Pirates and the international community's role

While I do believe that the Somali people have been ripped off historically, I do not believe that gives them the right to illegally pirate ships, even if it were for the economic gain of the country. As Waldo explains in his article, the Somalis have lost their fishing prowess and exclusive right to their waters throughout the last two hundred years (if not earlier). The atrocities committed against Somali fishermen in the 1990s are appalling, but should be dealt with in a civilized manner. This “rape of the Somali fishing grounds” is intolerable, but the international community should be dealing with this as a matter of criminality. With the plethora of international organizations in play today, one of them could easily be tasked with enforcing the exclusive economic zone of Somali waters.

Nonetheless, the Somalis have larger problems than the measly $450 million they lose to these fishing thieves. Fish are not such scarce resources that the environment is really a deciding factor in the violence found here. The largest of these problems is their status as a failed state. In the New York Times interview, a “pirate” claimed to be acting as a coast guard for their seas. However, a “normal” professional coast guard would not have a problem with ships travelling through their seas. Yes, the ship would need to give notification of some sort, but by the law of the sea, I do not believe that they could legally prevent people from crossing their waters. Nor would a coast guard demand ransom for its captives. Its captives would be held in a prison or similar structure and dealt with in a court setting. Again, the international community could be at play here, helping Somalis bring these criminals to justice. While this might be difficult to arrange and implement, a shift in the attention on this issue could help lower instances of illegal activities, lessening the need for pirates to “patrol” their seas. Additionally, the international community should be especially worried about the potential environmental impacts of any illegal dumping in Somali waters. Dumping does not only harm the immediate neighboring countries, but can have effects on a vast region.

In such an instance, then we would know the true intentions of the Somali pirates. If pirating stopped with the international community serving as watchdogs and prosecutors of illegalities in Somali waters, then we would know that these pirates were actually honest in saying they are reclaiming what is rightfully theirs. If, however, pirating continued on legal ships, then the international community would know it was right to blame the pirates, rather than the international actors.

Honestly, I know that all of these options are unbelievably unrealistic, but I like to lay out possibilities. What I do see as a more realistic progression of events would be an increase in aid to the Somali people. Humanitarian aid in Somali is extremely hard to deliver, but if the Islamist militants could be stopped, countries could more freely help the innocent Somali people. Al-Shabaab ruins opportunities for the Somali state government to take hold and claims too many innocent lives each year. While obviously not the best comparison, Afghanistan and Somalia can be measured as similar cases of strife. As countries with difficult geography, diverse ethnic groups, religious extremism, and corrupt governance, a myriad of factors contributed to the suffering of their people. This is not to say that the United States should go to war with Al-Shabaab, but rather that maybe the international community should pay more attention to the Horn of Africa and spend more time contemplating valid solutions. To be frank, it shocks me that less has been done about this conflict considering the close proximity of Somali to vital oil-producing countries.