Articles listed do not imply endorsement of content. While every care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the contents of the web site, Somaliland Cyberspace cannot accept liability for errors or omissions or any loss arising therefore, however caused. In addition, opinions expressed in the articles appearing here are those of the writer(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the site editor. They are included in our material as a reflection of a diversity of views and a variety of issues. If you have an issue with a posted material, please contact the source.

Somaliland cyberspace News Board

News archives
Encounters with Somalia's pirates
IP: 192.206.50.254
Posted on April 26, 2009 at 09:02:43 PM by mb

Encounters with Somalia's pirates

Correspondents Report - Sunday, 26 April , 2009

Reporter: Andrew Fowler

ELIZABETH JACKSON: First today, we travel to Somalia with Foreign Correspondent's Andrew Fowler.

Andrew has recently returned from spending as month in Somalia, where he had the opportunity to experience the political and social devastation of a state which has completely failed.

He also met a few pirates while he was there.

Last year the Reporters Without Borders group described Somalia as Africa's deadliest country for journalists.

Well I'm pleased to say it wasn't deadly for Andrew, although as a Westerner there was certainly a price on his head and needless to say he did have to take fairly extreme security precautions.

Andrew, welcome to Correspondents Report. What did you make of the pirates you met?

ANDREW FOWLER: Well what I thought of them was that they were pretty normal youthful people who had developed a novel way of extorting money out of people who'd ruined their lives.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: A lot of money.

ANDREW FOWLER: A lot of money, yeah. I mean it was a, you know… but they don't actually get the full $2-million, I mean they, you know, these huge sums of money, these bags of cash that dropped out of the sky onto the decks of these boats which are then counted by automatic machines so that they do it in like 10, 15 minutes and run of with the… they start of negotiating about $3-million or $4-million and probably settle for about a million or so.

This money doesn't end up in the hands of the boys that we spoke to in the prison, it ends up with all the fixers in Kenya and the people in London and the people elsewhere who are part of this, this chain of events, which leads to, leads between the ship owners who pay the money and the pirates who get a percentage of it.

The boys are the grunts, they're at the frontline; these are the boys that climb up the side of the tankers with their ladders and with their guns and hijack the tankers and take them away. They don't get the lion's share of the loot.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: So it's not their idea, they haven't come up with this, somebody has approached them, recruited them to be involved in this activity?

ANDREW FOWLER: Look, it all goes back to the loss of their fishing industry when Somalia fell to pieces in the '90s. Foreign shipping companies came in and just fished out all of their coastline. Their 1200 kilometre coastline was unprotected and so foreign vessels came in and just plundered everything, included the lobster beds, which were, they are the jewel in the crown of the fishing industry because they are, lobsters and very, very expensive.

They dragged their nets across the ocean bed and smashed the lobster beds and that was the thing that really ignited the piracy. They got very angry about this, they'd lost their jobs, so they were prepared to confront those who were taking their, what they saw as their fish and their lobsters, and they did.

So one thing lead to another and these intruding fishing vessels were armed so the Somalis got armed and then it sort of upped the ante, and eventually, when there's no fish left and no lobsters, well, we've got some pretty good armed ships here, let's go out and take on the world.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Yes, which is… (laughs) which is exactly what's happened.

ANDREW FOWLER: Which is exactly what's happened, that's right.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: So did you get the impression that there were a lot of pirates? I mean, is the place full of them?

ANDREW FOWLER: Sure. Sure, I mean, the place is as full of pirates as you know… I mean if you lock up, you know, 40, 50 pirates there'll be 40, 50 more waiting for it.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Because it's quite dangerous, I mean many of them have been killed doing this.

ANDREW FOWLER: Yeah some of them have been killed by, particularly by the Americans, which is quite interesting that the SEALs killed a couple of pirates holding the captain hostage. Now there is no record to my knowledge of the pirates having killed anybody, so they're not Al-Shabab, they're not, there is no connection between the Islamic groups and the pirates.

So the killing of the pirates was quite a significant turning point. I'm not sure what that actually means in the future but I think it's not good for reaching some kind of peaceful settlement.

I mean, in the end, these boys are in prison and they say to us, 'Look, if we don't get work then what else is there for us to do?'

ELIZABETH JACKSON: They have nothing to lose so they're prepared to take those risks.

Let's talk about the way they operate. They're in gangs, they're out there on the Indian Ocean somewhere, they track the vessels, they eventually board the vessels under the cover of night, often people on board these big ships are unaware that the pirates are even there.

And then I understand they use a middle man to do their negotiation, which is often done via the telephone or even SMS messaging, is that right?

ANDREW FOWLER: That's correct yeah, exactly right, yeah. In fact they were daylight raiders, now they're night raiders and I think that followed the killing by the SEALs of the pirates. The way it works is that the pirates clamber up the side of these vessels with ladders, they then board the vessel with arms, they take the crew and they say, 'stop the ship, turn it around and take it down the coast,' all at gun point.

At the same time they contact the shipping owners or the captain contacts the shipping owners and the shipping owners then bring in a middle man who will then negotiate the best price they can get to get the ship back and to get the hostages free.

And I mean the main thing here is the hostages and we interviewed a French admiral who was in charge of the French operations out of Djibouti and he said, 'Look, we're only concerned about getting the hostages free. That's the most important thing. Forget the ship, really, forget the money, forget everything, just get the hostages.'

And he agrees that paying a ransom, which is something that I think Australia wouldn't do and I think Americans, you know, don't want to do, the French say, 'What are we going to do? The people are more important than any amount of money, let's give them the money.' And that's what's happened.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Now you mentioned before they have counting machines with them to count the money?

ANDREW FOWLER: Yeah that's right.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Because it's such vast sums and it's all cash of course. They have machines, I understand, to detect fake notes? They're quite sophisticated aren't they?

ANDREW FOWLER: Yeah, look I understand that they do have those things. We did ask around but nobody seemed to know about the counterfeiting, sort of, you know detection system. I mean there's a whole bunch of, a lot of paranoia out there about any form of currency.

So for example, if you're in Djibouti, which is this little state where the French and the allies operate their anti-piracy activities, you've got, if you've got a… I'm trying to recollect this exactly, a $50 American note and it was printed before 1997, nobody will take it from you. Why? Because it's thought it might be counterfeit.

So the whole thing about whether or not it's counterfeit I think is a bit of a red herring, if you'll pardon the pun. I mean, they're just busy counting the money. They just count it. And they count it very fast. I mean the French admiral told me, he said, 'Look, we couldn't work it out. We dropped the money on the deck and they go, yep, okay let's go.' (Laughs)

And the pirates, the French go, 'Well how can this be so? We've just dropped $2-million down on you and you counted it in 10 minutes.' Well they had a machine that they just flicked it through.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: They're organised.

ANDREW FOWLER: And they're organised, yeah. And what's really interesting is that there's an issue of trust involved in all this. What happens is, the pirates get the boat, they've got the hostages and they've got the money, and they're left with that and then it's on trust that the pirates will then leave, take the money and go.

That's quite extraordinary isn't it? It's like a business deal, you know? I mean it's a bit flasher than sort of paying a few McDonalds in advance, but it's akin to that and it's a matter trust and till recently that trust seems to have worked.

Now whether or not it's right to ransom money or not is an issue that you could debate for, you know, several Correspondents Reports I'm sure, but at the moment it seems to have worked because the money's actually flowed into Somalia, into Puntland, and it's providing employment, it's an indirect form of taxation if you like, of the Western countries.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: It's an extraordinary story and we look forward to your full report on Tuesday night. Andrew Fowler, thank you.

ANDREW FOWLER: Thanks very much.

ELIZABETH JACKSON: And you can watch Andrew's story on Foreign Correspondent, that's 8:00pm next Tuesday on ABC 1.

http://www.abc.net.au/correspondents/content/2008/s2552537.htm



Replies:


You must register before you can post on this board. You can register here.

Post a reply:
Username:
Password:
Email:
Subject:
Message:
Link Name:
Link URL:
Image URL:

News archives
Create Your Own Free Message Board or Free Forum!
Hosted By Boards2Go Copyright © 2000-2013
Our Sites: Wedding address collection  Wedding thank you wording