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| Africa Horn | |
| UN empowers land operations against Somali pirates | |
| 2008-12-17 | |
| KUNITED NATIONS - The UN Security Council Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution for the first time authorizing international land operations against audacious, armed pirates sheltering in Somalia. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hailed the adoption of the US resolution saying it sent a "strong signal to combat the scourge of piracy" and stressed the need "to end the impunity of Somali pirates." The text, co-sponsored by Belgium, France, Greece, Liberia and South Korea, gives those nations already involved in battling pirates off Somalia a one-year mandate to act against the brigands inside the country. Resolution 1851 authorizes the states to "take all necessary measures that are appropriate in Somalia" to suppress "acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea." However, to overcome objections from countries such as Indonesia an earlier reference in the text to "ashore" or "including in its (Somalia) airspace" was dropped.
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 WORLD MIL FORUM > CHINA TO CONSIDER SENDING ARMED TROOPS, NAVAL FLEET TO FIGHT SOMALI PIRACY. Russia and France are already in favor of land operations. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2008-12-17 20:11 |
| #5 Indonesia has long had an obsession about its sovereignty. It took Lloyd's jacking up its rates in the Straits of Mallacca and some extreme pressure from its neighbors and Japan to get it to agree to cooperate in anti-piracy air patrols. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2008-12-17 12:35 |
| #4 Could this be used by the next administration as a way to have their war in Somalia? |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-12-17 12:34 |
| #3 Liberian soldiers can't even handle their own country, but i got a big guess as too who will pick up the tab for this one |
| Posted by: sinse 2008-12-17 11:22 |
| #2 It goes to the heart of declaring sovereignty and exercising sovereignty. A lot of 'states' want to claim territory but demonstrate no effective control or policing of such territory. Those type of states still want the tissue of legitimacy over the territory and therefore seek to thwart measures of others to end the chaos that spills over from those 'outlands' into their areas of sovereignty. They don't want precedent that will allow others to lawfully establish order which they themselves are incapable or unwilling to do and therefore undermine their claims to said territories. |
| Posted by: P2k on holiday 2008-12-17 10:08 |
| #1 Not sure. The quoted language seems to authorize action inside Somalia. Wondering about that Indonesian objection. Indonesia's no stranger to piracy problems - I think their neighborhood is actually the long-running world leader in piracy in modern times. They might have a dog in the fight for legit reasons - not wanting to set a precedent for Singapore, Australia, or others to implement anti-piracy ops "ashore" on their territory. |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2008-12-17 03:15 |