Somalia, The Gulf Of Aden, And Piracy
This article looks at the recent
history of conflict within Somalia; the conditions in which its
people are currently living; humanitarian concerns and the efforts
of aid agencies; the role of the United Nations; international
naval action being taken against piracy; and a method of overcoming
legal and policy difficulties in prosecuting captured
pirates.
Attention focuses on piracy
Two things are well known about
Somalia from recent newspaper reports, magazine articles, Internet
pages, and radio and television broadcasts. First, it is a
virtually lawless country which has been without proper government
since 1991. Secondly, a small number of its people have so
disrupted merchant shipping off its coasts that warships from
twenty or more nations have been mobilised at vast expense to try
to prevent vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean from
being hijacked. Attacks by heavily-armed Somali pirates create
headlines, with sensational incidents such as the capture of the
Ukrainian ro-ro Faina (carrying 33 ex-Soviet battle tanks
and other weapons), and the recently released VLCC Sirius
Star, providing news for weeks on end. But in reports of the
intrigue surrounding the sale and the intended destination of
Faina's cargo of heavy weapons, and speculation as to
the value of the 2 million barrels of crude oil on Sirius
Star, what has often been under-stated is the cost in human
terms of the sufferings of the crews and the effect of their
capture upon their families. And even further away from those
headlines are the appalling conditions in which most of the Somali
people themselves have been living year after year.
Conflict and instability in Somalia
In 1992, the year after the fall of
the military dictatorship of General Siad Barre, who had ruled the
country since assuming power in 1969, the United Nations Security
Council by Resolution 751 (1992) established an operation in
Somalia ("UNOSOM"), and appointed a dedicated Security
Council Committee. The operation was to monitor the ceasefire then
achieved between warring factions in Mogadishu, while the Committee
was to monitor the embargo placed earlier in the year on the import
of weapons and military equipment. Later, from December 1992,
coalition forces led by the United States—a United Task
Force known as "UNITAF"—intervened under
UNOSOM, in a mission intended to create a secure environment for
the delivery of humanitarian aid to relieve starvation in Somalia.
Then, from May 1993 until March 1995 UNITAF was succeeded by UNOSOM
II, charged with restoring peace, stability, and law and order.
UNOSOM II was supported by troops of a United States' Joint
Task Force. Overall, however, the missions were failures, although
there were some humanitarian achievements.
There have followed years of
fighting throughout much of Somalia, with the country now
effectively divided into three main regions: since 1991 Somaliland,
a self-declared republic (but not recognised internationally)
occupying part of the northern coast adjoining Djibouti; since 1998
Puntland, a self-declared autonomous state that has not sought
independence, occupying the remaining part of Somalia's
northern coast and the northern part of the eastern coast; with the
remaining part of the country notionally under the control of the
Transitional Federal Government ("TFG"), established in
2004. In reality, however, the TFG is ineffective and power is
largely in the hands of local secular warlords and militant Islamic
groups (as is clear from, for example, the Report of the United
Nations Security Council's Monitoring Group on Somalia, dated
10 December 2008). Until recently, large parts of the south of the
country were controlled by the Islamic Courts Union
("ICU") and the US-proscribed terrorist organisation
Al-Shabaab. In 2006, armed forces of
Ethiopia—Somalia's main western
neighbour—entered the country to support the TFG. There
followed clashes with the ICU, which was routed in early 2007.
Subsequently, new Islamic militant groups have formed, and have
been in armed conflict with the TFG. The latest development is that
the Ethiopian force departed in January 2009; it has not been
replaced; and the few remaining African Union troops are
insufficient to ensure stability.
Life in Somalia
Meanwhile, the ordinary population
of Somalia, comprising 8-9 million persons, continues to suffer.
Less than 40 per cent of the adults are literate; with the
country's economy based largely on agriculture, including
livestock, the estimated gross domestic product is under £300
a head (the UK equivalent is about £20,000); and it is
estimated that nearly half of the population is starving. In a
report published in 2007, the Minority Rights Group
International—a non-governmental organisation working to
secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities
and indigenous peoples worldwide—identified Somalia as
the most dangerous country in the world for minorities, and
attributed the root cause of conflict within the country to
inter-clan rivalries.
Subsequently, Foreign
Policy magazine, in their 2008 report, ranked Somalia as the
most unstable country in the world (worse even than Afghanistan,
Iraq, Zimbabwe and Sudan). And the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African
Government—published by the Mo Ibrahim
Foundation—ranked Somalia as the clearly worst performer
in Africa judged in the categories of Safety and Security; Rule of
Law, Transparency and Corruption; Participation and Human Rights;
and Human Development. The December 2008 Displaced Population
Report, published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs ("UNOCHA"), put the number of
persons within Somalia who had been displaced as a result of
instability in the country at 1.3 million. Of these, an estimated
1.1 million are within south and central Somalia and around
Mogadishu, where the humanitarian situation continues to
deteriorate, and where there have been massive civilian casualties.
The UNOCHA reported that Ali Sheikh Yassin, acting chairman of the
Mogadishu-based Elman Human Rights Organisation, claimed that TFG
security forces had terrorised the population, and that his group
had verified 16,000 civilian deaths and 30,000 injuries during 2007
and 2008, with many more people unaccounted for. In addition, there
are weekly reports of aid workers being targeted and killed by
gunmen.
The food supply in Somalia has been
adversely affected by decreased rainfall in south-central areas
where, as reported in December 2008 by the Famine Early Warning
Systems Network—an organisation funded by the United
States Agency for International Development—both
commercial and humanitarian food imports have been disrupted by
civil insecurity and the activities of pirates, leading to
shortages and increased food prices. The World Health Organisation
has highlighted health problems associated with inadequate supplies
of drinking water and food, and has reported that 13 per cent of
children under the age of five suffer from acute malnutrition,
while 42 per cent are chronically malnourished. The International
Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, in their
December 2008 Report on the Horn of Africa Food Crisis, noted
hyperinflation in Somalia (the price of cereals having increased by
365 per cent in a year), and identified the situation in the Horn
of Africa, in terms of the number of people affected, as "the
largest humanitarian crisis worldwide." The International
Federation concluded their report by saying of the affected peoples
in the Horn of Africa: "Their suffering can no longer remain
silent. We can't just stand by and accept the unacceptable.
Hunger is not an option."
Human Rights
On 10 December 2008, the
60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, Dr Shamsul Bari, the...
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