Somaliland

Somaliland Success against Piracy

January 18, 2011   ·   1981518 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2Fsomaliland-success-against-piracy-19815Somaliland+Success+against+Piracy2011-01-19+05%3A32%3A55Mo+Guledhttp%3A%2F%2Fsomalilandpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D19815

According to the report issued by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) and International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) “More people were taken hostage at sea in 2010 than in any year on record. Pirates captured 1,181 seafarers and killed eight. A total of 53 ships were hijacked.” Captain Pottengal Mukundan, Director of the IMB’s Piracy Reporting Centre said “These figures for the number of hostages and vessels taken are the highest we have ever seen since 1991 and the continued increase in these numbers is alarming.”

As the IMB’s 2010 Piracy map shown above depicts, the Somaliland waters are completely free from Piracy attacks and attempts in 2010 despite the record number of hostages taken and ships hijacked; the number one reason is because many Pirates who made attempts to hijack ships from Somaliland waters in 2009 have been captured by authorities and are in Somaliland jails.
Somaliland is the only nation that has convicted more than 60 pirates who are currently serving long jail time after being convicted by local courts. Throwing this many Pirates in Jail has had the intended consequence and it has been reported that pirates warn each other to avoid Somaliland waters when attempting to attack ships in the Red Sea waters.

Despite its meager resource this little country spends far less (about .0001%) than the International community and shipping corporations do, yet it has achieved much better results. Perhaps it is time for interested parties to recognize this remarkable achievement and collaborate closely with the Somaliland authorities and engage and support the proven record of Somaliland if eradicating pirates from the coastline of Somalia is ever hoped to be achieved.

Somaliland has been in the news lately in large part because of the continued success in holding free and fair elections (local government, parliament, and presidential) and the stability and peace it has achieved in an area that has become synonymous with lawlessness and rampant violence. The people who live in the coastal areas in Somaliland are just as poor as their counterparts in Puntland and Somalia who engage in piracy , the different is the presence of law and order in the former and the lack of it in the latter, and an administration capable of reaching all its citizens and impressing on them the need to safeguard the security and the territorial integrity of the nation. The men pictured below are busy patrolling Somaliland coastal waters and taking any unwise pirate that comes into view to jails in Somaliland, where they will spend prolong periods and cursing the day they went to sea.

Being captured by the International flotilla is no deterrent, because they know if they survive the encounter, they will either be handed over to friendly Puntland which by all accounts is a pirate heaven or be transported to Europe or even the US, which they consider as a step up from the harsh life they are used to.
The international community could make considerable progress in slowing down if not completely eliminate the pirate issue from the Somali coast if they would seriously engage the Somaliland administration and seek its cooperation and input from it. Providing adequate resources to Somaliland and using its ports will definitely put a huge dent in the illicit activities bedeviling the Indian Ocean waterways. It is time to use common sense and use what works, instead of repeating the same mistake time and again. In the question of piracy Somaliland offers solutions, Puntland offers piracy!, and Somalia offers piracy and Alshabaab. Somaliland offers its people peace, elections, democratic values, and success against piracy. The International community must support Somaliland to help its people much more.

Source:SomalilandPress

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By Mo Guled

Tags: Somali Pirates, Somaliland, Somaliland Government, Somaliland marines, Somalilandpress