Fishing Boats Armed to Deter Pirates

The Lynn Rival (pic supplied by EU)

Somali pirates are back in the news after kidnapping a couple from Tunbridge Wells (my hometown incidentally) as they sailed their yacht from the Seychelles to Tanzania. I hope they are released safe and sound but I can’t help thinking their course was reckless, given the number of attacks on boats and ships – many bigger and faster than the Chandlers’ Lynn Rival.

Now it emerges that some of these other ships have begun using armed guards. The debate has rumbled on for a long time, and  this recent comment piece at Lloyd’s List ends by once again arguing that taking guns to sea solves nothing…

In truth, seafarers are innocent targets in a dilemma that can only be mitigated by unified government naval protection and, ultimately, by solving the complex political woes of Somalia and its neighbours. Encouraging seafarers to shoot back would only endanger seafarers’ lives.

But in a press release that I almost didn’t read, from the EU’s anti-piracy  taskforce,  it seems that vessels are now taking things into their own hands. Gone are the unarmed security teams. Now we have armed fishing boats.

In the afternoon of October 27th 2009, 350 nautical miles east of Mogadishu, Somalia a French Fishing Vessel was attacked by pirates in two attack skiffs. The pirates opened fire on the Fishing Vessel. Her embarked military Vessel Protection Detachment (VPD) fired warning shots after which the pirates broke of [sic] their attack.

This is the inevitable result of our collective inability to come up with ways of tackling Somalia’s problems and cannot lead anywhere good.

Brave Thinking on Darfur

I’ve long admired the work of Alex de Waal, reseacher, author and all round Sudanophile. His work has influenced a lot of my thinking on Darfur and helped me draw my own conclusions on this miserable conflict, thoughts which I’ve distilled into a book (now due to be published in February). However his clear-sighted analysis has often turned him into something of a hate figure for the self-appointed saviours of Darfur.  So it’s nice to see him lauded as a Brave Thinker… for his warnings in connection with the ICC indictments

De Waal warned that al-Bashir was likely to react violently, that rebel groups would be emboldened to violate hard-won peace agreements, that the ICC had no way to enforce its indictment, and that the whole thing would be a spectacle for the benefit of Western audiences and would only further destabilize the country. Sure enough, when al-Bashir’s warrant was issued in March, Sudan shut down human-rights groups and international aid agencies (including Oxfam and Save the Children), seized their assets, and declared, “For us, the ICC doesn’t exist.”