In the face of increasingly bold attacks on ships in the Gulf of Aden and the seeming lack of effective countermeasures, the Bush administration announced yesterday that it would seek to spearhead a coordinated international effort to suppress piracy.
The United Nations plans to hold an anti-piracy meeting in New York next Tuesday, at which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will press for the adoption of a number of measures that could offer legal, financial and defensive solutions.
The move is intended to take advantage of growing interest in Europe and elsewhere to take more coordinated action against pirates, who have attacked hundreds of ships over the last year. The Somali-based bandits have stepped up their operations recently, with the number of attacks increasing exponentially over the last several months alone.
Some elements of the Bush administration proposal include encouraging cruise companies to step up their use of defensive devices such as water cannons and acoustic devices on ships; to maintain a stronger international naval presence in the waters off East Africa; to improve sharing of intelligence between countries; and to coordinate efforts to disrupt pirates’ financial dealings.
To a lesser extent the State Department hopes to suppress piracy by calming the political instability in Somalia, which is one of the root causes of the problem. This could be accomplished by assembling an international peacekeeping force to replace the Ethiopian-led coalition which is soon to leave the country.
However, experts don’t expect the incoming Obama administration to put a high priority on dealing with Somalia’s internal problems, especially in light of the U.S. military’s humiliating defeat there in 1993.
In the meantime, at least one cruise line, Hapag-Lloyd, has announced that it will stop cruising through the Gulf of Aden until the piracy threat abates. At least two cargo ships are still being help for ransom, though three recent attacks on cruise ships have been deterred either by naval intervention or defensive measures on the part of the ship’s crew.
Related Links: Associated Press, USA Today
By Karen Elowitt for PeterGreenberg.com.
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