"No one can deter us," boast the high seas bandits. But who really profits from the hijacking spree in the Horn of Africa, asks Gamal Nkrumah It has been a tough few months for Somali pirates. They have, after all, been living it up. Just when the pirates thought things could not get worse, they did. Their lavish lifestyles, by Somali standards, are about to collapse. The leaders of the West made it absolutely clear that they had no intention of treading softly as far as the challenge of piracy off the East African coast was concerned. The West has decided to apply the naval solution to resolve the Somali piracy crisis. The backlash has practical consequences. Western diplomats were fending off accusations that Western naval forces were using excessive force in their offensive against the Somali pirates. Moreover, there are legal implications and entanglements concerning the trying of pirates. Then, of course, there is the risk to hostages and the ships some of which are loaded with either luxury goods or toxic materials. The challenge is that Somali pirates are operating in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes -- the Gulf of Aden. While no one expects United States President Barack Obama's administration to embark on a collision course with the pirates, analysts predict that there will be many high sea battles and offshore skirmishes. These manoeuvres are dress rehearsals for imperialist escapades overseas by Western powers, always on the lookout for a chance to flex their muscles. The Somali pirates, however, are no walkover, being heavily armed, some with rocket-propelled missiles. It is against this background that Obama is supposed to take a harder line. The great fear is that certain economies, most notably Egypt's, are bound to suffer tremendous financial losses. Revenues from the Suez Canal have plummeted. The US and other Western powers, as well as emerging Asian economies, are issuing orders to divert their ships so that they take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, rather than the Suez Canal. Somali pirates claim that they are fighting illegal fishing in Somali territorial waters and the dumping of toxic waste both at sea and on land. Meanwhile, it is not clear what political groups are behind the pirates. Analysts concur that the pirates are not affiliated to Al-Qaeda or any of the militant Islamist militias in Somalia. For one, the pirates are known for their unconventional lifestyle. They peddle drugs and narcotics such as the stimulant khat, hashish and alcohol. The Islamists of Somalia do not approve of the colourful lifestyles of the pirates derisively dubbed brigands and bandits. The pirates call themselves coastguards and insist that they are performing a patriotic duty, clearing their shores of Western polluters, the real "brigands and bandits" in Somali eyes. Globalisation has crowded the oceans with cargo vessels and supertankers and the Somali pirates are having a most agreeable time. There have been seven attacks on commercial ships by Somali pirates in the past week alone. Small wonder most cargo ships captured in the busy lanes of the Gulf of Aden fetch an average ransom of $2 million. According to reports recently released, the Somali pirates accrued $30 million in ransom in 2008. Politically this piracy has facilitated closer cooperation between previously warring clans, in their multi-million dollar endeavours. The latest pirate attack, which was repulsed, was on MV Liberty Sun, yesterday. Another group of Somali pirates held Captain Richard Phillips from an American freighter. US sharpshooters rescued the American freighter captain. The US-flagged container ship Maersk Alabama was yet another victim of the pirates. The US Navy's Fifth Fleet is patrolling the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea, however, it is finding it especially difficult to police such vast stretches of the Indian Ocean. The Indian navy, too, has dispatched several naval vessels and so have the Russians and the Chinese. The capacities of the navies of African and Arab countries to combat piracy are hopelessly inadequate. It is not the so-called brigands who are spreading fear and death in the Indian Ocean, but rather the state of lawlessness triggered by successive US interventions in the political dynamics of the Horn of Africa both in the days of the Cold War and now in the guise of the international war on terror.
