So we got one side on the somali pirates, what's the other?

[Kuya]

In lieu of the recent thread in BG on Paul's awesome plan to stop Somali piracy, i found it relevant to give BG the context it might need to understand what's going on there, just in case one of our dear members ever decides to venture the rough seas for some Somali booty.

Here is some analysis by Mohamed Abshir Waldo:

Much of the world’s attention is currently focused on the Somali sea lanes. The navies of big and small powers are converging on the Somali waters in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. The recent hijacking of the Saudi oil tanker and Ukrainian MV Faina, laden with arms for Kenya, off the coast of Somalia by Somali pirates captured world media attention. War has been rightly declared against this notorious new shipping piracy. But the older and mother of all piracies in Somalia - illegal foreign fishing piracy - in the Somali seas is ignored, underlining the international community’s misunderstanding and partiality of the underlying interdependent issues involved and the impracticality of the proposed actions to find ways to effectively resolve the piracy threat.

The other more damaging economically, environmentally and security-wise is the massive illegal foreign fishing piracy that have been poaching and destroying the Somali marine resources for the last 18 years following the collapse of the Somali regime in 1991. With its usual double standards when such matters concern Africa, the “international community” comes out in force to condemn and declare war against the Somali fishermen pirates while discreetly protecting the numerous Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing fleets there from Europe, Arabia and the Far East.

European Union (EU), Russia, Japan, India, Egypt and Yemen are all on this piracy campaign, mainly to cover up and protect their illegal fishing fleets in the Somali waters.

The Somali fishermen can no longer scare away the IUUs for fear of being labeled pirates and attacked by the foreign navies unlawfully controlling the Somali waters. Even the traditional Somali trading dhows are in panic of being mistaken for pirates.

According to the High Seas Task Force (HSTF), IUU does not respect national boundaries or sovereignty, puts unsustainable pressure on stocks, marine life and habitats, undermines labor standards and distorts markets.

In so doing they steal an invaluable protein source from some of the world’s poorest people and ruin the livelihoods of some legitimate fishermen

In its report, Closing the Net: Stopping Illegal Fishing on the High Seas, HSTF puts worldwide value of IUU catches at $4 to $9 billion, large part of it from Sub-Sahara Africa, particularly Somalia.

There is no doubt that the actions of the shipping pirates are reprehensible and this paper does not seek to justify or explain their odious actions. They must be stopped. But the notorious shipping piracy is unlikely to be resolved without simultaneously attending to the fraudulent IUU piracy, too.

The origin of the two piracies goes back to 1992 after the fall of the Gen. Siyad Barre regime and the disintegration of the Somali Navy and Police Coastguard services. Following severe draughts in 1974 and 1986, tens of thousands of nomads, whose livestock were wiped out by the draughts, were re-settled all along the villages on the long, 3300kms Somali coast. They developed into large fishing communities whose livelihood depended inshore fishing.

The piracy war between local fishermen and IUUs started here. Local fishermen documented cases of trawlers pouring boiling water on the fishermen in canoes, their nets cut or destroyed, smaller boats crushed, killing all the occupants, and other abuses suffered as they tried to protect their national fishing turf. Later, the fishermen armed themselves. In response, many of the foreign fishing vessels armed themselves with more sophisticated weapons and began to overpower the fishermen. It was only a matter of time before the local fishermen reviewed their tactics and modernized their hardware. This cycle of warfare has been going on from 1991 to the present. It is now developing into fully fledged, two-pronged illegal fishing and shipping piracy conflicts.

In arrangements with Somali warlords, new companies were formed abroad for bogus fishing licensing purposes. Jointly owned mafia Somali-European companies set up in Europe and Arabia worked closely with Somali warlords who issued them fake fishing “licenses”

Another major problem closely connected with the IUUs and illegal fishing is industrial, toxic and nuclear waste dumping in both off-shore and on-shore areas of Somalia.

The UN Agencies and organizations, which have been fully aware of these crises, often expressed concern and lamentations but never took any positive action against these criminal activities.

This Global Armada is in the Somali waters illegally as it is not approved by the Somali Transitional Federal Parliament (TFP). It is also unlikely it will achieve its stated objectives to curb the shipping piracy as it is now conceived.

The Speaker questioned the intent of the deployment and suggested that the powers involved had a hidden agenda. He said if these powers were genuine in curbing the piracy they would have supported and empowered the Somali authorities, who would be more effective in stopping the menace.

Portuguese socialist MEP Ana Maria Gomes gave a fiery speech on the "moral problem" of the EU mission, which, in her opinion, is only about "protecting oil tankers." "Nobody gives a damn about the people in Somalia who die like flies," she said (EU Observer of 15th October 2008)

In their current operations, the Somali fishermen pirates genuinely believe that they are protecting their fishing grounds (both 12-mile territorial and EEZ waters). They also feel that they exacting justice and compensation for the marine resources stolen and the destroyed ecosystem by the IUUs. And their thinking is shared and fully supported by the coastal communities, whose protectors and providers they became.

So for those who don't want to read any of that, let's summarize. Somalian seas, one of the seas most richest in sea wildlife, and rife for fishing, due to instability, wars, and even civil wars, unable to defend its seas, has been invaded by illegal fishing from numerous countries. The communities tried to speak to the international community to help them, which they ignored. The Somali communities, drowned in poverty due to having their lifeblood stolen, and their seas polluted, rely on vigilante and pirate groups to defend their seas from foreign invaders. The international community, which didn't give a shit to help the Somalis, decided that the Somali pirates are bad bad people, and sent a global armada over there, which coincidentally, is also defending the illegal fishermen, and also confusing the vigilantes with pirates.

And to end this with a minor note on the well known profit of dumping toxic waste in these waters!

AMY GOODMAN: When I read your article, Mohamed Abshir Waldo, it reminded me of a controversial memo that was leaked from the World Bank—this was when Lawrence Summers, now the chief economic adviser, was the chief economist at the World Bank—in which it said, “I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest-wage country is impeccable, and we should face up to that. I’ve always thought that under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted.” He said he was being sarcastic.

[Elvis]

They're pirates.

We're counter-pirates.

Are you a pirate-sympathizer?

[Kuya]

You know this wouldn't have happened if Somalia had nukes. tehee

[archibaldcrane]

An interesting twist. I do like me some good "other side".

The pirates are fucking terrible at expressing this as a motivation however - I don't really believe that if the quote following the hostage rescue from the pirates was "As long as the United States and the European Union continue to allow and protect the illegal fisherman who pollute and overfish our waters, we will attack and capture their shipping vessels" would've been shortened by the MSM to "...the United States and European Union...we will attack and capture their shipping vessels".

Needs more media savvy.

[pohibaba]

I appreciate you for posting this because I honestly had no idea about the EU's piracy. Still, though, our ships that aren't stealing their fish have a right to be protected and I support any attempt to protect them.

[archibaldcrane]

I wonder if the wealth from successful piracy (ransoms and such they've received) trickles down at all to the general fisherman populace that is harmed by the illegal fishing.

I mean, of course it doesn't, this is Africa, but it would be a nice thought.

[Kuya]

I appreciate you for posting this because I honestly had no idea about the EU's piracy. Still, though, our ships that aren't stealing their fish have a right to be protected and I support any attempt to protect them.

Of course, but i also think that action should be accompanied by action directed at acknowledging the grievances of these Somali communities, and if we have to justify this to more conservative friends, we can call this a preventative strategy. We can fight the pirates with violence now, but as long as the IUU remains, the pirates will continue to come back. So even if you don't care about what's right or justice for the Somalis, if you instead care for protecting US interests, you can at least know that stopping the IUUs also helps stop future pirates.

[Sepukku]

How does boarding a ship with assault rifles and RPGs and taking innocent civilians (who are not doing the fishing) hostage change anything? What did they honestly EXPECT to happen? They're lucky they haven't been getting killed sooner.

They board an unarmed civilian craft that is doing nothing wrong and they point guns at people's heads, and they whine when they get shot. Seems kind of stupid to me. There's no two sides to this. They're being violent extortionists and ruining the lives of innocent people, they get killed. Plain and simple. Fishing screwjobs aside, you act violently against innocent people, don't expect any mercy.

[guartz]

I wanted to make a thread like this too. Kudos to you Kuya.

[guartz]

How does boarding a ship with assault rifles and RPGs and taking innocent civilians (who are not doing the fishing) hostage change anything? What did they honestly EXPECT to happen? They're lucky they haven't been getting killed sooner.

They board an unarmed civilian craft that is doing nothing wrong and they point guns at people's heads, and they whine when they get shot. Seems kind of stupid to me. There's no two sides to this. They're being violent extortionists and ruining the lives of innocent people, they get killed. Plain and simple. Fishing screwjobs aside, you act violently against innocent people, don't expect any mercy.

Hmm. What do you think would happen, to say, like Cubans, who were caught fishing or dumping or even passing through Miami waters without permission?

[archibaldcrane]

They're being violent extortionists and ruining the lives of innocent people, they get killed. Plain and simple. Fishing screwjobs aside, you act violently against innocent people, don't expect any mercy.

Supposedly, it works like this. They tried to fight the illegal fisherman, who just armed up and overpowered them, killing the native Somali fishers. They reached out to the international community who did nothing.

If you give someone nowhere legal to turn, they will do shit like this. Doesn't make it right, but it sure does make it predictable.

The illegal fishers acted violently against the Somalis, and got...well...mercy - in the form of no repercussions for their illegal acts.

Hopefully if nothing else this will bring a new look at the area and the issues surrounding why the pirat...

...lol.

Yeah, sorry, couldn't finish that sentence without laughing. Somalia will continue to be fucked without recourse. This is Africa.

[Elvis]

I agree with Seppuku, except that THAT standard is never EVER universal.

[guartz]

I agree with Seppuku, except that THAT standard is never EVER universal.

I see what u did thar!

[Sepukku]

Supposedly, it works like this. They tried to fight the illegal fisherman, who just armed up and overpowered them, killing the native Somali fishers. They reached out to the international community who did nothing.

If you give someone nowhere legal to turn, they will do shit like this. Doesn't make it right, but it sure does make it predictable.

The illegal fishers acted violently against the Somalis, and got...well...mercy - in the form of no repercussions for their illegal acts.

Hopefully if nothing else this will bring a new look at the area and the issues surrounding why the pirat...

But the people they attack are not the illegal fisherman, so their acts are groundless. The people on the ships are completely unrelated to the fishing abuses. Plus I'm sure when the Pirates get the $25 million from a paid ship random, they're totally giving it out to the entire community, am I right? ^________________________^?

[Demosthenes11]

Hmm. What do you think would happen, to say, like Cubans, who were caught fishing or dumping or even passing through Miami waters without permission?

they would be asked for their papers, and then when they do not have a valid fisherman's license or if they were dumping, they would be escorted out of US waters.

They certainly wouldn't be boarded, guns shoved to their temples, and then executed

[Tristam]

TIME had another good article about this online yesterday, which I'm paraphrasing heavily in this post.

They underscore how the piracy was developed as a response to illegal fishing, because the pirates could expect a quick ransom from fishing companies who knew they were doing something illegal. This was combined with bribes and kickbacks given to corrupt somali "governors" (more accurately, warlords) was the way things went until the pirates developed a complex cooperative network that could take on bigger prizes. At this point they stopped being vigilantes and simply evolved into impoverished people looking to make a quick fortune. Make no mistake, these pirates in their current incarnation are doing nothing positive for the indigenous somali fishermen.

The illegal fishing prompted the piracy, sure, but this isn't just an issue with two clear cut sides, noone is doing the "right thing" in these conflicts.

But the bigger question of how to deal with the illegal fishing presents huge problems. Somalia being the failed state that it is must rely on cooperation from the international community to protect the livelihood of its fishing communities, which are one of the few remaining well-supplied sources in this era of absurd overfishing (this won't last long). Obviously human beings are flawed enough to completely disrespect somali boundaries, and the somalis themselves are not innocent as their excuse for elected officials are as corrupt as the foreign fishermen draining the waters of fish. One can make a good argument that this is a consequence of the scarcity of resources that humanity is utterly unprepared to deal with as a whole.

[Headspace]

they would be asked for their papers, and then when they do not have a valid fisherman's license or if they were dumping, they would be escorted out of US waters.

They certainly wouldn't be boarded, guns shoved to their temples, and then executed

Nah, that only happens when they step on our land.

[Samu]

The other side? Pretty sure .50cal are through and through so you can see the other side pretty easily.

[Elvis]

The other side? Pretty sure .50cal are through and through so you can see the other side pretty easily.

FUCK YEA

[archibaldcrane]

Nah, that only happens when they step on our land.

For cubans?

Dry foot = amnesty. That's the goal!