2009 - How Somalis Became Pirates

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catches that are still in abundance off the Horn of Africa. (Read about illegal wildlife trade.)

High-seas trawlers from countries as far flung as South Korea, Japan and Spain have operated down the Somali

coast, often illegally and without licenses, for the better part of two decades, the U.N. says. They often fly flags of

convenience from sea-faring friendly nations like Belize and Bahrain, which further helps the ships skirt

international regulations and evade censure from their home countries. Tsuma Charo of the Nairobi-based East

African Seafarers Assistance Programme, which monitors Somali pirate attacks and liaises with the hostage takers

and the captured crews, says "illegal trawling has fed the piracy problem." In the early days of Somali piracy, those

who seized trawlers without licenses could count on a quick ransom payment, since the boat owners and

companies backing those vessels didn't want to draw attention to their violation of international maritime law.

This, Charo reckons, allowed the pirates to build up their tactical networks and whetted their appetite for bigger

spoils.

Beyond illegal fishing, foreign ships have also long been accused by local fishermen of dumping toxic and nuclear

waste off Somalia's shores. A 2005 United Nations Environmental Program report cited uranium radioactive andother hazardous deposits leading to a rash of respiratory ailments and skin diseases breaking out in villages along

the Somali coast. According to the U.N., at the time of the report, it cost $2.50 per ton for a European company to

dump these types of materials off the Horn of Africa, as opposed to $250 per ton to dispose of them cleanly in

Europe.

Monitoring and combating any of these misdeeds is next to impossible — Somalia's current government can

barely find its feet in the wake of the 2006 U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion. And many Somalis, along with outside

observers, suspect local officials in Mogadishu and in ports in semi-autonomous Puntland further north of

accepting bribes from foreign fishermen as well as from pirate elders. U.N. monitors in 2005 and 2006 suggested

an embargo on fish taken from Somali waters, but their proposals were shot down by members of the Security

Council. (See photos of dramatic pirate rescues.)

In the meantime, Somali piracy has metastasized into the country's only boom industry. Most of the pirates,

observers say, are not former fishermen, but just poor folk seeking their fortune. Right now, they hold 18 cargo

ships and some 300 sailors hostage — the work of a sophisticated and well-funded operation. A few pirates have

offered testimony to the international press — a headline in Thursday's Times of London read, "They stole our

lobsters: A Somali pirate tells his side of the story" — but Lehr and other Somali experts express their doubts.

"Nowadays," Lehr says, "this sort of thing is just a cheap excuse." The legacy of nearly twenty years of inaction and

abuse, though, is far more costly.

Read a brief history of pirates

See the Cartoons of the Week.

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2009 - How Somalis Became Pirates