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| Africa Horn | |
| Seoul Mulling Prisoner Swap with Somali Pirates | |
| 2011-01-25 | |
| The government may consider an exchange of five Somali pirates captured by the Navy in a rescue operation with the crew of a fishing trawler who have been held by pirates in the lawless country since November. Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin hinted at the unorthodox solution when he met members of the National Assembly's Defense Committee on Monday to report on the rescue of a Korean freighter in the Gulf of Aden. When some committee members called for a prisoner swap, Kim promised to consult other government officials in the matter. But the Foreign Ministry is reportedly skeptical about the idea. Officials there said pirates and Korean sailors cannot be exchanged on an equal footing, and it is unclear if such a swap is feasible since the freighter Samho Jewelry and the trawler Keummi may have been hijacked by different gangs. Government officials considered handing the captives over to be tried in a third country like Kenya or Oman, but this proved difficult and the government is now minded to bring them to Korea. The committee was also told that the pirates had missiles and other weapons that posed a serious danger to the Korean Navy ship.
Meanwhile, the rescued Samho Jewelry reached Omani waters Monday but is not expected to dock in Muscat until Thursday because it will take time to discuss how to handle the captured and killed pirates. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #9 Lone Ranger's plan wouldn't work for the same reason that the Korean plan wouldn't work - no way to guarantee that you've taken anything the particular pirates holding the hostages actually want. As I understand it, there isn't a hell of a lot of organization in the Somali pirate business - it's a lot of gangs, usually each organized around one or more mother-ships & in contact with landside negotiators and bagmen who don't actually work for the pirates except on a market basis. As for the letters of marque and reprisal, don't they need to be issued *against* a wartime sovereign target? Privateers can't just go booming about the main, grabbing random individuals and ships willy-nilly, they have to be attacking flagged entities, don't they? There *isn't* a sovereign entity in the Somali piracy trade, Puntland and Somaliland make no claims to control their "volunteer coast guards". |
| Posted by: Mitch H. 2011-01-25 16:06 |
| #8 "You won't like Plan B. Trust me." |
| Posted by: mojo 2011-01-25 15:57 |
| #7 Richard Fernandez has an excellent article on the politics of piracy, which I tend to agree with. Noblesse Oblige |
| Posted by: tipper 2011-01-25 13:20 |
| #6 if private individuals do it for their own benefit, it's piracy. If governments do it, by issuing a letter of marque, its legal. At least - it used to be, in the "old days" of piracy. With a letter of marque, it's only privateering if the captains keep the booty. If they turn it over to the government, then they are merely private contractors fulfilling a government job. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-01-25 11:54 |
| #5 Hey gromky - if private individuals do it for their own benefit, it's piracy. If governments do it, by issuing a letter of marque, its legal. At least - it used to be, in the "old days" of piracy. Issue "Blackwater Eric" a letter of marque, and I'm sure he'd be happy to serve as a scourge of pirates. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2011-01-25 09:04 |
| #4 That's piracy itself, Lone Ranger. How can it be piracy if you aren't using a boat? |
| Posted by: gorb 2011-01-25 03:36 |
| #3 first put radioactive tracers inside their bodies before trading them. Really very radioactive... |
| Posted by: Water Modem 2011-01-25 01:33 |
| #2 That's piracy itself, Lone Ranger. Are you joking, or are you really that stupid? |
| Posted by: gromky 2011-01-25 01:06 |
| #1 It seems to me that anti-piracy forces should simply gather up 50 or 100 Somali inhabitants of every Somali coastal town, and hold then in an internment camp - or aboard an internment ship somewhere - as trade "commodities" to use in exchange for pirate hostages. As far as that goes, simply gather up coastal Somali boats, automobiles, anything else of value - its probably fair to assume that such artifacts are the fruits of prate plunder anyway - and "trade" them back for pirated vessels. |
| Posted by: Lone Ranger 2011-01-25 00:19 |