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On Sunday, French troops seized yet another vessel which had been captured by Somali pirates, and yesterday exclusive pictures were released.
The scourge of piracy in the troubled region continues apace; just yesterday a South Korean naval vessel rescued a North Korean ship which was in danger of being captured, and there have been several recent near misses, including two repulsed attacks on cruise ships carrying passengers.
In light of this, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has proposed an 'international piracy court', because the law often requires NATO and aligned forces to release the pirates after securing their hostages.
Some are tried in Kenya, the French and American governments prefer to take them to their respective home soil to be tried.
Given the fact that Somalia is a violent, tumultuous nation, the idea of 'international justice' concerns me deeply. What will happen to these people if they are jailed in the West? Will it breach their human rights to deport them back to Somalia after any sentence is served?
Seeing as the idea of coming to the West is a dream for many Somalis, it would seem pertinent for any such court to actually operate in Africa.
Otherwise, pirates will be sentenced to a life living on EU taxpayers, or maybe ten years in prison and a lifetime claiming benefits in London or harassing women in Amsterdam or burning cars in Paris.
If that's the case, we might as well forget capturing the pirates and operate the courts via a lottery system involving the entire Somali population - it's hardly the prevention I imagine Medvedev is looking for.
Monday 4 May 2009
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6 comments:
To see the pathetic way in which these pirates are being dealt with makes my blood boil.I read that the US captain who was freed by seal snipers owes nothing to the US president since the president gave orders that the pirates were not to be attacked unless the life of the hostage was in imminent danger, the USN captain overuled the orders ( good for him).Such pusilanimous actions by the western leaders in kow-tow ing to "human rights" laws only makes the matters worse, it will only take one brave naval captain to grasp the bull by the horns and go all out and wipe the bastards of the face of the earth, to solve the situation, I could never see Maggie Thatcher pissing around like this.
Indeed, the 'international court' solution and peaceful attempts at stopping them are ridiculous. If the western world wants their ships safe, they should use force before the problem arises: take the fight to the pirates, just like in the old days. I would like to emphasize that diplomacy can't work, seeing as attempts to stabilize that region have failed before; Force is the only option available right now...
I agree with Joe: A Tatcher-like approach seems like the right thing to do.
I don't know, perhaps the Russian president has something here. If he will offer to host this court in Siberia, I think we might just make this thing work. The could serve their sentences there, then at the end of the sentence they could simply be turned out of the prison gates to enjoy the great outdoors.
Easiest thing to do, shoot them once captured, only the cost of the bullets and cleaning up afterwards.
Joe:
You read right. Obama was lauded for his 'handling' of that situation, and in reality it was all down to the SEALS.
Yet another lie to aid Zero's personality cult.
I fully agree with what you say - we need action, not more words (which conveniently cost even more cash than the ransoms and risk to trade).
Eros:
Exactly. Blow them out of the water on sight, restrict the flow of luxury goods to their bases, destroy the bases where possible.
If Obama had that sort of fortitude, I'd feel a lot better about him - but instead, I'll just think about what Maggie would have made of it all.
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