Methods for combating modern piracy......

[={FH}=Paddy]

Well firstly, I’m glad to see that this article has gained an element of debate, both with serious and somewhat more humoristic approaches!!!

A couple of points that I was considering, after reading over your comments, please correct me if I am wrong but is it not an international maritime offence to carry weaponry through national shipping jurisdictions? I know that in Indonesia (and general Far East) this “piracy” issue has been greatly looked in to and debated over many years. Some suggestions have been both the use of armed escorts (navy ship in the form of convoy protection) and alternatively, specially assigned “on board task force” accompaniment through the Strait of Malacca but this did not completely hold maritime legislative water; excuse the pun! (It has also been claimed and reported that some of the Indonesian / Philippine “British trained” anti piracy special force groups have seen it fit and more lucrative to join the other side and exploit their gained training to great reward!!)

The comment about the use of “Blackwater” (or any such CPC for that matter) in such a scenario would worry me greatly. Their trademark of overwhelming, indiscriminate use of force has a tendency to escalate a situation unnecessarily and runs the risk of greater use of reciprocating force and avoidable reprisals; greatly in comparison to what we have seen in the Gulf of Eden and East Coast of Africa to date. (If we look at Iraq, Blackwater, being still a more or less unaccountable entity has achieved little more than to justify the moderate Iraqi to become the extremist on many occasions, through their heavy handed approach. While on the contrary but in the same line of work, the British CPC’s have gained both respect and credibility on the ground by blending in with the indigenous population, not creating a scene with their “potential” firepower and maintaining a effective and low presence and thus being more efficient and professional alike). Either way, CPC’s would worry me.

As jimbuna mentioned, I see the use of “ferryman convoys” being the most realistic for the time being, rally point and drop off, return journey reciprocated etc. As we speak we have a multinational maritime force insitu, British, American, Chinese, Dutch, and Australian, to mention but a few participating nations, yet still no eradication or even an element of prevention to date? Is the obvious being over looked?

The (token stand in government in Somalia, for what it is worth) has agreed for international forces to use force within their waters to prevent piracy, can anyone say if this has been afforded to land based operations? Maybe as the old man “Lord Palmerston” suggests, "Taking a wasps' nest... is more effective than catching the wasps one by one…….."? Should these forces start land based operations at the hub of the problem? Or is “The Mog” still to fresh a topic to consider this action?

I welcome both your interest and thoughts on this debate.

(Humorous ones too!)