"Swashbuckling adventurers" - that's how many of us would have summed up pirates until quite recently. They may sport an eye patch or a wooden leg, speak in a funny accent or have a hook for an arm. They can be charming and seductive like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean or frightening and nasty like Robert Louis Stevenson's Long John Silver. They are certainly colorful and daring. Many of us would have also used the past tense. I for one thought pirates the stuff of folklore and Hollywood movies, not a reality of today's world.
How wrong I was, for pirates are alive and thriving. Pirates not only exist but are doing very well in the 21st century. The ones making the headlines are Somali. Not only have they captured the biggest prize of them all in the Sirius Star, but they have turned piracy into a successful multimillion dollar well-organized, well-equipped high-tech operation.
I fancy there are some out there who applaud the Somali pirates. I bet there are voices in teahouses admiring the sheer audacity of the pirates and making them out to be some kind of modern-day Robin Hoods who take from the rich and give to the poor.
I disagree. For one thing, theft is theft, hijacking is hijacking and crime remains a crime whatever you do with the proceeds, just like terrorism is terrorism no matter whose name you do it in. For another, Somalis may have a justified grievance in the poaching that takes place in their territorial waters - poaching of some $300 million worth of fish annually - but that does not give them just cause for turning to crime. Quite the opposite. The lives of regular, honest fishermen have become even harder and more dangerous now that the Gulf of Aden has become a piracy hotspot. Besides, the pirates are in it for themselves, not out of a sense of social justice. Some of the money they make does quite naturally get plowed back into their hometowns but what those towns really need is an effective government and a return to normalcy, not the current lawlessness. And piracy has made it all the more harder for that to happen. When so much money can be made from piracy, how do you encourage people to stay within the law?
For the numbers are rather dazzling. There is a UN estimate that the pirates have collected $30 million dollars in ransom money this year alone. Ships may not carry the same golden booty as the treasures of the pirate of yore but their worth makes them the equivalent of floating towers of money traveling across the high seas.
Just consider three of the hijackings that have made the news these last nine months. First there was the hijacking of the French Yacht, the Ponant. The yacht itself was worth millions. The Ponant is in a class of its own, a yacht that defines luxury. When last April Somali pirates captured it, they were able to get a multi-million dollar ransom for its release. Of course, it did not go entirely to plan. The pirates may have got the cash and the crew was released unharmed, but some of the hijackers were later caught by French Special Forces as they made their getaway. Still, what was learned is not that some pirates get caught but that hijacking ships makes big bucks.
Then in September it was the Ukrainian MV Faina, a ship carrying military hardware and no less than 33 tanks. The hijackers initially demanded a ransom of $20 million. The ship is still being held with its crew off the coast of Somalia, as negotiations for its release continue.
And now the Sirius Star. The pirates have demanded $25 million in ransom money. Given that the tanker is carrying oil worth more than $100 million, the sum demanded does not seem as surprising. Should Aramco pay up? I agree with both the foreign ministers of Britain and Saudi Arabia. Milliband has said that paying hijackers only serves to encourage more hijacking. Saud Al-Faisal has pointed out that as much as we don't like to negotiate with hijackers or terrorists, it is up to the owners of the ship to decide what to do.
What is certain is that a peaceful resolution to the hijacking must be found and that something serious done to prevent further hijackings. It may be that the pirates have taken it a step too far. Not only in the scale of their ambition in attacking an oil tanker such as the Sirius Star but also in the escalation in the number of attacks. There have been almost 100 attacks this year. In the last few days alone three more ships have been hijacked. It is clear the international community will say enough is enough, but what can be done?
The initial answer is to use warships to guard ships against attack. Russia has already announced that it is to send warships to the Horn of Africa and to the Gulf of Aden. The EU and NATO have also set up forces to be deployed in the region. Meanwhile last week ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen met in Cairo to come up with means to fight piracy in the Red Sea. There is no doubt that more must be done to protect ships both on board and off board, but let us not forget that any long-term solution must include a resolution to the devastating problems faced by Somalia. The country needs a viable central government; its fishermen need effective protection against poaching in their waters.
