Al-Shabaab's foreign fighters and possible money troubles

Following up on an earlier post about foreign fighters showing up in Somalia, here's an update on the situation from a couple of sources:

A Swedish media outlet reports that the Säkerhetspolisen (Sapo), Sweden's security service, believes at least ten young men have left the country to train and fight with al-Shabaab in Somalia. Sapo says, "a handful of people with Swedish passports have been killed in the fighting." And while a number of those who left Sweden were of Somali-background, others are reported to be of mixed ethnicity, attracted by the chance to take up arms in what they see as a global struggle.

That it is not just expatriate Somalis aiding al-Shabaab was confirmed to me by a colleague in East Africa. Speaking by phone earlier today, he briefed me about what he'd seen on his most recent trip through Somalia and, among other things, told me that in the port town of Baraawe the leader of the local contingent of al-Shabaab is a Chechen. Located about halfway between Kismaayo and Mogadishu, Shabaab has been controlled by Baraawe since last November and is one of the areas in which they have imposed their interpretation of Shari'ah law.

My source also says that Shabaab may be encountering some money troubles. He confirms that the group has been receiving some funding from pirate gangs operating in the southern part of Somalia and is encouraging the pirates to continue attacking vessels (in return for a cut of any ransoms garnered). The Islamists are hoping that with all the attention being focused on northern waters - such as the Gulf of Aden - there will be more potential prizes in the southern seas. My contact could not say whether or not this means that pirates will attempt to continue attacking even with the onset of the summer monsoon season, but if Shabaab is facing a money crunch, they might try to convince pirate allies to venture out even if marine conditions may not be the best.

My source also says that Shabaab now control three of the four roads leading into Mogadishu and are preparing for renewed fighting in the next couple of weeks. He said that Ethiopian troops crossed the border into Somalia last week and may be preparing to take on Shabaab in the vicinity of Jawhar, which is just north of the capital and is held by the Islamist group. (Reports that Ethiopian troops have returned are disupted by the government in Addis Abiba.) He added that there are fears in the country that without more support, the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) will not be able to effectively deter the hard line Islamists and that Mogadishu will be lost to the latter forces.

Finally, regarding that report that a large group of pirates in Eyl were intending to give up their criminal activities (see previous post here), my contact broke out laughing when I mentioned it. Like me, and many others, my East African colleague felt it was more a public relations stunt than a sincere desire to actually end their pirating days. And he agreed that the summer monsoon season could be a strong factor motivating this event and that the truth could only be found when the fall piracy season begins.

(For more detailed information on recent events in Somalia, see the Armed Conflict Database of the International Institute for Strategic Studies website, located here.)

Rehabilitating pirates

There's a BBC report from earlier today that says a somewhat extraordinary meeting occurred recently in the Somali coastal town of Eyl, during which some 200 gunmen are said to have renounced piracy. The idea as put forward by 'pirate representative' Abshir Abdullah is that in return for halting their attacks on vessels, former gang members would be given an amnesty by local Somali leaders, who have become increasingly concerned about the impact of the criminal activities on the community.

Perhaps pirates like Abdullah have come to realize that the happy times are coming to a close and that it's better to call it a day while ahead of the game. From my own experience talking with pirates and others familiar with things, most who become involved with maritime crime enter this world with decidedly short-term visions. They want to make some money, preferably fast, and rarely think of it as a lifetime profession. Get in, get out, go home.

Take a look at a great report posted yesterday by McClatchy Newspapers' African correspondent Shashank Bengali for The Seattle Times. Bengali interviewed a 26-year-old former Somali pirate now living in the Eastleigh slum in the Kenyan capital, a guy who "cashed out", took his earnings - apparently about $116,000 - and is wondering how to start a new life in Nairobi or elsewhere. As Bengali notes, this man is far from the first Somali to decide on taking money garnered from various activities back home and invest it outside the country. The journalist found that one money broker in Eastleigh (aka 'Little Mogadishu') had transferred more than $10 million out of Somalia in just the past few months.

But what do you do with former pirates? What other options are available to entice them to cease their attacks? Well as German outlet Spiegel Online notes, the French put forth an idea last week at a gathering of European Union foreign and defence ministers in Brussels, one in which nations would help train Somalis to create more effective security forces, some of which would, presumably, be used in anti-piracy and related coast guarding operations. This wouldn't be the first time that former criminal elements were coerced into becoming legitimate parts of a governing structure, however shaky the current Somali versions may be.

The Germans have some concerns about the French idea, not the least of which is that giving Western security/military training and arming the Somalis could result in a blow-back should the trainees opt to defect to local gangs, something we've unfortunately seen before in places like Afghanistan.

One has to wonder whether this is the right time to be thinking of rehabilitation options like this, just as one has to wonder about the sincerity of those Somalis willing to renounce pirate now. In a manner of weeks, the 2008-2009 piracy will come to a close as the summer monsoon winds begin to blow (see EagleSpeak's detailed look at this here). Pirates will either be deciding what to spend their earnings on or perhaps return to a little fishing in the seas off the Horn of Africa. And as for those 200-odd pirates claiming to be ready to renounce things? Will they continue to be so willing when the monsoon ends in Autumn, or will they renounce their renouncements? These are, after all, opportunists.

Terror on the Seas web site

For those who follow my postings here and might like to know a bit more about my work, I'd like to invite you to visit the new web site Terrorontheseas.com

The site is devoted to my book of the same name, and you'll find an excerpt, some reviews and a little background on myself and some of the other projects I've done. But rest assured that I'll still be posting information and commentaries here at this blog.

Another American-flagged vessel targeted by pirates

MV Maersk Virginia (Maersk Line photo)

Another container ship from US-based Maersk Line Ltd. was involved in a pirate incident earlier today. According to Lloyd's List, the MV Maersk Virginia was sailing in the Gulf of Aden when a pirate boat approached. Other media reports say that the pirates had been targeting another freighter, the Maria K., in the seas south of Yemen when they appear to have decided to go for something bigger. As the CBC's David Common details from aboard the Canadian frigate HMCS Winnipeg, the warship deployed its Sea King helicopter in response to a distress call from the Maria K., which had been fired on by the pirates. Before the chopper arrived, though, the attackers turned their attention towards the much larger Virginia, which is crewed by 19 US-nationals. The arrival of the Canadian helicopter and a second one from an Italian warship caused the pirates to give up any further actions and throw their weapons into the sea. Italian naval forces then boarded and captured the suspects.

The Virginia is, of course, part of the same fleet that includes the Maersk Alabama. (One note of clarification from the CBS report by Sheila MacVicar, who is also embedded aboard HMCS Winnipeg, is that the frigate could not have deployed three helicopters as the warship only carries a single Sea King.)

Pirate threats to small vessels and a mysterious disappearance

With so much attention being focused on the activities of Somali pirates being committed against commercial shipping targets, it's easy to forget about the most vulnerable victims: small vessels. Fishing boats and recreational boaters are no less immune to attacks, but many of these pirate incidents go unreported.

Offshore fishing vessels make perfect targets for pirates, as they can be easily boarded, often have a crew that numbers over a dozen and their catch can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. This means that the commercial firms who use the vessels end up having to decide whether to forgo the safety of the crews - often coming from Third World nations - or pony up the ransoms demanded. Additionally, there is the potential to use captured trawlers and other small vessels as pirate motherships which makes them valuable.

But clearly a pirate gang cannot expect to garner a million dollar ransom for a sailboat, right? Well, maybe not a million, but in at least one case it's being reported that $600,000 may have been paid to free a German couple captured in the Gulf of Aden a year ago. If true, this raises the stakes for any bluewater sailor thinking of venturing into the region.

Over at YachtPals, Brad Hampton wrote an article yesterday about the mysterious disappearance of a Japanese boater, Akio Yonago, who left the Seychelles a few weeks ago headed east. He hasn't been since. It is, of course, possible that Yonago's boat sank or was otherwise rendered inoperable, or that he's quietly making his way across the Indian Ocean in some relaxed manner. But the fact that he hasn't been heard from in weeks does raise the possibility he was pirated.

As Hampton points out in his piece, this year yachts have been officially reported to have been attacked in Brazil, Thailand, and near the Seychelles, with two yachters killed by pirates (and a third by French commandos). I've no doubt that the real numbers are far higher, based, in part, by reports I receive from sailors.

This is just a modest reminder that anyone at sea can be a target, a victim. Supertankers, military vessels, container ships, fishing boats, passenger liners or pleasure boats - no one's immune to the threat. And the threat is not limited to just the waters off the Horn of Africa.

Remembering the Tamil Sea Tigers

With the reported death of Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran in northeastern Sri Lanka, it appears that his secessionist movement is at an end. At least as a political entity in control of parts of the northern end of the island. Whether further military activities continue, such as guerrilla attacks, is uncertain. Things are really now in the hands of the Sri Lankan government to find some means to reconcile the Tamil minority with the Sinhalese majority there (to say nothing of the Muslim and Christian elements).

Over the last few months here in Toronto, there have been numerous demonstrations by members of the Tamil community living in these parts, trying to draw attention to the plight of their brethren in Sri Lanka. And they have quite valid concerns about the effects of the Sri Lankan military's onslaught against the Tigers that has been borne out by reports of deaths and injuries and displacements created by the fighting. There is a grave humanitarian crisis on the island nation that needs to be addressed.

But I have often found myself troubled by the demonstrations - not because of what the protesters are saying, but, rather, because of what they are not saying. Since I write about maritime issues, I've known about the Tamil Sea Tigers for several years. And their activities were deplorable. They targeted civilian vessels - as well as Sri Lankan naval 'targets' - and engaged in hijackings, thefts, intimidation and murder.

Over at Oldsailor's Marinebuzz site, he has a short list of some of the vessels the Sea Tigers attacked, primarily in the 1990s, plus a look back at their seizure of the freighter MV Farrah-3 in December 2006. (See the photos from his site of what the vessel looks like today, posted below.)

But he's forgotten what, in my mind, is one of the most horrific incidents that the Sea Tigers are believed to have committed. On March 20, 2003, a Chinese trawler was working the seas off the northeastern tip of Sri Lanka, about 17 nautical miles offshore of Mullaittivu (then a major Tiger base). This put the 26 crew of the Fu Yuan Ya 225 in international waters. About four in the morning, a group of speedboats suddenly surrounded the trawler and then, without warning, opened fire on her with automatic weapons.

Now take a moment to imagine the situation: You're a fisherman working far from home in the middle of the night, doing the backbreaking work that is your stock in trade. It's a brutal job at the best of times, but now has become deadlier. For a half hour the trawler is shot up by the attackers until it begins to sink. Those members of the Chinese crew not trapped inside the trawler managed to jump into the sea, hoping for an end to this bizarre event. At which point the shipwrecked survivors were gunned down in the water.

By daybreak there were only 9 left alive out of the crew of 26. And though the Tigers denied responsibility, there was no one else in the area who could have carried out such an attack.

Now I can hear the critics braying already, wondering how I can be critical of the aspirations espoused by the Tigers, and other Tamils, when they've been virtually persecuted for decades by the federal government in Colombo. Seventeen dead Chinese fishermen seems inconsequential compared to the thousands killed in Sri Lanka.

But once you start killing innocent foreigners who happen to be fishing nearby or hijacking foreign ships that happen to be in trouble nearby, you sully your means to achieve your goals. The Tigers had become like the PLO in the 1970s, ready to use whatever was necessary to achieve their dreams. But at least the PLO knew when it was time to stop their nefarious campaigns and come to the table, and their dream may actually become a reality within the foreseeable future. Prabhakaran's vision has been squandered, as has that of thousands of other Tamils.

Freighter MV Farrah-3 beached ashore, 2009

Somali pirates allowing themselves to be captured?

Abduwali Abdukhadir Muse, the lone Somali to survive the Maersk Alabama incident, was indicted today by a Manhattan grand jury on ten charges, including piracy and kidnapping. He will be arraigned in a District Court on Thursday, with his trial expected to commence in the fall. Muse faces life in prison if convicted on the piracy charge. Reuters reports that one of his lawyers is looking into the chance that Muse was "kidnapped and taken hostage" by American forces, a somewhat specious allegation given that the Somali man had been part of the armed group holding Captain Richard Phillips against his will.

Meanwhile, in The Netherlands, five other Somalis accused of attacking a vessel registered in the Dutch Antilles, are being prepared for their own trial under Dutch laws. The men were captured after a January incident involving the cargo ship Samanyulo, and at least two of the accused seem quite happy to be incarcerated in a European country. The Telegraph has a piece in which one of the men says that life in a Dutch jail is "good" in comparison to what things were like back home in Somalia.

The attorney of another is quoted as saying that his client is relieved to be in a Western prison where he feels safe. "His own village is dominated by poverty and sharia law but here he has good food and can play football [soccer] and watch television. He thinks the lavatory in his cell is fantastic." This accused is apparently considering sending for his wife and children to come to Holland as soon as he's released - which presumes the man will plead guilty and/or be sentenced to a prison term. His lawyer considers the man to be a Robin Hood driven to piracy to support his family.

All of this has led an international criminal law attorney, Geert-Jan Knoops, to wonder whether pirates will voluntarily surrender to Western naval forces in order to get to a better life, even one behind bars. It's not such a strange idea, and one that you can bet has been discussed in detail by a variety of legal experts prior to all the naval warships deploying to the seas off the Horn of Africa. Indeed, it's one of the reasons we've seen some nations hand over captured pirates to Somali authorities, or release them outright. It's the unwritten worry that once these suspects are brought to a Western nation to face legal trials, they'll never go home again.