Evolution of Somaly piracy: from farce to tragedy

Situation in Indian ocean seems to be nearly desperate. After weeks of hysteria in media, fueled by international maritime organizations and navies, heads of world shipping apparently decided that public is ripe for what they’re going to propose. The head of Royal Dutch Shell, Jan Kopernicki, demanded navies to be more robust and attack pirates mother-ships, notwithstanding crews casualities. He was backed by the head of seafarer union Nautilus International. All of sudden, world and industry media found pirates to become cruel, starting to kill and torture captured seafarers. Media, feeded by navies and shipping leaders, described Beluga Nomination tragedy as an example of such cruelty. Seyshelles coast guard boat and Danish fregate closed already captured vessel and opened fire, three sailors died, and all media described their deaths as cold-blooded murder carried out by infuriated pirates. No media questioned the credibility of  the whole story, as it was presented to us by navies and politicians. No media mused over logical question – why did navies open fire on already highjacked vessel with crew held by pirates, in the first place? Suppose passenger plane is highjacked by bandits (not terrorists) requesting money, and some military happens to be nearby, with plane belonging to other from military State, and not a single person on a plane who’s citizen of military’s State. Military decides to take a chance and tries to free plane, some bandits and passengers get killed, plane is not freed. Will world media consider such accident as something routine, will media accuse bandits and praise military for their initiative? How come, that while all the world considers Beluga N tragedy as a result of pirates cruelty, relatives of one of sailors who was killed blame navies for his death, not criminals?

The head of Intertanko, one Joe Angelo, demonstrated to all the wrold, without any hint of shame, his knowledge of tanker world. After VLCC Irene SL was highjacked on Feb 9, he said that it means "a significant shift in the impact of the piracy crisis in the Indian Ocean". If Mr Angelo reads something related to tankers, even if it happens not often enough for him to know what is it he’s heading, maybe he’ll read this:
Irene SL is the fourth VLCC highjacked by Somali pirates in their history, previous three were:
VLCC Sirius Star (IMO 9384198) highjacked Nov 15 2008, released Jan 9 2009 for then record 3 mil USD;
VLCC Maran Centaurus (IMO: 9073050) highjacked Nov 30 2009, released for 5.5 mil ransom Jan 18 2010;
VLCC Samho Dream (IMO: 9235737) highjacked Apr 4 2010, released Nov 6 2010 for all-time record sum of 9.5 mil USD (ransom sum was claimed by pirates, owner didn’t confirm or reject it).

Mr Angelo and other shipping politicians said the Somaly piracy, at it’s present level, is endangering vital for world economy sea lanes, main routes for oil and containers transportation.
They are either absolutely ignorant or lying. Ocean-going boxships are still safest among all types of world merchant ships, because of their high freeboard and speed. VLCCs are to be provided with armed guards, either military or private, and they’ll be as safe as Mr Angelo’s bank account.
There is in fact, no real danger to world shipping anyway, Somali piracy is too small-scale for that. But there is another danger, which became a grim reality, danger to crews. Thanks to navies backed by international maritime organizations, Somali pirates became desperate, because too often they’re killed by navies, wether they give up or fight, wether they kill crew or spare. Thanks to politicians, the only measure to guarantee safety, armed guards on board, is a private matter of each shipowner, not an obligation. All of them, politicians and navies, oppose armed guards in principle.

Somali piracy suited them all – navies, politicians, international maritime organizations and UN. But spiralling violence was something they weren’t prepared for, though there were more than enough warnings, and after all, it was only logical. Navies patroling the region are like bloodhounds on the leash, they’re eager to shoot but they can’t. Some of them, Chinese, Indian and Russian, being not curbed by public control, were the first to get a taste of blood. Once, twice, thrice – questionable, to say the least, bloodshed went off not with accusations or investigations, but with universal approval and many awards for navies ranks. Other navies were dying out of envy, they wanted to join the fun, and finally, they’re in the game too.
Still, they hope they’ll be able to restore some kind of control over situation and restrict piracy to acceptable limits, so that everything will go on as before. Shipping leaders can’t handle navies, navies themselves can’t do it, so it was decided to blame pirates for all what happended recently, and eliminate most dangerous trend in Somali piracy - raids deep into the ocean on highjacked vessels used as mother-ships. How many innocent civilians will die is irrelevant, seamen are an expendable stock.

By such an outrageous step, as attacking mother-ships with hostages on board, politicians and navies plan to achieve another goal, to shift public attention, by giving public enough blood in news to forget about the roots of present situation, alas somebody would start asking some very unpleasant for politicians questions.
For more than two years politicians and navies intentionally opposed armed guards, if armed guards should be made a must, there won’t be any victims today, there won’t be in fact, any noticeable piracy in the region by now.  That’s only one thing they could and should do, and there are others things they could do long ago, to inhibit or eliminate piracy threat.

To cloak their former crimes, they’re preparing new ones, with enthusiastic help from world and industry media. I can’t but wonder at world media, who are they? Bunch of utterly non-professional individuals, uncapable of earning living by more honest ways? If for example, Secretary General of IMO will be caught with bribery or a prostitute, media will raise a hell worldwide. But when he lies and falsifies for years on all matters related to Somali piracy, nobody gives a damn. It’s in the open, there are facts and there are statements of world shipping leaders, all a professional has to do is to compare them and make a scandal. No way. Give us Wikileaks, give us some bloody secrets fresh out of safe, then we’ll believe.
Industry media is a sorry sight even in comparison with international one, it’s a disgrace to shipping whom it claims it voices. No position of it’s own, no emotions, no analytics, but mind you, if they find some petty scandal, they won’t miss it. A sorry bunch of corporate news, mixed with accidents news and if lucky, with some scandals of reasonably safe proportions.

How situation will develop, if shipping leaders will success with their “shoot’em all” scheme, is anyone’s guess. How navies will storm VLCC Irene SL, already used by pirates as a mother-ship, is a story for Hollywood screenplay writers. Somali piracy turned from farce into tragedy, and society we live in, the so-called international community, is no less responsible for that, than Somalians.

Voytenko Mikhail
Feb 12 2011