The Dutch frigate HNLMS Evertsen arrived home on Wednesday in the harbour of Den Helder after a mission lasting more than four months in the waters around Somalia. Until 11 December, the ship was the leading vessel in 'Operation Atalanta', the contribution of the European Union to the fight against piracy around Somalia.

The Evertsen should have arrived home before Christmas, but there was a problem. The ship had arrested 13 Somali pirates, but the Netherlands couldn’t find any country that was prepared to try them. Bringing the pirates back to the Netherlands wasn’t an option: that would only have happened if a Dutch citizen was involved, and that wasn’t the case.

Judicial problems
The trial of pirates is a problem that affects all countries that take part in operations against piracy, and there are quite a few of them. Around Somalia are ships from the European Union, from NATO, and from a coalition led by the US.

And then there are the ‘loose’ naval ships of a whole series of countries; China, Japan, India, Iran and South Korea to name but a few. These countries are in the first place protecting their own merchant fleets, but offer assistance to other ships when needed.

Mega-operation
Kenya and the Seychelles have declared themselves ready to put captured Somali pirates on trial, but it’s a laborious process. An even bigger problem is that the operating area of the pirates is so large that the chance of preventing attacks on ships is very small. Certainly that applies to the Indian Ocean, where the pirates operate up to 1500 kilometres off the coast.

All in all, there are 30 to 40 naval vessels and some ten long-range maritime patrol aircraft taking part in the various operations. In order to control the relevant part of the Indian Ocean, a minimum of ten times this number wouild be necessary. No single country is prepared to do that, even if it was only a matter of the amount such a mega-operation would cost.

New hijacking
But even the controls in the relatively small Gulf of Aden don’t appear to be watertight. Earlier this month, the Netherlands could report that since July not a single large ship was hijacked in the 900 kilometre secure corridor, but this week the pirates made their mark here too: a British tanker was hijacked in the middle of the corridor.

Armed
Many ships have equipped themselves with internationally recommended protection devices. These vary from barbed wire and fire hoses for repelling the pirates to safe rooms to which the crew can retire in case of hijacking.

The most effective, but also the most controversial, method is carrying armed guards aboard. As far as is known, there hasn’t been one successful attack on an ‘armed merchant vessel’. Pirates choose to leave when their intended target shoots back at them. Normally the pirates shoot first to bring the ship to a standstill.

On land
The question remains when are countries going to take action against the pirates on land – in other words, in Somalia itself. The UN Security Council has given the green light, but no country has chosen to consider this option. What is happening is an effort to trace the big bosses in this multi-million dollar business. A Dutch spokesperson said that action against the leaders of the bands of pirates is to be expected, but declined to give further details.
 

External links:

• Operation Atalanta
• Operation Ocean Shield
• Combined Task Force 151
• Maritime Security Center - Horn of Africa

(RNW translation: as)

Explanation of the picture: green=the transit corridor of the Gulf of Aden. The red lines indicate roughly the area within which the Somali pirates are operating.