Piracy 
In describing the difference between a popular view of piracy and 21st century realities, the Justice and Welfare Secretary with the Mission to Seafarers, Rev. Canon Ken Peters , summed it up thus: " The popular understanding of pirates is Yo! Ho! Ho! and a bottle of rum! Pirates of the Carbbean and that romanticised Johnny Depp view of it all, the loveable rogue. It's not at a ll like that. It's murder, rape pillage. It's Kalashnikovs and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. It's very much more serious now."
On the coast of Somalia a diverse Islamist movement has begun to take greater control and whilst talk of Al Qaeda becoming more involved has not yet been proven, there is ‘chatter’ of the possibility.
Pirate hostage, Colin Darch, who was freed after 47 days anchored off the coast of Somalia in 2008, believes that pirates have become a lot more organised and a lot more aggressive since the time he was kidnapped.
”If Al Qaeda aren’t already controlling operations ,” he said, “then it won’t be long before they are.”
Reflecting on his kidnapping , he said, “they justified themselves as pirates, by arguing that they live without any government finance and that it is the only way to look after their families.”
At the end of his vessel’s seizure, they even apologised to him. Perhaps it was because they considered themselves to be good Muslims. Throughout their ordeal, one of the pirates seemed to act as the imam (priest) praying five times a day on behalf of the others.
They used to tell him, “In Somalia, we have no AIDS, no HIV, we sleep only with our wives and have no homosexuals in Somalia. We are proud of being Muslims.”
Somalia features most prominently in the news, because of the sheer volume of Somali pirate attacks that occur along its coastline on an almost daily basis.
The cold words of an International Maritime Bureau piracy report belies the terror that the crews must experience when they encounter the following: “Four robbers armed with knives boarded a bulk carrier”,“The pirates attacked the crew members with guns”, and, “Nine pirates attempted to board a general cargo vessel underway.”
Piracy is not solely confined to Somalia, but is found in other parts of the world as well. Countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Nigeria and Cameroon with Brazil and Peru still noteworthy but not significant. If you were to measure piracy by the world’s oceans, you would avoid the South China Sea, the Straits of Molucca, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea.
Is piracy linked to poverty? If you are poor you might have reason to turn to piracy.
Not so says John Bainbridge of the International Transport Workers Federation, “Other countries haven’t resorted to international crime to sort their problems.” He admits that even shipowners have some sympathy for pirates from some of the world’s poorest countries but that each country needs to take responsibility for building itself up.
Looking at the whole question of poverty and piracy, the CIA Factbook of countries and their economies raises more questions than it answers. Unsurprisingly, Bangladesh has 36.3% of its population living below the poverty line, whilst Nigeria, one of Africa’s great resource rich countries has a staggering 70% of its population living below. Understandable, you may say that some may wish to turn to piracy. On the other hand, Malaysia and Singapore both have very low figures of 5% or less and they do have pirates that use their waters. As a benchmark, Britain has 14% and the USA 12% . On the basis of these figures, there is no immediate correlation between poverty and piracy because even the richer states have them.
The reasons for piracy vary across the world. The Ogoni people live in the Niger Delta and have complained, protested and then taken action over the way in which their own people have seen the oil drawn from their land with the profits going into the pockets of Nigerian officials and Shell Petroleum . The area is heavily polluted and ungovernable and has become a breeding ground for piracy. Piracy off the coast of Peru has been largely opportunistic with attacks being mounted on ships and yachts at anchor. The Straits of Molucca have historically provided a narrow (comparatively!) gorge for ships to pass through and then to be preyed upon by whichever local prince or monarch wished to augment his treasure chest at that time. In short, old habits die hard.
view larger map of SomaliaThen there is Somalia.
Anecdotally, everyone interviewed for this website attributed the rise in piracy to the lawlessness that prevails in the region following the demise of the Somali government in 1991.
Earlier this year, the United Nations General Assembly was convened to discuss the whole issue of piracy. At the time,UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said: “Piracy...is affecting the quality of life for Somalis, causing runaway inflation of food prices and problems for aid deliveries .....stability on land would undoubtedly improve the situation at sea.”
Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki said: “In sum, piracy is a symptom of the problems related to over exploitation of Somalia’s resources, the demonization of Somali fishermen and other coastal dwellers, the flushing of waste in our territorial waters by foreign vessels....and the destruction of the Somali marine and coastal infrastructures.”
Despite the confusion and complexity of piracy, there is one message coming through loud and clear. Piracy is not going to disappear in the short term and will require the active intervention of the world community to resolve it. Countries like Somalia do not have the strength to sort out their problems alone.
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War of Words
A Spokesperson for the European Naval task Force answers criticisms by a Somali leader that the Task Force is a waste of time because it cannot deal with piracy at its root.
A voice of Somalia below - Response of EU-Navfor at bottom