The Pirates of Somalia_ Inside Their Hidden World - Jay Bahadur [114]
2. FUND AN EXPANSION OF THE PUNTLAND PRISON SYSTEM.
The Puntland government is going to need somewhere to put suspects apprehended by its revamped police force, ideally without resorting to the mass pardons I witnessed at Bossaso prison. Accordingly, finance the construction of new prisons on Puntland soil, with the aim of increasing the region’s prison capacity to roughly 1,500–2,000 inmates.
Instead of resorting to legal hocus-pocus to assign arbitrary jurisdiction over suspected pirates to Kenyan courts, establish qualified multinational tribunals to try them. Once the Puntland authorities have proved that they can be trusted to make prisoners actually serve their sentences—regardless of their clan or family connections—start to hand over convicted pirates to local prisons.
3. FOSTER INTELLIGENCE COORDINATION BETWEEN PUNTLAND AND INTERNATIONAL NAVAL FORCES.
The best source of intelligence on pirate activities is not EUNAVFOR or the CIA, but the local people on the ground. In order to tap this resource, create intelligence-gathering centres within Puntland. Set up pirate tip hotlines, publicize the relevant contact numbers, and offer modest rewards for information leading to the arrest of suspected pirates. Many local residents of Puntland’s coastal areas are sufficiently fed up with the pirates to turn informer, and sufficiently poor that a moderate financial incentive would be enough to sway equivocators.
Finally, establish channels for coordinating ground-based intelligence with the international naval forces, ensuring regular communication between Puntland authorities and the NATO, EUNAVFOR, and CTF-151 command and control centres.
4. CLAMP DOWN ON ILLEGAL FISHING.
Although Somali piracy began as a backlash by disaffected fishermen, the hijacking of commercial vessels is now a self-sustaining business that has far outgrown its original impetus. Nonetheless, the continuing role of illegal fishing as a powerful founding myth, psychological justification, and effective PR tool should not be underestimated.
Somalis often point out to me the hypocrisy of foreign warships arresting pirates as long-liners fish unmolested within sight. Indeed, it hardly seems fair for international forces to apply one standard of justice to pirates and another to thieves. Given the political will, the EU has the legal authority to rein in the Spanish, Italian, and French fishing interests that continue to violate Somalia’s exclusive economic zone. The Taiwanese, Thai, Chinese, and South Asian vessels that constitute the majority of the remaining violators would have to be stopped through other means. To that end, the international naval fleets patrolling Somali waters should expand their mandates to include interdicting foreign fishing vessels, or, at the very least, collecting photographic evidence of fishing violations to pass on to a regulatory body empowered to sanction offenders. Eliminating illegal fishing will not remove the financial incentive for piracy, but publicized prosecutions of vessels caught fishing illegally will help to undercut the pirates’ claims of legitimacy.
Stymieing illegal fishing will also bring many benefits to those on land. Heavily armed trawlers, along with the more recent danger of foreign warships mistaking legitimate fishermen for pirates, currently make fishing far too dangerous an occupation for the average life-loving Somali. Cleansing Somali waters of thuggish foreign fishermen will aid in revitalizing Somalia’s fishing industry, providing a vital source of income for destitute coastal dwellers and reducing the pool of potential pirate recruits. Action at sea should be matched on the ground by investments in fishing boats and gear, as well as processing plants and refrigerated transports.
5. ENCOURAGE OR REQUIRE PASSIVE SECURITY MEASURES ABOARD COMMERCIAL VESSELS.
Simple security measures—such as extra watches, barbed wire, travelling in convoys, and lockdown areas in which the crew can barricade themselves (my “turtle defence”)—are extremely