The World's Katy Clark looks at the options available to protect ship crews from pirates off the Horn of Africa. Some observers say ship crews should be armed or protected by military force.
Piracy attacks off the East African coast
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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman. This is The World. Four Somali pirates continue to hold an American ship captain hostage. The pirates want $2 million dollars to release the captain. The men are adrift in the Indian Ocean aboard a lifeboat. A second group of pirates is reportedly sailing over to help their comrades aboard a hijacked German ship. The US Navy has forces standing by, but US officials say they're working to resolve the situation peacefully. Meanwhile, there's news that a Norwegian ship seized by pirates has been let go after a ransom was paid. All this insecurity on the high seas has many, including The World's Katy Clark, wondering what is the best way to confront piracy.
KATY CLARK: Some say we need to get tough with the pirates. Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington is in that camp.
DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Right now, it's basically a no-risk game for the pirates. They haven't been shot at. Nobody's been attacking their bases. They have a lot to gain and right now very little to lose. We need to change that incentive structure.
CLARK: Gartenstein-Ross says the obvious solution is to place armed guards on board Maritime vessels venturing through pirate-infested waters like the Gulf of Aden. If not armed guards, he says, we should at least be arming the crew. Gartenstein-Ross says shipping companies have a lot at stake, and they're either crazy or irresponsible not to act more proactively given the value of the cargo.
GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: If you look at the Sirius Star, for example, the boat that was carrying oil for Saudi Arabico that was taken near the end of 2008 -- that was a $150 million dollar vessel. There was $100 million dollars of oil onboard. Even though there may be a risk involved in having munitions onboard the ship, the risk of piracy to a quarter-billion dollars worth of goods including the boat, that is a substantial risk. You really need to protect your investment. And right now, that's not being done.
CLARK: Instead, shipping companies have chosen the path of least resistance, sometimes paying substantial ransoms in order to get their ships and crews back. Michael Desch of the University of Notre Dame says that's worked so far because the pirates are mostly in it for the money.
DESCH: The downside though is this creates a situation in the area where it's in the economic interests of people in Somalia to continue acting as pirates. So the short-term fix and what's good for individual companies is not good in general for area.
CLARK: Desch suggests a couple of drone attacks on pirate bases back on land might provide a much better fix. Peter Chalk of the Rand Corporation argues, though, that a better answer is to address the “push factors†that have given rise to piracy in the first place.
CHALK: At the moment, the pirates are the main economic drivers of these coastal communities. You've got cottage industry that is thriving in many coastal communities, and that reflects the absence of government and the absence of viable economic alternatives for these communities. Equally, you have to provide alternatives for the pirates.
CLARK: But that's not likely to happen soon in a country that's been essentially lawless since the early 1990's. And then there's the issue of prosecuting pirates caught in the act. The US recently brokered an agreement with Kenya to try pirates there. But Chalk says that's less than ideal.
CHALK: The Kenyan judicial system is pretty inefficient, and it's not free of corruption and it has a capacity problem. And of course that agreement only really applies between the US and Kenya.
CLARK: The rise in pirate attacks in the area could prompt some nations to try different solutions. The International Maritime Bureau says more than 250 crew members on more than a dozen hijacked ships are currently being held off the coast of Somalia. In one case today, French
soldiers stormed a sailboat being held by Somali pirates. One hostage and two pirates were killed in the operation. For The World, this is Katy Clark.
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