lazie...nuh ramp wid the indian navy y'nuh....

[Gamma]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081119/ap_on_bi_ge/piracy

[Lazie]

Yeah!!! I read it earlier. More actions like this should be taken. Another move could be put soldiers on some of the tankers and when the pirates come on board ... deal wid dem.

[Islandman]

Wow, it looks like the Somali pirates run things.

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Somali pirates turn villages into boomtowns

For Somalis, piracy is seen as sure bet to a better life
The Associated Press
updated 3:17 p.m. ET, Wed., Nov. 19, 2008

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somalia's increasingly brazen pirates are building sprawling stone houses, cruising in luxury cars, marrying beautiful women — even hiring caterers to prepare Western-style food for their hostages.

And in an impoverished country where every public institution has crumbled, they have become heroes in the steamy coastal dens they operate from because they are the only real business in town.

"The pirates depend on us, and we benefit from them," said Sahra Sheik Dahir, a shop owner in Haradhere, the nearest village to where a hijacked Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude was anchored Wednesday.

These boomtowns are all the more shocking in light of Somalia's violence and poverty: Radical Islamists control most of the country's south, meting out lashings and stonings for accused criminals. There has been no effective central government in nearly 20 years, plunging this arid African country into chaos.

Life expectancy is just 46 years; a quarter of children die before they reach 5.

Pirate economy thriving
But in northern coastal towns like Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso, the pirate economy is thriving thanks to the money pouring in from pirate ransoms that have reached $30 million this year alone.

In Haradhere, residents came out in droves to celebrate as the looming oil ship came into focus this week off the country's lawless coast. Businessmen started gathering cigarettes, food and cold glass bottles of orange soda, setting up small kiosks for the pirates who come to shore to re-supply almost daily.

Dahir said she is so confident in the pirates, she instituted a layaway plan just for them.

"They always take things without paying and we put them into the book of debts," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Later, when they get the ransom money, they pay us a lot."

'They are happy'
For Somalis, the simple fact that pirates offer jobs is enough to gain their esteem, even as hostages languish on ships for months. The population makes sure the pirates are well-stocked in qat, a popular narcotic leaf, and offer support from the ground even as the international community tries to quash them.

"Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I can say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Haradhere.

"Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are happy."


Despite a beefed-up international presence, the pirates continue to seize ships, moving further out to sea and demanding ever-larger ransoms. The pirates operate mostly from the semiautonomous Puntland region, where local lawmakers have been accused of helping the pirates and taking a cut of the ransoms.

For the most part, however, the regional officials say they have no power to stop piracy.


Betting on better life
Meanwhile, towns that once were eroded by years of poverty and chaos are now bustling with restaurants, Land Cruisers and Internet cafes. Residents also use their gains to buy generators — allowing full days of electricity, once an unimaginable luxury in Somalia.

There are no reliable estimates of the number of pirates operating in Somalia, but they must number in the thousands. And though the bandits do sometimes get nabbed, piracy is generally considered a sure bet to a better life.

NATO and the U.S. Navy say they can't be everywhere, and American officials are urging ships to hire private security. Warships patrolling off Somalia have succeeded in stopping some pirate attacks. But military assaults to wrest back a ship are highly risky and, up to now, uncommon.

The attackers generally treat their hostages well in anticipation of a big payday, hiring caterers on shore to cook spaghetti, grilled fish and roasted meat that will appeal to a Western palate. They also keep a steady supply of cigarettes and drinks from the shops on shore.

And when the payday comes, the money sometimes literally falls from the sky.

Cash is king
Pirates say the ransom arrives in burlap sacks, sometimes dropped from buzzing helicopters, or in waterproof suitcases loaded onto tiny skiffs in the roiling, shark-infested sea.

"The oldest man on the ship always takes the responsibility of collecting the money, because we see it as very risky, and he gets some extra payment for his service later," Aden Yusuf, a pirate in Eyl, told AP over VHF radio.

The pirates use money-counting machines — the same technology seen at foreign exchange bureaus worldwide — to ensure the cash is real. All payments are done in cash because Somalia, a failed state, has no functioning banking system.

"Getting this equipment is easy for us, we have business connections with people in Dubai, Nairobi, Djibouti and other areas," Yusuf said. "So we send them money and they send us what we want."


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[Islandman]

Look like nuff session inna Somalia this weekend.

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Pirates free two ships after ransoms paid

2 tankers released after payments to hijackers; U.N. backs arms sanctions

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali pirates released two hijacked ships after ransoms were paid, U.S. military officials said Thursday. The deals emerged as Britain warned that paying for the release of hostages risks encouraging more piracy.

NBC News reported that the Great Creation, a Hong Kong-flagged chemical tanker seized on Sept. 18, was released after a $1.67 million ransom was paid. The Genius, another Hong Kong-flagged chemical tanker which was hijacked Sept. 26, was also returned in exchange for an unknown sum.

Earlier this week, pirates released the Stolt Valor, a Japanese chemical tanker after paying hijackers $2.5 million.

Gunmen from the chaotic Horn of Africa country grabbed world headlines with Saturday's spectacular capture of a huge Saudi Arabian supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of oil, the biggest ship hijacking in history.

Since seizing the Sirius Star oil tanker, pirates have hijacked at least three other ships, maritime officials say. The supertanker's owners are in ransom talks with the pirates who are reportedly demanding $25 million for its release.

The Saudi Arabian tanker was seized 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya — far beyond the gangs' usual area of operations. It was believed to be anchored near Eyl, a former Somali fishing village that is now a well-defended pirate base.

The audacity of the attack underlined the extent of a crime wave that experts say has been fueled by the Iraq-style Islamist insurgency onshore, dimming hopes for U.N.-led peace talks, and the lure of multi-million-dollar ransoms.


Somali gunmen are believed to be holding more than 200 hostages and about a dozen ships in the Eyl area, including a Ukrainian vessel loaded with 33 tanks and other heavy weapons. An associate of the gang holding that ship, the MV Faina, said they rejected a $2.5 million ransom offer this week.

"The pirates and a broker met in the forest between Galkayo and Haradheere ... but the pirates stood by their demand for $8 million," the associate, Hussein Hassan, told Reuters.

Sanctions on the way
Meanwhile, The U.N. Security Council unanimously agreed Thursday to impose new sanctions aimed at reducing the arms flowing into Somalia and the lawlessness and piracy that have flourished there.

The 15-nation council, the U.N.'s most powerful body, endorsed a British plan for a council panel to recommend people and entities whose financial assets would be frozen.

"It provides a framework for implementing sanctions against individuals in Somalia. And now it's up to the sanctions committee to come up with a list of individuals and entities who will be subject to those sanctions," British Ambassador John Sawers emphasized.


Council members say the added sanctions, which exclude money intended for basic expenses like food and medicine, are intended to strengthen Somalia's weak U.N.-backed government.

Haile Menkerios, the U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs, told the council that just last month more than 37,000 people were displaced from Mogadishu, the nation's capital and largest city, due to insecurity and sporadic attacks. Humanitarian and food aid is increasingly difficult to deliver for 1 million Somalis, he said, and hard-line groups are expanding their military operations in south-central Somalia.


The African Union's top diplomat said Thursday that the United Nations should send peacekeepers to Somalia amid the growth in piracy.

Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, said the increasing piracy was being aggravated by the country's feuding politicians and "a clear indication of the further deterioration of the situation with far-reaching consequences for this country, the region and ... international community."

Scores of attacks in Somali waters this year have driven up insurance costs for shipping firms, and even made some companies divert cargo around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Danish shipping firm A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S has ordered some of its vessels to avoid the Gulf of Aden as a result of the spate of hijackings.

Ships "without adequate speed," mainly tankers, will sail the long route around Africa unless they can join convoys with naval escorts in the gulf, group executive Soeren Skou said.

The Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles and many days shorter than going around Africa's Cape of Good Hope.


Forces from NATO, the European Union and elsewhere are trying to protect vessels on one of the world's busiest shipping routes, linking Europe to Asia. Some nations seek a more robust response and say the hijackings will continue without political reconciliation onshore, where an Islamist insurgency rages.

Moscow has suggested international forces should help it attack the pirates' land bases. A Russian news agency said on Thursday that more Russian warships would go to the region.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was vital the international community stand firm against the "scourge" of hostage-taking. He said Britain won't pay a ransom for two Britons being held by pirates off the east African coast.

"Payments for hostage-taking are only an encouragement to further hostage taking," he said

[Peter R]

Nuh de same ting de Don dem a do...

[Islandman]

Same damn ting on a smaller scale. Was thinking the same thing.

[Mosiah]

it happens all over the world. where the state has failed, as it has in our ghettos, the dons will fill that void.

[Lazie]

it happens all over the world. where the state has failed, as it has in our ghettos, the dons will fill that void.

Quick question Mosiah, would you consider Jamaica a failed state?

[Mosiah]

Shouldn't start engage you in any discussion because it always seem to end up same place. But to answer you this one time - NO! The govt has failed in some areas.

[Lazie]

Shouldn't start engage you in any discussion because it always seem to end up same place. But to answer you this one time - NO! The govt has failed in some areas.

Boy ... what about the Jamaica No Problem Motto? Damn .. yuh nuh haafi suh defensive.

[Gamma]

the once noble chiron former sagest of all centaurs has long lumped jamaica with somalia....

[Mosiah]

wi nuh start hijack tankers yet. YET!

[Gamma]

so you are saying that he can still be mocked and spat upon ?!!

[Mosiah]

wi neva haffi wait fi dat.