SOMALIA: ?ROBIN HOOD? PIRATES STEALING FROM THE RICH
COMMENTARY ARCHIVES, 16 Oct 2008
What is it that makes pirates different from other brigands; why do dacoits of the sea excite the imagination where the land-bound highwayman invokes fear and loathing? To explain, we cite the curious case of the Pirates of Puntland.
Somalia may be an arid and environmentally challenged country, but its strategic location and long coastline is a major asset. How these improbable pirates came to fulfill the country’s manifest destiny is a long story.
Compared with other Somali inhabited regions, conditions in the semi-autonomous state of Puntland are in many ways exceptional. Large expanses of Puntland are true desert, yielding pasture during short and unpredictable bursts of rain that, in some places, may only appear twice a decade. The maritime plains and low mountain on their fringe are called guban, the burnt land. As in the case of Kenya’s overcrowded Central Province, these conditions pushed the predominantly Majertain clan inhabitants to seek education and employment in the colonial administration.
Large numbers of Majertain migrated south, many settling in cosmopolitan Kismayu after independence. The turbulence erupting in the south forced many of them to undertake the precarious journey back to Puntland. Thousands of these internally displaced persons live in camps on the outskirts of Bossaso, swelling the population of this isolated gubanistan to an estimated 800,000 souls.
Bossaso’s port, a larger version of Lamu’s main jetty, is the engine of the Puntland economy and competes successfully with the modern facilities in Berbera. Yemeni-style wedding cake high-rises are sprouting along the oceanfront.
Security is at best tenuous. A mid-day shootout at a petrol station caused a traffic jam while I was there, and armed youth manning mobile roadblocks routinely collect cash and mobile phones after 8pm. Wahabi fundamentalists now control most of Bossaso’s mosques, while the persistence of Eastleigh-style nightlife provides a counterpoint.
The rise of Bossaso’s role as the headquarters of the piracy sector is consistent with these trends. Puntland’s long coastline borders Africa’s richest fishing grounds but Somalia’s marine fishery has declined to less than 10 per cent of the tonnage recorded before the governance meltdown.
When Kenya’s Environment Minister, Francis Lotodo, finally chased away the foreign trawlers that used to light up the coastal horizon at night in 1997, the poachers moved north to the waters off Puntland. The shimmering offshore lights induced impoverished entrepreneurs to join the illicit food chain. Unlike the occasional reports of small freighters (usually transporting famine relief) coming under attack while at dock, it follows this activity went unreported at the time.
The growth of the pirate industry followed the usual curve, and began to spike in 2006. Capital investment enabled the maritime mooryan to range over 200 kilometres offshore; a captured vessel was converted into a mother ship and the self-proclaimed Central Somalia Coast Guard began to justify their designation as pirates proper.
Details of the operation have circulated in the press of late: 60 ships captured, $30 million in ransom, the TFG’s laissez faire stance, a money trail leading from the pirates’ cove in Eyl to Garowe, Nairobi, and Canada; and imputed links to Al Shabaab militias.
The Pirates of Puntland are social bandits in the tradition of Robin Hood, not buccaneers. They steal from the rich and share the cash with extremely poor communities. If the investors claim the lion’s share according to local custom, their spokesman, Ali Sugulle, reports that the syndicate also funds local community development projects. These "Jalle Rogers" deviate from the universal pirate code and return the cargo intact along with the ransomed crew.
Like most of the reportage emerging out of stateless Somalia, the pirate phenomenon raises unanswered questions. The lack of response on the international level — US, EU, regional governments — is an anomaly. Why seek a UN security council resolution? Bush did not seek approval to shell the mountains behind Eyl when intelligence reported Hassan Dahir Aweis to be in the vicinity.
Why should the US intervene directly after Russia sent a warships, especially right after facing off with Putin over Georgia? This in turn leads to the events in Ukraine and the enmity between the Orange faction and Mother Russia, raising the question, "Are these Ukrainian tanks or are they Russian tanks on an Ukrainian freighter? What if it was a Chinese shipment?"
These and other factors contradict the claims that pirate money is funding jihadi insurgents. Who is Al Shabaab anyway? Al Shabaab militias began popping up everywhere after the demise of the notorious Aden Hashi "Airo." Insurgency will stay in fashion until the Ethiopians depart.
Of course, the government of the day in Kenya once again finds itself caught in a dodgy position; why does Kenya, or the GOSS (government of Southern Sudan), need obsolete war machines like fuel-guzzling tanks anyway?
Looking at the big picture, the Pirates of Puntland have been extracting taxes from a neglectful international system. It is wholly consistent for the excess-prone Somalis to ruin a good thing by pushing the envelope. It follows that, by the end of the day, the surcharges and premiums charged by shippers and insurers will trump by far the cash collected by the pirates. Imagine that.
Source: http://www.nationaudio.com/News/EastAfrican/Current/index.htm
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