• [N.B.: The same applies for foreign fishing vessels. All foreign licences have been withdrawn and new ones will only be issued by the Central Federal Government after new fisheries regulations have been ratified by parliament. In the meantime any foreign fishing vessel operating in Somalia, be it by itself or in joint-venture, is illegal. Like the Territorial Waters of 200nm are in place since 1972, the EEZ of 200nm under UNCLOS is already in place since 1989 and the recent renewed attempts by the UN and Norway to fool the Somalis into re-declaring the EEZ is a sick game, which should be punished as attempted fraud under international law, because these players only want that Somalia could not bring the documented cases of illegal fishing and toxic dumping during the last 20 years before the international court.] ECOTERRA….

Around 200 nautical miles (nm) from the coast of Somalia another naval vessel arrived nearby and took over monitoring of the PRANTALAY-12 all the way up to the Somali shore close to Garacad where the fishing vessel had been anchored already before. The change-over at the 200nm boundary from the Indian navy to the other warship, which so far has not yet been identified, is one of the rare evidences showing that at least the government of India still respects the 200nM territorial waters of Somalia established in 1972 and the 200nm EEZ of Somali, which was delineated in 1989 and is based on the United Nations Common Law of the Seas (UNCLOS).

Today, 19. June 2011, 21h15 UTC, at least 39 foreign vessels plus one barge are kept in Somali hands against the will of their owners, while at least 573 hostages or captives – including a South-African yachting couple as well as a Danish yacht-family with three children and two friends – suffer to be released.

STILL ALMOST 600 SEAFARERS ARE HELD HOSTAGE IN SOMALIA !

ECOTERRA Intl. has been the first group to clearly and publicly state that the piracy phenomenon off the Somali coasts can only become an issue of the past again, if tangible and sustainable, appropriate and holistic development for the coastal communities kicks in. Solutions to piracy have to tackle the root causes: Abhorrent poverty, environmental degradation, injustice, outside interference. While still billions are spend for the navies, for the general militarization or for mercenaries or conferences, still no real and financially substantial help is coming forward to pacify and develop the coastal areas of Somalia. More….

The Chance to Hunt For Profit

A study by the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research concluded that the pirates are by no means poor fishermen who have turned to hijacking out of desperation. [N.B.: The author of that study has been criticized for having a shipping-industry paid-for bias and that he was not long enough in Somalia to come to such conclusions. The illegal fishing problem actually already started before the downfall of the Siaad Barre government in 1991 and continues until today. The actual start of the Somali defence was related to illegal fishing vessels and their attacks on Somali fishermen – this has been well documented. Only since 2007 the piracy as form of organized crime started and escalated with the arrival of the navies.] The fishing grounds off Somalia, the study found, are still productive, and in fact piracy started with comparatively well-to-do clans, who from the beginning simply saw a chance to “hunt for profit.” [N.B.: The fact that the Somali fishing grounds still are productive, despite the toxic dumping which took place, is the reason that these waters still attract illegal foreign fishing fleets and all sorts of behind-the-scenes wrangling to diminish the Somalis of their rights to their waters – the latest being the renewed attempt by Norway to trick the Somalis into a re-declaration of the EEZ, which would make it impossible to bring the documented claims from the last 20 years against the IUU fishers before the International Court of the Law of the Sea and have this body to decide about compensations. It is also an attempt to strip Somalia of its 200nm territorial waters.]

UN: Somalia wants anti-piracy court within its territory (dpa)
The transitional government in Somalia prefers the establishment of an anti-piracy court within the country, rather than in another state, the top UN legal counsel said Tuesday.
Patricia O’Brien told a UN Security Council meeting on the prosecution of piracy acts that an extraterritorial anti-piracy court is not the preferred solution for Mogadishu, even though some countries like Tanzania stands ready to host such a court.
O’Brien said that, if the 15-nation council is to decide upon a non-Somali court, the UN could follow the example of a special court set up to try the case of the Lockerbie bombing of 1988.
There, it was decided to set up a court in Scotland, over whose territory the terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 occurred, instead of in Libya, from where the accused hailed, or in the United States, the home of most of the plaintiffs.
More than 220 people, most of them Americans, died in that bombing.
The council was discussing proposals to set up anti-piracy courts, to be funded by the UN, in Somalia’s semi-autonomous regions in Somaliland and Puntland. Those courts have already prosecuted 290 cases of piracy under their laws.
A UN study said it would cost more than 24 million dollars over a three-year period to support courts in Somalia, which is detaining the largest number of pirates and already have some jurisdiction over crimes of piracy.
The study said the UN Development Programme and the UN Drugs and Crimes Office in Vienna would bear the costs of trying pirates in Somalia.
There are currently a total of 1,011 pirates in detention in 20 countries. Many of them have been convicted in courts in those countries under their own legal systems, the study said.
Kenya is holding 119 pirates and has convicted 50; the Netherlands is holding 29 and convicted five.
The United States detains 28 and has convicted eight, Tanzania detains 12 and has convicted eight while Yemen has arrested 120 and convicted all of them. Oman arrested 12 and also convicted them.
Pirates under detention but not yet tried are in Germany (10), India (118), France (15), Japan (four) and Maldives (34).
But the largest number of detained pirates so far are in Somalia: Puntland has 290 and convicted about 240; Somaliland has 94 and convicted 68 while South Central detains 18 pirates.

Source: ECOTERRA – ecoterra – 19. June 2011 / Updated: Jun 24, 2011