When I first heard of recent reports of piracy in the Gulf of Aden, it was a shock to me. I always thought that piracy was a thing of the past, of the medieval times to be precise. I was never aware that rampant piracy in international waters was even possible in this day and age. The hijacking drama of Mt Stolt Valor is what brought piracy to the forefront of Indian news. And it brought back memories of 'Treasure Island', 'Long John Silver' and the rest of them.
The sinking of an alleged pirate ship by the Indian Navy, which won accolades, world over, is now turning out to be an embarrassment, not only for the Navy, but also for the nation. It is difficult to imagine, that if indeed the ship that was sunk was an ordinary fishing boat, it being attacked and sunk by the Indian Navy could be anything but an unintended mistake.
However what is amazing to me is how, the international community is unable to tackle the problem of Piracy off Somalian waters. Piracy in the Gulf of Aden adversely affects international sea trade and that, in these testing times of global economic meltdown. All that is apparently required is to identify the pirate mother ships and destroy them. If a UAV or an aerial strike can be used by the US forces, so accurately, as to kill one of the top Al Qaeda leaders, accused of being a mastermind of the London Bombings, a pirate ship is surely not something that can be easily hidden. Surely there would be ways to identify pirate ships. All that is required is to knock them off. Why is it not being done when we have news of fresh hijackings almost everyday?
What is it that I am missing out? Educate me someone.
Hi SK,
ReplyDeleteIt was a pleasure reading your blogs, the problem is not sinking the ships but the fact that these guys board ships with literally no arms on board and hijack them with crew members as hostages, hence its difficult to sink them. Besides they are always close to the shore and they escape in dingies and speedboats on the mainland where it there is no law of the land to keep a check on them.
Realistically speaking its just a matter of time before this threat is also identified by one of the larger powers and stubbed out.