What I learned from the Somali pirates

03 December 2008

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Aidan Hartley says that Somali piracy is very well-organised and efficient and is opposed publicly only by militant Muslims — who may yet seize power in Mogadishu

So what can be done? The first task is to understand the background. For years the world has ignored Somalia as a parochial African backwater involved in a nasty civil war. Hundreds of thousands have died of hunger and in hails of bullets. Our disregard for Somalia’s suffering has resulted in a metastasised crisis that is spilling out of its borders. Piracy is just one symptom of several ways — you can add gun-running and terrorism to the list — in which Somalia’s crisis will lash out at the world in 2009.

The allegation in many reports on Somalia is that piracy is funding militant Islamist forces fighting the local Western-backed government. The London-based Jane’s Terrorism & Security Monitor claimed last month that the Islamists, known as al-Shabaab, had raised a force of 2,500 pirates to run guns and attack shipping.

The real story is more bizarre. I know because I’ve met the pirates and spent 17 years covering Somalia. It’s a frightening business — earlier this year my vehicle convoy was blown up by a roadside bomb and three people died — but fascinating. The pirate gangs, it turns out, are organised by ex-fishermen who got very annoyed by the way international boats poached Somalia’s rich tuna-fishing grounds and dumped toxic waste along its ungoverned shores. In the early days they demanded poachers pay fines, but later they realised there was more money to be made from straightforward abductions.

Today the gangs recruit ordinary youths. Most rank-and-file pirates cannot even swim. Their only required skill is to shoot straight. These youths usually participate only in a couple of operations, hoping to make enough money to get asylum in the West. For example, if a young pirate makes around £20,000 — his cut from two ransom pay-outs — he can persuade an ethnic Somali wife with a European Union passport to marry him and perhaps move to the United Kingdom. Staying in Somalia is not an option. Imams at the mosques have declared piracy haram, forbidden under Islamic law. If the pirates want to buy goodies for themselves such as cell phones or cars, they find themselves being charged four times the going price.

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M

December 4th, 2008 6:57pm Report this comment

Just a question. You said that the private security on board jump overboard as soon as pirates are sighted. Is this because they are afraid of the pirates or because International Law ties them down so much that if they were to shoot the pirates then their civilian lives would be interrupted/would be punished?

PDL

December 5th, 2008 4:05pm Report this comment

Mr. Hartley, who has often been critical of "international development" projects, has negected to mention a rare example of success of donor funding. In the 1980's, the Danish government funded a boat-building project in Mogadishu which included setting up a small factory to fabricate fiberglass fishing boats from molds. These are the boats, not very big but virtually unsinkable, that venture far out into the Gulf of Aden to hunt their prey.

S.A.

December 6th, 2008 12:00am Report this comment

I came across your article in VF.COM, i was so stunned to see someone writing about the perils of my country, and the headline being in a major media outlet. Finally, i had no clue there was a reporter covering this. I am going to Somalia inshallah in 2010, that is if 1988 doesn't repeat itself. I attempted to raise funds for relief aid but no one in my community wanted to help, all because of tribal politics. So disheartening, a child is a child, it embarrasses me when Somalis shun each other because they believe one Qabil is better and one is sub- human. I plan to change that.

oliver

December 6th, 2008 5:24am Report this comment

SA good luck for the effort and I pray for you. Adrian, your articles are to the point and very educational to those who have no clue to the Somali misery and state-failure. Al-shabaab was founded by Somalis educated and indoctrinated in Saudi religious schools. Their leaders number not more than 200 active violent men but they got funding from rich Saudis. The west can easily counter that with its educated Somali Diaspora groups. A quarter-million Somalis now hold European, Canadian and America passports. Thousands of them are college graduates with degrees in every field. why not invest in them, repatriate them back to their homeland, promote them as the leaders since they understand democracy and individual freedom. Somalis shun extremism. they love music, sports and poetry. Appeal to the Somali poets in the process of peace too. I am sure if 5000 Somalis with western education went back to Somalia and become the mayors and government officials, anarchy and extremism would be history.

kiffa

December 6th, 2008 4:33pm Report this comment

And the 'harsh punishment' in 2006 which stopped piracy Hartley refers to, was hanging or beheading.

The death penalty deterred crime. Hmmmmnnn. Funny, that

Riaz Ahmad

December 7th, 2008 8:28pm Report this comment

In an age where western journalism has sold itself to corporate media, national vested interest, spin and sensationalism,It is welcome news that Aidan Hartley has risen above pettiness to inform us about the true state of affairs.
THREE CHEERS AIDAN, KEEP IT UP.

Riaz Ahmad

December 7th, 2008 8:43pm Report this comment

Oliver, I can see you have peaceful intentions like all peace loving people and I love to agree with you, Sadly, If I point out the political realities of international affairs, the 5000 or so who will be guiding Somalia to normalcy, any failure in complying with the political regional ambitions of European and American masters, no matter how good they are, will end up in the dust bin of history, just like many others before them. Sadly, this is the reality of westren behaviour in the third world.

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