On the rampage of piracy activities off Somali waters in recent months, Wang Fang, a subeditor of the People's Daily, the leading newspaper in China, has had a discussion with Li Xiao, a PD resident reporter in Egypt, and Xi Laiwang, a PD resident report in UN headquarters in New York, and Li Weijian, a research at the West Asia-Africa Development Research Center under the Shanghai Institute of International Studies.
Subeditor: Somali pirates held a huge oil-laden Saudi tanker on November 15, carrying 100 million U.S, dollars of crude oil, which anchored on Nov. 18 off a notorious Somali pirate port as sea gangs struck again and seized three cargo ships on the same day. A chain of the world-stunning moves have shown the piracy activities in the Gulf of Aden has run wide on an increasingly bigger and extensive scale.
Li Xiao: Take for an example the 332 meters long Sirius Star, which has a multinational crew of 25 and can carry up to 2 million barrels of oil. It was hijacked 450 nautical miles (830 km) south of Mombasa, Kenya, in an area far beyond the Gulf of Aden. At the time of hijacking, there were several foreign vessels on patrol. So these pirates were indeed puffed up with arrogance.
Subeditor: the Aden Gulf linking the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean is the vital sea passage or "throat" to connect the Asian, African and European continents as well as the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans, and, therefore, is the life blood of global navigation. The Gulf of Aden sees about 20,000 ships pass via it per year, and 14 percent of maritime trade and 30 percent of the world's oil is transported through it.
However, the Gulf of Aden is an endemic area hit most by piracy activities. Since the begging of this year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the gulf, out of 95 attacked, notes a control center official of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). To date, 17 vessels with more than 200 crew members were still in the hands of pirates.
Xi Laiwang: If this situation goes unchecked, IMO Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulas acknowledged, ships plying to and from the Europe and Asia have to sail by a round about trip via the Cape of Good Hope at the southern end of Africa and will result in a series of native impact.
Subeditor: The concern of international community has also been on a rapid rise in the face of intensifying piracy in the region.
Li Xiao: On the morning of Nov. 20, representative of six Arab countries and the Arab League met in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, to discuss policies to deal with piracy. According to a source at the meeting, they would be linked up to each other though a regional center, which is to be established in Yemeni shortly.
Xi Laiwang: On the same day, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution No. 1843 to punish all individuals and collectives for sabotaging Somali peace and security by piracy and arms smuggling.
Subeditor: As a matter of fact, the UN Security Council resolutions 1816 and 1838 were tabled earlier, respectively in June and October this year, and they have effectively authorized foreign troops to enter Somali waters and to use all necessary means to identify, deter, prevent and repress of piracy with the permission of the Somali transition government and in line with the norms of international law.
Li Xiao: EU decided to set up a European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) over two months ago to coordinate the surveillance and determent to pirates off Somali coasts. In the past month, NATO, EU, Russia, India and South Korea have announced or prepared to dispatch navy ships to Somali waters to combat piracy. It is estimated that warships from more than a dozen nations as well as NATO forces have focused their anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden.
Subeditor: There is still confinement in action despite a mammoth scale in the deployment of forces to strike sea gangs, and what is the reason behind it?
Li Xiao: of numerous other causes, the Gulf of Aden covers a vast areas, and warships cannot reach all patrol zones; the pirate ships are better equipped and they are often mixed with merchant vessels, and it was hard to sort them out; owners of the hijacked merchant ships are often ready to pay ransom for the safety of their crew; and the mission of most troops on patrol is mainly to battle against terrorist activities and armed smuggling.
Russian and British ships repelled Somali pirate attack on the Danish registered Cargo Ship MV Power earlier on Nov. 11 and British Royal navy crew retuned for in accordance with international law.
Subeditor: some critics deem that the turmoil in Somalia is rated principally on land instead off coast waters, and how African media look at it?
Li Xiao: The fundamental settlement of this problem is decided by the restoration of the Somali domestic stability rather than by military means, according to the Egyptian newspaper "World Today".
Li Beijing: Somali has been a failed state and deeply divided since warlords toppled the power of Mohammed Said Bare in January 1991 and the situation remained unchanged with the founding of the transitional government in 2004. One third of the Somali people are in need of humanitarian, aid some of the wretched people resort to piracy.
Somali waters were relatively quiet before the establishment of the transitional government. In October 2006, the U.S.-supported Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia and overthrew the Union of Islamic Courts. In April this year, Somali anti-government forces clashed with government forces and Ethiopian troops and a large number of civilians fled their homes. In such circumstances, the United Nations brokered a peace accord between the Somali government and Islamic Courts Movement, but the U.S. was in opposition to it.
Subeditor: Why the U.S. had adopted a reservation stance on the issue?
Li Weijian: The U.S.' attitude is quite complex. On the one hand, it has also taken some moves and, on the other hand, it is not so firm and resolute with its moves and so far has not attained any substantial outcome.
Subeditor: In contrast with the U.S., Russia has been quite active on the issue.
Li Weijian: With its fast emergence, Russia has brought about changes with its external strategy. Russian has resumed long-range flights of bombers capabling of striking targets deep inside the U.S., and stood firm in its conflicts with Georgia. Meanwhile, it has uplifted its influence in Africa. Vladimir Put and other Russian leaders visited Africa in recent years. Russia has written off Africa debts totaling 11.3 billion dollars, and its firms have invested about 10 billion dollars in Africa since the start of 2000.
By People's Daily Online
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