Europeans Start Realizing that Somali Piracy Cannot Be Solved through Military Intervention

Members of the European Parliament seem to have understood that the termination of the Somali piracy phenomenon necessitates the formation of a representative and peaceful Somali government that will be helped by the international community to impose national order and discipline – as it was at the days of the great Somali presidents Siad Barre and Abdirashid Sharmarke.

What is reported in the 84th update of the Ecoterra press release is greatly promising. From Filip Kaczmarek of Poland to the Portuguese Ana Gomes, a great consensus is about to be formed in order to oppose the madness of a military intervention in Somalia, which under the pretext of combating the piracy would trigger a third Afghanistan with calamitous consequences for Africa, the targeted continent of starvation and deprivation.

I herewith republish the press release integrally.

84th Update 2008-12-18 18:55:06 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

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Day 85 - 2020 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two-and-a-half months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

While naval sources spoke of a fast release of the weapons-carrier, a Ukrainian news agency reported on Thursday that the FAINA may be released by Christmas. An unidentified pirate spokesman was quoted by UNIAN as saying that the vessel and its crew could be released by Christmas if Ukraine was to get involved in negotiations directly. "I want Ukraine to understand what is going on here. There is a lot of concern that Ukraine has not been sufficiently represented during the three-month negotiations", the pirate spokesman said by telephone. "The negotiation team's goal is to help the Ukrainians [on board] to get home by Christmas". The crew is made up of 17 Ukrainians, three Russians and one Latvian. "There hasn't been one Ukrainian involved in the negotiation process. There isn't a Ukrainian anywhere, no negotiator, no press", the representative said.

The representative said that the pirates are refusing to have anything to do with the British lawyer who is representing Ukraine in the negotiations. "We want to have direct contact with the Ukrainians, not through a British lawyer, whose only interest is money", the pirate representative said. The Ukrainian owner of the vessel is already in Kenya. The pirate spokesman also said that the ship was out of fuel. "I want you to know that the crew is free to move around. They can walk around on board the ship and they are all healthy. The problem is there isn't any fuel", he said. The body of deceased captain Vladimir Kolobkov had still not been collected from the ship and without fuel their will be no cooling. However, we have been ensured that at the moment there is still enough fuel, which has been regularly delivered to the ship.

ECOTERRA Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held fully responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships --------

The Malaysian tugboat MASINDRA 7 with submerged barge ADM 1 in tow had stopped last night near Bereeda to repair one of the engines, but didn't succeed. The pirates and the Indonesian crew of 11 have so far worked together to avoid a disaster for the boat and crew deriving from the submerged barge, which the tug tows, and the engine failure. So far the barge has not been cut off yet and the tug can only move with around 4 knots towards Eyl. The crew is said to be all well. Due to the engine and barge problem the crew and pirates have realized that they might not be able to reach Eyl and decided to stay in Hafun awaiting a quick solution from the Malaysian owner MASINDRA SHIPPING, Jalan Pelabuhan Utara, Bandar Sultan Sulaiman, Port Klang Malaysia. The Indonesian embassy in Nairobi is informed.

MV BOSPHORUS PRODIGY is on her way to Eyl.

Negotiations concerning the Turkish owned MV YASA NESLIHAN seem to have come to a conclusion.

Food on MV BISCAGLIA is reported to run short because a large gang of over 20 pirates is on board.

With the latest captures and releases now at least 18 foreign vessels with a total of at least 351 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 131 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 58 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 18). Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures.

Other related news -----

Members of the European Parliament familiar with Africa and security issues said the pirates won’t be stopped by force alone and were divided over the causes of piracy and Europe's role in Somalia in the recent past. The MEPs say that the solution won't be found at sea. The real problem lies at the heart of Somali politics and its lack of government. "It is possible to protect ships, it is good to have the first naval mission in this region but it is not enough to solve the problem. The only way would be stabilisation in Somalia", said MEP Filip Kaczmarek of Poland, who drafted last year’s parliamentary report on the Horn of Africa.

The MEPs listed the facts they said are being overlooked:

-Years of anarchy followed the ousting of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991

-United Nations peace keeping missions ended unsuccessfully in 1993 and 1995

-Civil strife, drought and rampant inflation have turned Somalia into the world's worst humanitarian crisis, says the UN.

-3.2 million Somalis need humanitarian aid, 1.1 million are displaced internally

-A 3,400 strong African Union peacekeeping mission is in place

Ana Gomes, a Portuguese Socialist and Vice-President of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence agreed. "I am not against this mission. But it will not manage to stop piracy as long as a functioning state is lacking in Somalia. If it is just this mission and nothing else I am against".

There were more than 100 acts of piracy in the region last year, with Somali pirates believed to have extorted around 90 million Euro. The newly formed Atalanta mission will try to quell attacks using up to six frigates and three military patrol aircraft from the UK, France and Greece. Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium are expected to contribute at a later stage.
Kaczmarek said the pirates "should be treated as terrorists and the normal strategy is not to negotiate with terrorists". However, Gomes disagreed and said, "The pirates are not necessarily terrorists. One must understand that they were initially just fishermen that tried to defend their fishing grounds which were plundered by foreign fishing boats, particularly from the EU".

Both MEPs said that to bring about change in the region the EU must focus all of its attentions on bringing stability to Somalia. "What is needed is an effort to bring Somalia to a situation of actual governance, otherwise it will further descend into violence and become a save haven for extremists and terrorists", Gomes said. Kaczmarek said though that, "In Somalia there is no power that control things, so the pirates are not afraid of anybody. It could be stopped on the land by local, regional or national authorities, but they simply don't exist".

The United States hopes China, which suspended military contacts with Washington in October, will soon resume them to work together against piracy in the Gulf of Aden, U.S. defense officials said on Thursday, as reported by Reuters. "It is a fact that the Chinese suspended 'mil-to-mil' dialogue with the Department of Defense in general and U.S. Pacific Command", said Navy Adm. Timothy Keating, who commands all U.S. forces in Asia and the Pacific. The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but Washington remains Taiwan's strongest ally and biggest arms supplier. Beijing has vowed in the past to bring Taiwan under its rule, by force if necessary.

Keating told reporters prospects of China sending warships to the seas off Somalia to help international efforts against piracy could provide a "springboard" for resuming ties. "We are in dialogue in various agencies and commands in an attempt to provide information to the People's Liberation Army navy should their country decide to deploy ships", he said. "This augurs well for increased cooperation and collaboration between the Chinese military forces and U.S. Pacific Command forces", Keating said. "So I'm cautiously optimistic". Somalia seems to bring old foes together, while itself it collapses due to in-fighting.

Egypt has called for setting up an international tribunal by a United Nations Security Council resolution to try pirates arrested off Somalia's coast. Assistant Foreign Minister Ambassador Abdel Hamid Marzouk, the Foreign Ministry's official in charge of the piracy file, said that Egypt has strongly denounced the alarming phenomenon off Somalia's coast and in the Gulf of Aden. "Egypt further supports international efforts aimed at combating this phenomenon", he noted. Marzouk said the United Nations Security Council is expected to issue a resolution backing international efforts to fight pirates. Accordingly, he added, the resolution would result in forming an international liaison group to coordinate anti-piracy efforts. "Egypt will be a member state at this liaison group", Marzouk said.

Piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia are the tip of the iceberg of the problems with which that state is faced at present, a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation says and continues: "We expect that destroying the material base of piracy in the region will contribute to the overall stabilization of the situation in Somalia and constitute a first step in restoring normal conditions of life in that country".

MediaChannel 2008’s Most Underreported Stories (category Global) : Somalia is a failed state, and the US is keeping it that way. We’re hearing tons about Somali pirates, but almost nothing about the desperate chaos in Somalia that drove them to such extreme measures–and less than nothing about the fact that the Islamist groups that were bringing stability to Somalia in 2006 were driven out of power by the US and its Ethiopian surrogates, which continue to work overtime to keep the Islamists from regaining control of the country.

End of Ecoterra Press Release Update

Note
Picture: MV FAINA – the most spectacular case of piracy should have a happy end before the end of the year.