The pirates of Somalia : maritime bandits or warlords of the high seas

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Inflicting a financial loss of over $US16 billion to international shipping, the occurrence ofmaritime piracy in areas such as the Strait of Malacca and the west coast of Africa, hassignificantly affected the long-term stability of global maritime trade. Since the collapse ofthe Somali state in the early 1990's, international watch groups have expressed their concernas to the rise of piracy off the Somali coast and the waterways of the Gulf of Aden. However,2008 marked an unprecedented increase in pirate attacks in Somali waters. These attacks didnot only increase in number but also became more sophisticated. As more than 85% of worldtrade relies on maritime transport, the world was forced to take notice of the magnitude ofSomali piracy. Considering the relative novel nature of Somali piracy, this field presents avast potential for further and in-depth academic inquiry.This descriptive and explanatory study set out to explore the evasive nature of the what andwhy (and who) of Somali piracy and relied on inductive reasoning in order (a) to explore anddefine the contributing causes to the Somali conflict; (b) to indicate how the conflict and theresulting consequences in particularly the Puntland region contributed to the rise of maritimepiracy; (c) to determine whether the pirate groups are fishermen protecting their resources byacting like vigilantes and self-defence units, or if they were bandits, warlords, Islamists or acombination of aforementioned; and to (d) establish the role which resource scarcity and statecollapse played in rendering Somalia vulnerable to maritime piracy. In pursuing the abovementioned goals, this study relied on an analysis of authoritative and contemporary sources.Media reporting was used for updating the fast moving information.This study attributed the Somali conflict to historic and ethnic clan rivalries and the legacy ofcolonial rule that led to the arbitrary partitioning of Somalia by colonial superpowers. Militaryrule, oppression, wars with neighbours (Ethiopia), superpower intervention, famine and therise of warlords made for state failure in Somalia. In Puntland, such factors were furtheraggravated by severe environmental hardship and natural disasters. Food became one of thescarcest resources in Somalia. People migrated to cities and to the coast where foreign fishingvessels also exploited the absence of coast guards in plundering fish. Some Somali fishermen reacted and in retrieving fish, apprehended ships, resulting in armed robbery at sea. But manywent further, hijacking merchant vessels, and demanding huge ransoms.Initially prompted by grievance towards the exploitation of the Somali coastal resources, thevast financial rewards of piracy rapidly transformed this impetus to personal gain and greed.In doing so, these groups assumed characteristic similar to criminal bandits and warlords. Orwere they Islamists fundraising for al-Qaeda? But unlike warlords, pirates normally never kill.The links with either Islamists or terrorism have also not been established either. The alleged link with criminal networks is much more plausible.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University