The recent pirate attack on the M/V MAERSK ALABAMA has heightened the interest in the piracy problem. We continue to work very closely with the international community, maritime industry, as well as our interagency and military partners to help find a solution to this problem.
Tomorrow, several Coast Guard Leaders will be interviewed on this topic:
Admiral Allen well be interviewed for tomorrow's "This Week with George Stephanopoulus" on ABC.
Two interviews will be on Fox News: RDML James Watson is scheduled to appear at 11:35 a.m. and RADM William Baumgartner scheduled at 5:30 p.m.
--------
Originally published 12/3/2008:
Shipmates,
There has been a lot of attention paid recently to the dramatic increase in acts of piracy in and around the Horn of Africa. It is a vexing problem, but one that must be solved. International Maritime Organization (IMO) Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos has called piracy an "insult to civilization."
We believe it is as well.
Piracy is an international problem that requires an international solution. Many steps in the right direction have already been taken; including the passing of UN Security Council Resolutions 1814/1816/1838, which allow entry into Somali territorial waters to ensure critical food shipments can reach their destination. However, these primarily address monitoring and response operations...until now.
Previously, the foundational challenge of addressing the problem of piracy was the lack of an established end game, or means to hold the offenders accountable within a legal system. Somali-based piracy is flourishing because it is profitable and nearly consequence-free due to the lack of governance and a judicial system in Somalia. Although governments and industry have focused considerable attention on interdiction, an essential element of any comprehensive counter-piracy plan is the establishment of a regionally based and readily accessible "consequence delivery system" to bring interdicted pirates to justice. Mutually agreed upon procedures for this must be established before an event occurs -- trying to finalize policy during an international incident is a recipe for confusion and failure. This is very similar to counterdrug operations that take place pursuant to international agreements that allow for the prosecution of those involved.
Yesterday (Dec. 2, 2008), the U.N. Security Council unanimously passed UNSCR 1846. From our perspective, the most significant aspect of this resolution is its inclusion of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts (SUA) clause. This clause, based on the United Nations Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation, provides an immediately available instrument for logistically effective consequence delivery applicable to 78% of the world’s States (those nations who have signed the Convention). The SUA Convention was the result of the hijacking and murder of passengers aboard the Cruise Ship ACHILLE LAURO in 1985 by the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF). The act was doubly egregious because the murdered victim, Leon Klinghoffer, was wheel chair bound and defenseless. The SUA Convention was adopted by the IMO in 1988 and came into force in 1992.
SUA applies to nearly all of the attacks occurring in the Gulf of Aden, and obliges State Parties to criminalize such acts and establish jurisdiction when the offense is committed against their vessels or nationals. SUA establishes a framework whereby masters of ships may deliver suspected SUA offenders to a coastal State Party and the coastal State Party is obliged to accept custody and extradite or prosecute unless it can articulate why the Convention is not applicable. Leveraging States SUA obligations in conjunction with existing international law against piracy provides an effective legal framework to deliver an "endgame." We have worked for several months now with our partners on the Joint Staff, through the "interagency process", and with our international partners to pursue this outcome. This is definitely a step in the right direction and I will provide updates in the future.
ADM A
