Tamil Tigers attack Colombo

Word just in that the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, came under attack from two Tamil Tiger aircraft around 1600h GMT (1100h ET), and the BBC reports that both aircraft were downed. Both pilots died from the crashes, as well as at least one person on the ground. Some forty are said to have been injured as a result of the attack, which the website TamilNet seems to indicate was aimed at the Sri Lankan Air Force headquarters.

The military campaign that has been waged of late by the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government has severely undermined the military capabilities of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and this aerial attack was clearly unexpected. There have been a number of previous aerial attacks the Tigers have launched in the past, but this particular incident is a bit of an embarrassment for the Sri Lankan government, which has appeared to have destoryed all major Tiger bases in the north of the island. Where these two aircraft sortied from is unknown.

This attack comes a day after the Sri Lankan military captured diving equipment and underwater scooters in the northeastern village of Ampalavanpokkanai; the Defence Ministry is quoted by AFP as saying the gear was for use by suicide bombers. And this all comes three weeks after government forces captured a crude submarine and several small surface craft that had been part of the Sea Tiger fleet.

This marks the first effort by the Tigers to strike back at the government in the south. Should the Sea Tigers have any remaining assests hidden somewhere on the island, you can expect they'll follow suit with their own attack on the seas.

The Sea Tiger semi-submersible shown below was captured on January 29. There are a number of other photos on the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence website.

The risks of reporting on criminals, like pirates

Some of you may have heard about today's news from Moscow relating to the death of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, though it was hardly the lead item anywhere. Politkovskaya was murdered in October of 2006 while investigating corruption in her country, gunned down outside her apartment. She left behind two young children and many unanswered questions about who ordered her death and what she was investigating. A court in Moscow today acquited three men charged in her murder.

Anna Politkovskaya

I mention the case of this brave Russian journalist because it's important for all who write about crime online, who investigate it and who offer up their perspectives to remember that we are dealing with unsavory elements who can be quite forceful in their reactions to our activities.

I think also of the Italian journalist Ilaria Alpi, who was murdered in Somalia in the early 1990s, along with her cameraman, while looking into the issue of toxic waste dumping off Somalia. Or the various Somali journalists killed or threatened in recent years, such as Sahal Abdulle, plus the plight of Kenyan anti-piracy expert Andrew Mwangura.

My point is that reporting on criminal activities, including piracy, is fraught with risks that many who blog about the issues never realize. I doubt most folks who write about piracy-related things have ever been faced with an armed man in a remote part of Southeast Asia, but I have. And I got lucky that night. Anna Politkovskaya didn't.

It's a small reality check about the reality of what we're dealing with here, and the possible consequences. But we cannot cease all our various efforts to continue to publicize the threat posed by criminals such as pirates. It is absolutely vital that the online community keeps this issue in the pubic domain. Do not shirk the responsibilities we face, nor become cowardly against our opponents.

There's a website for Anna Politkovskaya here.

Somalia's clan system and piracy

Seth Kaplan, a foreign policy analyst based in the U.S., has written an interesting commentary on the Policy Innovations website that offers some fresh thoughts on how to address piracy, and other criminal activities, emanating from Somalia. In particular, Kaplan suggests that outside powers should consider working with the various clans there that wield real, local power within the country, instead of attempting to emplace some kind of arbitrary form of "national" government upon the Somali people.

As Kaplan writes, "The United Nations, Western governments, and donors have been trying to fix Somalia in a way that is convenient for them—by creating a central government. They are more willing to accept the appearance of a cohesive regime than they are to accept the reality that they are simply backing one faction, which just happens to control the purported government.

"Instead of repeatedly trying to foist a Western style top-down state structure on a deeply decentralized society, the international community should work with Somalia's long-standing traditional institutions to build a bottom-up government."

This is a unique idea, one that holds great potential in addressing the need to stop piracy by enlisting the support of local leaders. It requires, however, a huge leap of faith on the part of the various outside institutions that have been trying to grapple with Somalia's rampant lawlessness for over fifteen years. The failures of the national entity that is currently supposed to govern Somalia - the Transitional Federal Government - are many, yet the TFG remains internationally recognized.

What Kaplan advocates is nothing short of a radical new approach to governing Somalia, one that is based not upon the creation of a federal "democratic structure" but, instead, involves the various regional players in a confederational system. This would, however, mean dealing with some of the more nefarious elements operating in Somalia, such as the warlords who control pirate gangs. And talking to the bad guys is not a popular idea in most capitals.

But after all the efforts expended in Somalia to date, none of which have proven successful, perhaps the time has come to consider trying something new. Unless the outside world can find a way to create law and order for the Somali people in their own land, it matters little how many naval warships patrol the Indian Ocean or how many pirates are captured, for there will always be someone willing to head to sea with a Kalashnikov believing he can make money by pirating.

Three for three: Russian Navy captures Somali pirates

For the third day running, suspected pirates have been apprehended in the waters off the Horn of Africa, this time by personnel from the Russian Navy's cruiser Pyotr Veliky (Peter The Great, in English). The BBC reports a helicopter from the nuclear-powered warship spotted three small boats in the seas southeast of Socotra, a Yemeni island in the approaches to the Gulf of Aden. A Russian navy spokesman, Igor Dygalo, is quoted as saying that, "It was visually established how weapons were being dumped from the boats into the sea."

Personnel from the cruiser then seized the small boats and took ten suspected pirates into custody. All are reported to be Somali. Also seized were "weapons including grenade launchers and automatic rifles as well as a quantity of a 'narcotic substance'".

(FYI: The Pyotr Veliky is a Kirov-class battlecruiser and the flagship of the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet. Excepting aircraft carriers, these warships are the largest naval assests afloat.)

US Navy captures another 9 pirates as MV Faina finally arrives in Mombasa

US Navy photo from last Wednesday of personnel

from USS Vella Gulf and suspected pirates

A day after capturing seven suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden, naval personnel from the USS Vella Gulf were at it again, coming to the assistance of an Indian vessel that was being attacked. In responding to a distress call from the MV Premdivya, the warship dispatched a helicopter that flew over a small boat the suspects were using to attempt to board the Indian vessel. After firing warning shots, the pirate skiff was stopped and nine aboard where taken into custody by the Americans, who found weapons, including RPGs, in the small boat. According to AP, the suspected pirates were then transferred to the floating brig USNS Lewis And Clark, where they joined the individuals captured yesterday. It is thought that the suspects will all be turned over to Kenyan authorities for prosecution.

Meanwhile, the MV Faina finally arrived in port, docking in the port city of Mombasa just before 4:00pm local time. Kenyan media outlet Daily Nation says that the freighter was received by cheering crowds, some of whom had been waiting since 11:00am for the Faina to dock. It is also reported that the chief of the Kenyan military's defence staff, Gen. Jeremiah Kianga, was unequivocal about the final destination of the hardware abaord the vessel, including those 33 T-72 battle tanks.

“The hardware belongs to Kenya. We tendered for them and bought the best at a good price. It cost us quite a substantial amount of money,” Gen Kianga is quoted as saying. (There's a clip of the general speaking to the media about this on the Daily Nation website linked above.) Including the British-built Vickers Mk3 main battle tanks already in that African nation's arsenal, this means Kenya will now boast a substantial amount of armour for its soldiers.

Photos below are of the arrival and docking of MV Faina (all photos from Reuters)

US Navy detains 7 suspected pirates, Dutch authorities prepare to prosecute 5 others and Puntland forces raid a pirate haven

Been a busy day around the Horn of Africa.

Word out of the Gulf of Aden this afternoon is that American naval forces apprehended seven suspected pirates in the wake of a botched attempt to board the merchant vessel MV Polaris. Voice of America reports that a team from the USS Vella Gulf, a Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser assigned to CTF151, managed to intercept the small boat the attackers were in and detain the Somalis aboard. The suspects are to be transferred shortly to the USNS Lewis And Clark; where they will be taken afterward remains unclear. This marks the first instance in which the new combined task force has successfully apprehended suspected pirates.

USS Vela Gulf (USN photo)

Also today, authorities in Rotterdam are preparing to arraign five Somalis that the Dutch navy captured on January 2 after another unsuccessful hijacking attempt by pirates. As the BBC says in its report, the "accused face up to nine years in jail if found guilty. The alleged leader of the group could face a 12-year sentence if convicted." Until their recent arrival in the Netherlands, the suspects had been detained in Bahrain.

Meanwhile in Somalia itself, there are signs that at least some elements of the populace are ready to reassert law and order. According to local media outlet Garowe Online, authorities in the administrative capital of Puntland State, Garowe, carried out the new government's first capital punishment case when they executed a man on Monday. Abdi-Dahir Abdullahi was "convicted of killing two men on Feb. 2, including a well-known pirate." (Puntland is the semi-autonomous northeastern part of Somalia).

Garowe Online also reports that the newly elected president of the Puntland regional administration, Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed "Farole" ordered local police to raid a village - Marero - known to be a haven for pirates and human smugglers. The report says that Puntland forces "stormed the site and a group of suspected pirates fled away on a speedboat", adding that they managed to capture "two speedboats, seven motors that power boats, barrels of fuel, food, ladders and ropes." President Farole is quoted as saying that the raid was a first step in combating criminals operating from the Puntland coast. "My government will fight pirates and human smugglers, and we have a plan to defeat them," President Farole vowed at a press conference after the raid.

Puntland President Farole at Marero with security forces
(Garowe Online photo)

Stage two in dealing with Somali pirates

My esteemed colleague EagleSpeak - one of the most astute observers of what's going on in the world of maritime crime - posted a piece about the deployment of an American vessel to the Horn of Africa to participate in the ongoing war against pirates. And, yes, that is what is currently being waged in the waters off East Africa, though no one else is using this definition. But let's get it straight: None of the various nations' warships on station there are engaged in something so quaint as peacekeeping; they are there to bring force to bear against what has been historically called an 'enemy to all mankind' and safeguard the strategic assets of nation states. It has not been declared by anyone, but those nation's who have sent their men and women to the Indian Ocean to suppress piracy are, in fact, battling enemy combatants.

At any rate, EagleSpeak's piece - which comes from the Stars And Stripes website - details how a Military Sealift Command vessel, the USNS Lewis And Clark, has been reconfigured to become a floating prison, capable of holding up to 26 suspected pirates aboard the dry cargo/ammunition ship. The vessel is tasked as a part of CTF 151, the America-led, multinational effort to address piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa.

This is a marked increase in the coalition's anti-piracy operations, for it means that it's not just about warships patrolling the seas with their helicopters and boarding parties, or what a friend of mine likes to call, "boys with toys". This points towards a definitive desire from at least the Americans to apprehend suspects and deliver them to some legal jurisdiction that can prosecute the pirates, quite likely Kenya.

Phase one of addressing piracy is to get protective measures in place, such as naval warships, and make sure they're able to utilize the assets they have. Stage two is to take any suspected pirates to a legitimate court where they can be tried in an open manner, such that their compatriots might thing twice about engaging in criminal activities.

Phase three? Well, that's the hardest one. That requires addressing the root source of the problem. We can patrol the waters, we can arrest the pirates, but that will never stop some young man from deciding to throw his lot in with a gang of maritime criminals unless that individual has other options.

We're close to getting two out of three things done in order to suppress piracy of the Horn of Africa. This should all be considered an improvement on the situation.