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| 5/24 |
| 2008/11/12-14 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast, Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:51954 Activity:nil 75%like:51971 |
11/12 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7650415.stm lol, Pirates have spokesmen now? \_ everyone has spokesmen. \_ http://marketplace.publicradio.org/segments/working/pirate.html paints a different picture of piracy. |
| 5/24 |
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| news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7650415.stm Printable version Somali pirates living the high life Somali pirates in a speedboat in the Indian Ocean By Robyn Hunter BBC News "No information today. No comment," a Somali pirate shouts over the sound of breaking waves, before abruptly ending the satellite telephone call. Somali pirates face battles at sea He sounds uptight - anxious to see if a multi-million dollar ransom demand will be met. He is on board the hijacked Ukrainian vessel, MV Faina - the ship laden with 33 Russian battle tanks that has highlighted the problem of piracy off the Somali coast since it was captured almost a month ago. According to residents in the Somali region of Puntland where most of the pirates come from, they live a lavish life. they have power and they are getting stronger by the day," says Abdi Farah Juha who lives in the regional capital, Garowe. Pirates guard the crew on the MV Faina The crew on MV Faina are reportedly being well-looked after "They wed the most beautiful girls; Most of them are aged between 20 and 35 years - in it for the money. And the rewards they receive are rich in a country where almost half the population need food aid after 17 years of non-stop conflict. Most vessels captured in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden fetch on average a ransom of $2m. The BBC's reporter in Puntland, Ahmed Mohamed Ali, says it also explains the tight operation the pirates run. They are never seen fighting because the promise of money keeps them together. Wounded pirates are seldom seen and our reporter says he has never heard of residents along Puntland's coast finding a body washed ashore. Given Somalia's history of clan warfare, this is quite a feat. It probably explains why a report of a deadly shoot-out amongst the pirates onboard the MV Faina was denied by the vessel's hijackers. Pirate spokesman Sugule Ali told the BBC Somali Service at the time: "Everybody is happy. Brains, muscle and geeks The MV Faina was initially attacked by a gang of 62 men. BBC Somalia analyst Mohamed Mohamed says such pirate gangs are usually made up of three different types: map * Ex-fishermen, who are considered the brains of the operation because they know the sea * Ex-militiamen, who are considered the muscle - having fought for various Somali clan warlords * The technical experts, who are the computer geeks and know how to operate the hi-tech equipment needed to operate as a pirate - satellite phones, GPS and military hardware. The three groups share the ever-increasing illicit profits - ransoms paid in cash by the shipping companies. A report by UK think-tank Chatham House says piracy off the coast of Somalia has cost up to $30m (17m) in ransoms so far this year. The study also notes that the pirates are becoming more aggressive and assertive - something the initial $22m ransom demanded for MV Faina proves. Calling the shots Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, is reportedly where the pirates get most of their weapons from. A significant amount is also bought directly from the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Enlarge Image Observers say Mogadishu weapon dealers receive deposits for orders via a "hawala" company - an informal money transfer system based on honour. Militiamen then drive the arms north to the pirates in Puntland, where they are paid the balance on delivery. It has been reported in the past that wealthy businessmen in Dubai were financing the pirates. But the BBC's Somali Service says these days it is the businessmen asking the pirates for loans. Such success is a great attraction for Puntland's youngsters, who have little hope of alternative careers in the war-torn country. Once a pirate makes his fortune, he tends to take on a second and third wife - often very young women from poor nomadic clans, who are renowned for their beauty. "This piracy has a negative impact on several aspects of our life in Garowe," resident Mohamed Hassan laments. He cites an escalating lack of security because "hundreds of armed men" are coming to join the pirates. They call themselves coastguards Garowe resident Abdulkadil Mohamed They have made life more expensive for ordinary people because they "pump huge amounts of US dollars" into the local economy which results in fluctuations in the exchange rate, he says. The trappings of success may be new, but piracy has been a problem in Somali waters for at least 10 years - when Somali fishermen began losing their livelihoods. Their traditional fishing methods were no match for the illegal trawlers that were raiding their waters. Piracy initially started along Somalia's southern coast but began shifting north in 2007 - and as a result, the pirate gangs in the Gulf of Aden are now multi-clan operations. But Garowe resident Abdulkadil Mohamed says, they do not see themselves as pirates. "Illegal fishing is the root cause of the piracy problem," he says. Advertise With Us BBC MMVIII The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so. |
| marketplace.publicradio.org/segments/working/pirate.html So I started reporting this story by simply heading to a region that's famous for piracy: Indonesia's Riau Province, which is made up of some 300 islands dotted across a narrow channel that connects the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea. As in most industries -- whether it's investment banking or organized crime -- with piracy, it's all about who you know. So I began by asking local journalists how they meet pirates. But I soon learned that Indonesian journalists don't report on piracy, even though the region has, for centuries, been one of the world's most active spots for maritime crime. The reason they don't report on piracy has mainly to do with national pride. If we admit there's a problem, the logic goes, then we admit we can't handle it ourselves. This kind of thinking meant I spent three frustrating weeks working local networks of journalists, officials, and ex-pirates -- three weeks of phone calls, waiting, interviews, waiting, and more waiting -- and still, I didn't meet a real pirate. I had read about a French academic who did field research on piracy in Riau. When he finally got back to me, he gave me the break I needed: the names of two ex-pirates with strong connections to one of the most powerful pirate syndicates in the area. The two men work as boat-taxi drivers, a common profession for ex-pirates and pirates-to-be. My interpreter, Edi, and I met them in the lobby of a hotel a few blocks from mine. They didn't want me to divulge their names, so I'll call them Andi and Joni. From the moment I saw them, I could tell these guys were different from the other ex-pirates I'd met. I told them I wanted to do a story about what it's really like to be a pirate. "They either think you are Johnny Depp or you are helping terrorists." This latter claim is commonly made by American and Japanese officials when they propose to send their own patrols to the Strait of Malacca. The Indonesian government has fiercely resisted such outside involvement. Instead, they prefer to work with the navies of neighboring Singapore and Malaysia. After hours of negotiation, Andi and Joni agreed to go look for a pirate. They said they had one in mind, but he was on a remote island. I gave them about $50, knowing I may never see them again. continued "My wife has managed to work for herself as a nurse. But I'm still doing this bad job and not making much money. By noon I figured they had either run off with the money, failed to find a pirate, or found one but couldnt convince him to talk. For a minute I couldnt believe this was finally happening. The pirate, Agus, told us he used to earn $7 a day farming cocoa in a village more than 1,000 miles away. His earnings were barely enough to support his wife, three children, parents, and siblings. Agus said he knew a shopkeeper in the village who always had money and whose wife wore heaps of gold jewelry. The shopkeeper told Agus he'd made his fortune as a pirate. So eight years ago, Agus decided he would try his luck in the Riau Islands. Agus landed in Belakang Padang, a sleepy little island thats as close as you can get to booming Singapore and still be in Indonesia. Since the 19th century, when the colonial ships of England, Portugal, and Holland sailed these waters, theres been rampant piracy here. "When you have poor people next to rich people, you have piracy," Edi explained. Agus found work as a boat-taxi driver and put out the word that he was looking for an opportunity as a pirate. It was four years before he was introduced to a friend of a friend who invited Agus to join an "operation." The conditions have to be right before pirates will head out "shopping" for a cargo ship to rob: a moonless night, a lull in patrols, and enough money to buy weapons and fuel for the motorized canoes. Once they identify a suitable victim, seven to nine men don ski masks and black shirts, motor out into international waters, sidle up to the ship, and climb on board using a long bamboo pole with a hook on one end. They threaten the captain and crew with long machetes, then steal all the money in the ship's safe. Agus and his partners have a hard time saving what they steal, or investing it in a more legitimate business. Thats because pirates here are notorious for spending their booty on "happy-happy" -- that is, a night of boozing and girls-for-hire. Agus weakness is a woman named Yuna who works in a dance troupe that travels from island to island and charges men to dance with them. The last night I saw him, Agus had spent his last $5 on dances with Yuna. I asked him why he didn't try to save his cash, to open a shop like the man in his village. "That would take more money than I am making as a pirate," he said. In that kind of economy, it seems, the only way to happiness is happy-happy. |