For years, a number of countries (especially the Japanese) have taken advantage of Somalia’s chaos to poach tuna by helicopter, while others have dumped their toxic waste along what is one of the world’s longest coastlines. The Islamists have other concerns along their coast, however. In the past few days, the Islamists leading Somalia’s transitional government have announced that piracy is a crime against Islam and punishable by death. Now, heading back into power after nearly three years of bloody insurgency, the Islamists are ready to take on the pirates again. Under the Islamist’s watch, piracy stopped almost completely. Paradoxically, the Islamists led by Sheikh Ahmed, are the only leaders who have effectively banned piracy ever-during their six months in power in 2006. Secretary Clinton also spoke of the need to take Somalia’s new Prime Minister, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed-one of the leading Islamists who fled the U.S.-backed invasion by Ethiopia nearly three years ago-very seriously. Last week, Hillary Clinton unveiled several new anti-pirate initiatives, which include proposals for freezing pirate assets, arrangements to work with 30 nations on international maritime protection, and, most importantly, new plans to address the glaring chaos of Somalia- Finally. Thanks to the high-profile rescue and the courageous tale of the Alabama’s captain and crew, however, the world is paying attention now.
And while the attack kept the world riveted, as if this were a unique and astonishing event, in reality, it was just a larger-scale version of what these bandits do on land every day, while the world pays little attention. The Alabama was carrying containers of food -vegetable oil, wheat, and dehydrated vegetables-meant to alleviate starvation in Somalia. Finally, two weeks ago, they drew the world’s attention by attacking their first American ship, the Maersk Alabama. In the past year, they have seized 30 Russian-made tanks (from a Ukrainian ship bound for Kenya) they have stripped parts from luxury yachts and oil tankers and last year they raked in an estimated $30 million. At sea, they use the same tactics, only with higher, more public stakes. On land, rival clan-based militias attack UN aid convoys, food trucks-even refugees forced to carry all their wealth in the world as they flee from home. What the pirates do is exactly what Somali militias do on land: They feed off of anyone with anything to steal. This is how business has been done for more than two decades in Somalia: leadership means little more than the acquisition of money, and the pirates are no different. Many belong to the northern-based clan called Majarteen, the family of Somalia’s recently ousted and politically powerless president, Abdullahi Yusuf, who also happens to be one Somalia’s most notorious warlords. Call them what we will, the label means little. (Months of ransom negotiation can cost roughly $40,000, so the pirates wisely use the phones aboard the captured vessels.) At the top of the food chain are warlords -or businessmen. Here’s who the pirates are: Militias calling themselves “coastguards,” made up of strike teams of gunmen who have fought in the employ of various warlords for decades, fishermen who have found a more lucrative prey in tankers than in tuna, and a few techies capable of reading a GPS, or making a call on a Satellite phone. These gangs aren’t religious terrorists their god is cash. These are just a couple of the reasons behind the latest scourge of waterborne gangs currently trawling ¼ of the Indian Ocean. And more than half of Somalia’s seven million people are now living under threat of famine. In 2006, a U.S.-backed invasion by neighboring Ethiopia overthrew the only functioning government-an Islamist regime-that Somalia has had in two decades. Desperate Somali women are flocking to the coast to marry pirates! This is perhaps the most outrageous claim of the past ten days, during which Somalia’s pirates have succeeded, more than any aid or news organization so far, in drawing the world’s attention to the plight of their country-the world’s longest running failed state.
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