The Voice of Russia
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Up to now, rapidity has been a key success factor in anti-piracy operations. EU ships had to act fast to catch pirates before they reach Somali waters. Once there, the buccaneers felt safe because foreign naval ships were barred from entering the coastal areas. Now that the scale of the EU anti-piracy mission near the Horn of Africa has been expanded significantly to include the coastline and waterways inside Somalia, the pirates will have no safe haven to escape to, says maritime law expert Vasily Gutshulyak.
"The existing maritime law rules that anti-piracy operations can be carried out only at sea and only in neutral waters. But the UN Security Council, the United Nations’ main body, took an unprecedented step to extend the range of multinational anti-piracy efforts towards Somalia’s coast waters and even towars part of its land."
With the pirates’ fuel and arms bases located predominantly in densely populated villages, attacks on ground facilities will have to be planned with utmost care to avoid casualties among civilians. High-precision air strikes could be the likeliest choice. But according to lawyer Yaroslav Kozheurov, the latter circumstance could minimize the positive effect of the UN decision.
"The problem of piracy near the Horn of Africa stems from the absence of an effective government in Somalia. The local authorities are incapable of bringing the situation under control. Therefore, the use of force to protect and escort vessels and chase pirates in Somali waters or on the ground will have a short-term effect and will hardly reverse the situation."
Sea piracy assumed menacing proportions after a civil war in Somalia in the early 90s. The country split into several parts. The Transitional Federal Government is the only internationally recognized government of Somalia, but it only controls part of the capital Mogadishu and several outskirts. Unable to restore order on its own, the authorities welcome foreign assistance. Currently deployed in the country are peacekeepers from Kenya, Uganda and Burundi, while EU, NATO and Russian warships are patrolling the dangerous waters to ensure safe passage through the Gulf of Aden. Here is what Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin said on the issue:
"It should be remembered that the use of force is only supplementary to a full-fledged political process for which the Somalis themselves are responsible. In this situation, it is necessary to make federal transitional bodies more united, put an end to internal feud, mobilize the implementation the ‘road map’, advance the political process and strengthen government bodies in the liberated territories."
Although supportive of the European Union’s resolve to hunt pirates on the ground, Russia has repeatedly called for international judicial bodies to try pirates detained off Somalia.