Somalia and its pirates - back in the news again

While in Kenya last week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged greater support for Somalia's incredibly weak transitional federal government, met with Somali president Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, and threatened sanctions against Eritrea for supporting al-Shabab and the other Islamist militias which are reported by the Somali president himself to control all but a few city blocks of Somalia. In keeping with the tone of Clinton's remarks (including those made after the meeting), much of the recent coverage of Somalia has been focused on the threat of terrorism (including this interesting story about an attempt by a Minneapolis radio station to counter extremist propaganda with Somali-language VOA news coverage; apparently airing a program in produced by US public diplomacy is illegal in the US).

However, the renewed discussion of Somalia's identity as a failed state has obvious implications for addressing piracy off its shores. The recent rebirth of the Somali navy has attracted a moderate amount of news coverge, though a Coast Guard anti-piracy task force might be more effective. This BBC article on Somali's new Navy chief highlights the absurdity of commanding a Navy in the absence of a government, ships, equipment, and control of the coastline, but the Somali government has long maintained that training such a force is the best way to prevent piracy. Writing for Information Dissemination, Robert Farley suggests that the need for training represents an opportunity for the US to "influence the institutional development not just of the Somali Navy, but also of the various other navies of East Africa, and the rest of the world." The EU has already announced its plans to train a Somali anti-piracy security force, but it appears this would be distinct from the nascent Navy.

The relationship between shoring up Somali governmental institutions and the media focus on piracy cuts both ways. In a briefing on the semi-autonomous Puntland region published today, the International Crisis Group states that:

The [Somali] government must take advantage of the piracy-driven international attention to mobilise funds and expertise to carry out comprehensive political, economic and institutional reforms that address the fundamental problems of poor governance, corruption, unemployment and the grinding poverty in coastal villages. The international community needs to refocus on the long-term measures without which there can be no sustainable end to that practice or true stability. Equipping and training a small coast guard is obviously a necessary investment, but so too are other steps, such as to improve the general welfare and help impoverished fishing communities.

Meanwhile, a Turkish frigate working with NATO forces in the Gulf of Aden captured five suspected pirates today and is claiming to have prevented a possible ship hijacking, and the Hansa Stavanger, the German ship released last week, is headed home to Germany where Defense Minister Franz Josef Jung has called for a constitutional amendment giving German armed forces a greater role in hostage rescue situations, citing the length of time it took for German police forces to deploy to the Horn of Africa after the Hansa Stavanger was hijacked.

US officials too are worried about the threat of piracy in the Gulf of Aden. Citing dangers to US shipping (and thereby linking pirates to the "trade" commonplace in our analytical model), Elijah Cummings, Chair of the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation, recently wrote an op-ed about his amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that "would require the Department of Defense to place small teams of armed security aboard those few U.S. flagged ships truly at risk of being boarded when they carry U.S. government cargo through an area where there is a high risk of piracy." The House passed the Act and Cummings's amendment last month.

Pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden are expected to increase in coming weeks with the end of monsoon season in east Africa.

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be pirates

The BBC has an excellent report about local anti-piracy efforts in Somalia's Puntland region. The article offers some interesting insights into how piracy is viewed in Somalia and offers a sobering account for why perceptions of piracy matter very much in the "real world." While we may amuse ourselves with kid-friendly portrayals of pirates on Sesame Street, in Somalia, a "kid-friendly" image of a pirate is deeply troubling:

The 40,000 people who live in camps like 100-Bushes across Puntland have drifted in over the years, seeking refuge from the apocalyptic horrors in southern Somalia - civil war, drought and famine. Out here, there are no jobs. Only one in three children are in school, and the future for most is anything but promising.

No wonder then that mothers like Mumena Abdur Qadir are worried about their children - either that they will end up just as poor and destitute as their parents or that they will become pirates. "They drive around in expensive cars, they offer our sons lots of money, so of course piracy is an exciting option," she says. "But nobody likes them any more, and now it's really dangerous. The (French and the Americans) have been killing pirates, so we think it's a really bad thing to do."

Mumena Abdur Qadir's worry is valid, as a recent Reuters article discussing Somali perceptions of piracy indicates:

Abdihafid, 13, dropped out of school, ran away from home and has taken up chewing khat and smoking cigarettes like the many brigands he sees in Hobyo."I want to be a commander of a pirate group," he said. "I know I am far too young, but I will wait until the right time."

The Reuters article also discusses the, well, romantic implications of the romanticization of piracy, echoing earlier reports on pirates' sex appeal:

An extravagant convoy of forty 4x4s and four motorbikes escort a young bride to her nuptials at a sandy beach in the Somali village of Hobyo and are used to light up the twilight celebration.Her pirate commander groom has no eye patch -- but a sword and knife hanging from his belt do create a swashbuckling effect. "I am proud to be the leader's wife," said Sahra ... [L]ocal girls are finding it hard to resist the monied pirates. "I don't want to marry a pirate but time is flying and pushing me to have a pirate boyfriend because he is rich," said Halima, who at 24 is considered a bit too old to be single.

According to the BBC article, Abdifatah Hussein Mohamed, an activist with the Puntland Students' Association, objects to this idealization of piracy and has been working hard in the region to convince other young people to just say no to piracy by deliberately reshaping the image of a Somali pirate:

When they began, Somalia's pirates cast themselves as "Robin Hoods of the sea" - as defenders of the nation's fisheries, first chasing away and later capturing foreign trawlers that had been looting the country's rich and unpoliced seas. Much of the money they took as "fines" went back into local schools, hospitals and businesses. No longer.

"They're responsible for so many problems," said Abdifatah Hussein Mohamed. As an activist with the Puntland Students' Association, Abdifatah and his friends have created a multi-media empire. From their stuffy, cramped headquarters in central Bossasso, they churn out TV programmes, radio shows, magazines and websites with a single, simple message - piracy is out.

"First, they are responsible for inflation," he complained. "Now, food, land, cars are all too expensive for ordinary people. It used to be that you could hope for these things, but not any more. Then, they bring in prostitutes, they take drugs, they crash their cars. They rape whoever they want and nobody can do anything about it. Nobody wants them around any more."

His friend, Mohamed Jama agreed: "They are causing a lot of problems in the family. Sometimes women go with them because they promise lots of money. But they also divorce their wives very quickly too. It's bad for everybody."

As the article notes, however, rhetorically and socially isolating pirates is not likely to solve the problem on its own. International efforts are needed, and while many international associations (most recently the G8 and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which comprises the US, the UN, the EU, and NATO) have agreed with the need to coordinate responses, the Puntland administration maintains that working with the transitional federal government in Mogadishu is, for obvious reasons, unlikely to have much effect:

"So many governments promised to help fight piracy on land, and that's a good thing," [President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole] said. "But they are all talking to the central government in Mogadishu. That's a policy decision, but it is a waste of time.

"The TFG (transitional federal government) only controls a piece of Mogadishu. They have no authority up here. So the rest of the world has to recognise that there are two legitimate governments in northern Somalia - Puntland and Somaliland - and deal directly with us if they want anything done."

And while both the US and the international community are claiming (limited) success in the war against piracy, this report from the Christian Science Monitor indicates that piracy continues to be profitable. If it's any consolation to the US Navy (here is an in-depth if slightly sprawling analysis of the modern role of the Navy in a purportedly post-naval era), anti-piracy efforts in the Straits of Malacca appear to be working, though as Elizabeth Dickinson points out, these successes are unlikely to be repeated off the Horn of Africa:

First, none of the countries in the Pacific are failed the way Somalia is -- meaning that the countries could also combat the core of the problem on land, without fearing a "safe haven" ashore. Not so in Somalia, where pirate havens are essentially untouched.

Even more important, while lots of countries want piracy in the Gulf of Aden to stop, no one or two of them are at such peril that they want to invest the resources to get the job done. In the Pacific, the three countries' economic survival as port hubs depended on their safety. No such pressure in Somalia.

Except, perhaps, from a small, student-led group of anti-piracy activists, whose concern with the perception of contemporary piracy goes well beyond our own academic puzzlings. We wish them the best of luck.