Crime without punishment is crime without end
Posted on | June 11, 2010 | 1 Comment
Having invoked the ire of Intertanko with my last blog entry on ClayMaitland.com, I thought I would try to provide some constructive ideas on tackling piracy as urged to do by the association’s security officer.
Sadly, like him, I was unable to come up with anything concrete other than agreeing that a new strategy is needed.
Whether that should be – as Intertanko has advocated – a change in the rules of engagement I’m not sure, but I think that just like the issue of employing armed guards onboard ship, it risks increasing the body count in the short term while failing to provide that long term vision of a Gulf of Aden without pirates.
But a recent article in The Economist on the International Criminal Court in Africa set me thinking, or rather recalling a conversation with Peter Hinchliffe of the International Chamber of Shipping at the recent IMO MSC meeting.
Hinchliffe confessed himself exasperated beyond measure with the situation, expressed through his organisation’s strategy of reminding the industry that Somali piracy is not ‘situation normal’.
What Hinchliffe advocated was an arrangement with the ICC to open a court for pirates and bring them to trial. This would be a lower court than the war crimes/genocide mandate that the ICC was set up for, but could still provide some efficient processing of pirates for trial and incarceration of the guilty.
There would be issues with this still – not least the likely media backlash about transporting pirates to Europe for trial, a location they are likely to see as a better bet than the streets of Xaradheere. What happens to them if acquitted and after the sentence is served, must all be decided.
But without punishment, there can be no deterrence and if Intertanko, ICS, BIMCO et al want to do something about piracy, they may have to admit that the game in the Gulf cannot be won so long as they cannot bring the weight of international institutions to bear.
Hinchliffe further remarked that although the IMO process continues in parallel with the UN, the chance for real change lies as much with the UN Contact Group as it does with MSC.
And as he glumly but accurately observed, pirates seem to make very good risk managers. Faced with the naval presence they have adapted, sailing further afield and employing motherships in the worst of weathers if they feel there is a prize for the taking.
This is a stark truth and one I doubt will endear me to the letter writers but it suggests that shipping could try and learn from the pirates about new strategies. Because if a global, highly efficient industry cannot either mobilise government support for its position or generate an innovative solution, then this situation will never end.
The Economist article attempted to cast the ICC not as an post-imperialist body but rather a partner for African nations keen to establish legal legitimacy and bring the most obvious criminals to trial. With Somalia in pieces, the ICC will not be opening an office there any time soon, but its neighbours should listen to Hinchliffe’s ideas and start trying to get the western economies – so dependent on cargo through Suez, to take a bigger stake in solving the problem of piracy by legal means.
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December 23rd, 2010 @ 4:15 am
Piracy – Part of the Solution?
23 – December – 2010
More and more owners are turning to the use of private security company supplied armed guards to help provide a safe passage for their vessels against acts of piracy. In the seas off Somalia, in spite of the best efforts of multinational navies piracy continues (weather permitting) unabated. It will be said that such owners are taking the law into their own hands. However, with little else being done to end the scourge, they are acting to protect the well being of their companies and at the same time those they totally rely on to run their commerce.
In spite of this huge menace and threat to the general wellbeing of society and to seafarers in particular, the world’s leaders are content to continue with weak semantic political platitudes that only result in bolstering piracy attacks and swelling the coffers of the “Mr. Bigs” behind them.
The almost instantaneous release of suspects allows them back into the fold, armed with both more experience and weapons, rejoining the packs of seaborne jackals to prey yet again on unarmed merchant vessels and their largely unprotected seafarers. Release because of “lack of evidence” or unwillingness to prosecute against apprehended suspects is commonplace and disheartening to both the captors and those they are there to protect.
Consider post 9/11 2001. Captured terrorist suspects, were consigned and held in what is now considered to be somewhat infamous, Guantanamo. A pre election promise of the world’s most powerful president was to close it down, yet half way through his term, it has not happened, why? He has come to realize that those still held there really do pose a serious threat to all of humankind. Thus, it remains in service, in spite of ill-informed whimpering “do-gooders,” baying to protect violators of society. Yet, they do nothing to protect the common sense rights of those innocents made to suffer at the cruel hands of those who most foully prey on them.
Face Of Shipping’s George Hoyt has voiced the idea of using prison ships to hold pirates and suspects to prevent them from continuing to practice their evil art. Sadly, there does not seem to be such a vessel currently on the market.
Let the world, led by the Industry call on the United Nations Security Council to raise an emergency resolution, (they have the power, but do they have the will?) to charter an accommodation vessel or vessels if need be to serve as an international facility. Detention of pirates and suspects, at least the Somali based ones, would easily become possible. Mind you, they would enjoy much more comfortable conditions than they afford to their innocent captives. Such vessels may need modification but if common sense prevails, this need not be extensive.
It would certainly prevent those experienced in piracy returning home to flaunt their wealth. With this, realization that no longer pirate action groups get released and free to roam with impunity would sink in.
How many participate in acts of piracy, perhaps six hundred to one thousand or so? This small number humiliates the multinational navies who openly admit (given the constraints they operate under) cannot end the problem.
On one hand, it we hear that there are hundreds waiting for the chance to be part of a pirate action group. On the other, those villagers and ex fishermen who persuaded or forced to be the public face of wonton piracy consider it as bad. By not allowing perpetrators to return, the resolve of those who are against it will be reinforced. Also by removing the experienced elements of piracy, any inexperienced ones will be easier to capture and less able to effect seizure of a vessel.
This will not be a total solution to the problem but as part of it, it will go a long way towards protecting an innocent hard working and professional element of society that goes about its business mostly unseen and unheralded. What has the YEAR OF THE SEAFARER done for them?
There is a joint industry anti piracy petition still open, sign up now and ask others to do so at- http://www.itfseafarers.org/petition.cfm
On world maritime day, after only four months, some 920,000 signatories to it were presented to the IMO Secretary General on 23 September 2010. A video of the handover is available for your viewing at http://www.youtube.com/user/FASTfaceofshipping#p/u/0/myW1DcWv6EM
Finally, let us take some time out to remember those on board their vessels diligently serving the world’s needs and economy, particularly the six hundred and fifty plus, who, in performing their duty now languishing captives because of heinous acts of piracy.
Jim Nicoll