Piracy Becomes a Global Problem

The German Frigate Bremen, a frigate packed with high-tech weaponry and surveillance equipment, is a part of Operation Enduring Freedom where their mission is to combat piracy and terrorism in the high seas.^[1] They patrol off the coast of the Horn of Africa, protecting the world's most important shipping lanes through which two-thirds of the planet's oil shipments pass.^[2] These are also some of the most violent waters in the world, piracy, drug smuggling, arms and human trafficking are rampant here, the proceeds of which go to finance global terrorism.^[3]

According to the Bremen's commander, Capt. Andreas Jedlicka, this is a silent war, one where battles are fought behind radar screens and using intelligence reports. Boats are first spotted on radar, then sailors take off in the ship's two Sea Lynx helicopters to identify boats, while a 10-man specialized marine unit is on alert for boardings.^[4] On the deck, sailors man loaded heavy machine guns, and keep a weather eye on the horizon for a suicide speed boat or low flying aircraft attack.^[5] The crew must log every ship they spot, be it a massive cargo container ship or one of the traditional wooden dhows that have sailed these waters for centuries.^[6]

At present, nine coalition warships patrol 11,700 miles of coastline of 14 nations, covering 2.4 million square miles of sea. Sea borne trade is the backbone of the global economy because of its relative cheapness to air travel and the ease with which ships can transport huge quantities of goods.^[7] This is the result of a more globalized economy; the amount of goods transported through ships has quadrupled in the last 40 years, as of this writing 80 % of world trade is done through ships.^[8] However ever-opportunistic pirates have matched the shipping growth, and in the last decade piracy has tripled, and the amount of money that can be acquired through piracy is such that the risk/reward balance makes the pirates all that more daring.^[9] An attempted hijacking of a cruise liner by Somali pirates armed with assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades in 2005 is an example. See previous posts on Somali pirates, here.

The USS Cole is not the only recent terrorist incident at sea, two years after the Cole was hit, a boat exploded after ramming a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, killing one, and in 2004 a 1,050-passenger ferry sank off the Philippines after a bomb was detonated below decks, killing more than 100 people.^[10]

The supreme threat is still an attack against three key shipping channels, narrow sea lanes in the Middle East that, if comprimised could temporally shut down the world economy. More than 90 percent of European trade passes through either the Strait of Hormuz^[11] in the Persian Gulf, the Suez Canal or the Bab el Mandab at the of the Horn of Africa.^[12] A terrorist attack on the international trade routes is only a matter of time,^[13] and when it happens it will be so catastrophic that it would spark a two-digit oil price rise, by way of example, a $1 oil price rise costs the U.S. economy some $7.4 billion each year.^[14] For impoverished African economies that are dependent on oil imports, the costs are far more crippling.^[15]

Most pirate attacks take place inside territorial waters, close to the coast, where the coalition has no legal authority; in 2005 there were 276 attempts and hijackings, of those only 24 took place in international waters where the coalition has authority.^[16] However since piracy is a crime with a tag of universal jurisdiction, any government can legally apprehend and prosecute pirates.

The concern over violent crime on the high seas is not restricted Africa and the Middle East however. The issue of transnational organized crime in the Caribbean is also currently the focus of an OAS discussion group underway in Jamaica.^[17] The seminar which is being held in Montego Bay, March 20-22, includes the participation of justice and law enforcement officials from all English-speaking countries in Caribbean, as well as Haiti and Suriname.^[18] Along with experts from the OAS Department of Public Security and the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD), the Caribbean participants will address four specific aspects of organized crime: drug trafficking, trafficking in persons, arms trafficking and gangs.^[19]

In his opening remarks, Peter Phillips, the Minister of National Security of Jamaica, stressed the increasing internationalization of transnational organized crime, to the degree that Caribbean cultural integration of the region is being more effectively accomplished by organized criminals than by the states.^[20] Minister Phillips said that “solutions cannot be found within the traditional definitions of sovereignty, as organized crime operates truly without national borders….[we must work together].”^[21]

We have previously discussed Piracy, Arms Trafficking, Drug Trafficking, and Human Trafficking, in this blog.

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^[1] Anthony Mitchell, Pirate patrol uses Cole as inspiration, AP (via NavyTimes.com), March 20, 2007
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id. This information was compiled by Combined Task Force 150, a 14-nation task force comprised of the U.S., U.K., France, Saudi Arabia, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Britain, Canada, Germany, Bahrain, New Zealand, Pakistan and Singapore. It is coordinated with, and incorporates vessels of, the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, under the Combined Forces Maritime Component Commander/Commander US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain. Since its inception, CTF 150 has been commanded by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Pakistan and is currently led by the UK.
^[4] Id.; The term “boardings” refers to the moment when pirates have subdued a ship and are boarding it to attain their loot.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] IMO website, IMO Fourth Quarterly Report, Int’l Maritime Org., Ref. T2-MSS/2.11.4.1, Feb 15, 2007.
^[10] Id.
^[11] Staright of Hormuz website, http://www.dataxinfo.com/index.htm(last visited Mar.22, 2007). The strait at its narrowest is 21 miles wide
^[12] Mitchell, supra note 1. Some 3.3 billion barrels of oil a day destined for Europe and the U.S. pass through the 18-mile, largely un-policed Bab el Mandab straits; see also http://www.converger.com/eiacab/choke.htm (last visited Mar. 20, 2007).
^[13] Dustin Dehez, Outside View: Threats in Africa, National Ledger, January 20, 2006.
^[14] Mitchell, supra note 1.
^[15] Id.
^[16] Id., see also IMO Website, supra note 9.
^[17] OAS Helping to Address Transnational Organized Crime in the Caribbean, OAS Press Release (via PressZoom), March 22, 2007. (Organized by the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States ( OAS ) and the Jamaican government, with financial support from the government of Canada.)
^[18] Id.
^[19] Id.
^[20] Id.
^[21] Id.