the pirates if they took military action.”
This reminds me of an American cigarette commercial:
“You’ve come a long way, Baby, to get where you’ve got to today!”
Is there no way back?
Back in the day the Yurps couldnt be bothered with the Barbary gang either. Thought it less expensive to pay the tribute. I still say Lloyds ought to step up the premiums. Even if the crew ransom is the responsibility of the Owner, the taking of the vessel hazards the vessel. Anything can happen.
This is just stupid.
Apr 10, 2009 - 10:41 am