Page 146 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo II

648 XXXIV Congresso della CommIssIone InternazIonale dI storIa mIlItare • CIHm

species. Piracy is big business and it is well known that pirates often work closely together
38
with organised crime syndicates that operates in commercial ports and provides them with
the required information on merchant vessels and their cargoes. As such it boosts crime and
does damage to the formal economy. Kenya for example has claimed that the cost of piracy
has been substantial, to be calculated in billions of Kenyan Shilling. 39
Furthermore, due to the lack of maritime security around Somalia, countries in the region
and even East African countries further to the south, looses much potential income from tour-
ism. Hazardous waste dumping poses a serious threat to coastal tourism, while piracy inhibits
leisure travel – everything from yachts, to chartered voyages and large ocean liners. After
the pirate attack on the Seabourn Spirit off the coast of Somalia in November 2005, experts
suggested that those on the ship and at the shipping line (Seabourn Cruise lines and Carnival
Cruise Lines) that assessed the security threats blundered and exposed the passengers and
crew directly to danger. As a result much of the potential leisure shipping has kept well
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clear, while those that do venture in these waters are exposed to high potential threat as the
Le Ponant in April 2008 indicated.

potentiaL responses
Maritime policing and navies alone cannot ensure maritime security. Responding to the
situation is difficult as complex situations calls for complex solutions and potential responses
are on a variety of levels. To begin with, much of the solution is ashore, in the establishment
of proper law and order and port security. It requires the establishment of a proper, operating,
civilian system of law and order as well as functioning policing ashore. This must be com-
plemented by proper port security as ineffectual port security and surveillance contributes to
incidents of piracy and smuggling. Improving port security can add to state revenue through
taxes and tariffs and it could be one of the processes through which economic growth and
human security can be enhanced. The UN Security Council and IMO have warned that
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“something needed to be done urgently in terms of maritime and port security …” and even
suggested that the “… issue of a caretaker maritime authority for Somalia can be revisited
when the security situation in Somalia improves.” it is evident that various agencies, bodies
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and states, would have to work together to improve maritime safety and security, harbour
security and environmental care.
Lack of law and order at sea contributes towards making things worse ashore, specifically
as organisations engaged in transnational crime, such as human trafficking and drug smug-

38 These estimated losses are ascribed to countries further south (Mozambique and Tanzania), ‘Africa Com-
mand Gives Top Priority To Aggressive Maritime Security’, American Forces Information Service, 24 oc-
tober 2007, CHiNFo News Clips, 24 october 2007.
39 ‘Multi-national force deployed to combat piracy off East African coast’, Biblioline Basic, in http://www.
eastandard.net.
40 K. von Hoesslin, ‘A Medal for Gallantry, Impending Negligence Lawsuit, and a Boatload full of Specula-
tion: The elusive Seabourn Spirit Affair’, in Protocol Strategic Insights, No 8, June 2007.
41 R. Gilpin, ‘Enhancing Maritime Security in the Gulf of Guinea’, Strategic Insights, Vol VI, Issue 1, January
2007, p.5.
42 Report of the Monitoring Group on Somalia pursuant to resolution 1519 (2003), UN Security Council,
S/2004.604, 11 august 2004, p.29.