08 December 2010
United States Works to End Piracy off Somalia’s Coast
Washington — The United States is working with more than 60 nations and international organizations to confront piracy off the coast of Somalia, a problem that has had a “terrible impact” on the development, peace, security and stability of eastern Africa, according to a State Department official.
Donna Hopkins, the State Department’s coordinator for counterpiracy and maritime security, said in a December 3 press briefing that modern-day piracy is a business of extortion, kidnapping and hostage-taking for ransom.
“This is an ugly crime that is hurting the people who are victimized by it, by the commercial shipping industry whose insurance rates are being impacted and whose ships and cargos are being held for serious ransom,” she said.
According to the International Maritime Organization, at least 114 of the 325 acts of piracy reported in 2010 have taken place off the coast of East Africa.
Piracy is a crime of universal jurisdiction, meaning it may be prosecuted in the national courts of any country. But many countries whose ships have picked up pirates are reluctant to bring them back to their own courts.
“One practical difficulty of the prosecution has been: What do you do with the convicts? Where do they serve their time in prison, and what do you do with them after they’re released from prison?” Hopkins said.
Although piracy has long been a problem off the coast of Somalia, many countries will not reconsider repatriating captured pirates there “because the conditions in Somalia are so terribly unstable, unsafe, insecure and inhumane.”
Because of this, Hopkins said, countries fear that by prosecuting captured pirates in their own courts, they will be saddled for the long term with criminals seeking political asylum.
“They would be de facto asylees, because they could not be politically returned to Somalia at this point,” Hopkins said. Despite these concerns, she said the United States is “willing and able to convict pirates off the coast of Somalia.”
“We’re committed to ending impunity for pirates,” she said, adding that the Netherlands, France and Germany have also begun prosecuting pirates.
Additionally, international organizations such as the United Nations have begun coordinating efforts to combat piracy. Hopkins said the U.N. Organization on Drugs and Crime is building two prisons to house convicted pirates, one in Somaliland and the other in Puntland.
“The staff there will be local staff. They’ll be trained and monitored and overseen by United Nations staff. And once they actually open and are certified to operate at United Nations standards, they’ll be able to accept pirates that are convicted and sent to prison.”
She said the United Nations is also working to develop Somalia’s legal framework and build prisons so convicted pirates may serve their sentences there.
“That is the most humane thing to do, and as long as the prisons are operated according to U.N. human rights standards, it is the right thing to do, we believe,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins commended the work of the international Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia. The group, formed in January 2009, “has brought together an unprecedented array of countries who are all seriously concerned about this phenomenon.”
She also said the Shared Awareness and Deconfliction meetings, co-chaired by the European Union and coalition maritime forces, are making a “remarkable international effort” to end the problem.
“Can you imagine anywhere else that NATO, Russia, India, China, the European Union, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore have all worked together as a single coordinating naval force? It’s never happened in history. It’s remarkable. And the naval cooperation and the political cooperation has been excellent on counterpiracy,” she said.
Hopkins commended the international collaboration of both forums, praising the demonstration of “unprecedented solidarity among nations.”
“Piracy is … harming all of us. Nobody likes it, everybody wants to stop it, and we’re working together very well to develop strategies to end it. It’s a hard problem, and we’re not going to fix it tomorrow or next week or next year, but we are eventually going to fix it, and we’re going to do it by working together,” Hopkins said.
(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://www.america.gov)
