While some attacks are intended to steal a ship’s cargo, the pirates more often hold the vessel, crew and passengers hostage, demanding a large ransom from the owners or the nation of registry. Their attacks tend to be fast and brutal, especially in the waters off Southeast Asia, where killing a target ship’s crew is not uncommon.
The motivation for modern piracy, however, is not far removed from those of previous eras: Sea-going gangs out for profit, terrorist organizations seeking funds for their operations and even clandestine state-supported efforts to prop up rogue governments.
One of the few crimes in which those combating it have been granted universal jurisdiction, piracy is defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as:
“Any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed:
on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft; against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State
any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or of an aircraft with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aircraft
any act inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act described [above]”
While some commercial ships have begun carrying small arms, those rarely are sufficient defense against a determined attack by pirates with more and heavier weapons. The most efficient counter to date has been the presence of military ships – especially those carrying armed helicopters – close enough to reach a ship under attack before it is too late.
In addition to CTF-151, both NATO and the European Union have sent naval forces to the Gulf of Aden as part of formal anti-piracy efforts, as has China. Individually, Indian, British and French military vessels, among others, have engaged pirates in armed combat at sea. Several nations – including the United States – have or are negotiating agreements with the government of Kenya to take custody of captured pirates and try them in African courts, which is seen as a greater deterrent than the prospect of being held and tried in a U.S. or European court.
“As Secretary of State [Hillary] Clinton has said, piracy may be a 17th century problem, but it requires a 21st century solution,” Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Andrew J. Shapiro told a gathering of international shipping officials in Athens on Oct. 22, 2009. “Reducing the success rate of pirate attacks is critically important to the international community.”
The CMF has called on China to take the lead in combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden, especially in a five-mile-wide strip of ocean now patrolled by a variety of international warships.
“My hope is that perhaps in April or May next year, we would see China taking on that lead coordinator role for the corridor, to provide protection in the corridor,” CMF Deputy Commander Commodore Tim Lowe told Reuters news agency at an international anti-piracy seminar in Hong Kong in mid-November.
China, however, has countered with a call for the United Nations to take command.
“An effective fight against Somali piracy still awaits an integrated solution,” Liu Zhenmin, China’s deputy permanent representative to the UN, told the Security Council on Nov. 18, 2009. “We believe that to put an effective end to pirate attacks, the international community should expand maritime escort operations and other countries should also improve how they carry out maritime escort operations.”