Let's be perfectly clear: Somali pirates are not nice people. In a decade of banditry on a steadily-expanding slice of East Africa ocean turf, AK-47-armed sea thugs have attacked thousands of vessels, captured hundreds and held their crews for up to a year a time. It costs governments and shipping companies up to $12 billion a year to avoid or defend against the pirates -- and to pay ransoms for ship's crews that can't flee or fight.
But for all their criminal behavior, Somali pirates have not gone out of their way to directly hurt or kill seafarers -- until now.
In recent weeks, there have been reports that some pirates are "torturing" their hostages. Contrast this with 2009, when one pirate told Wired's Scott Carney that "hostages — especially Westerners — are our only assets, so we try our best to avoid killing them."
If the reports of torture are true, the implications are serious for the loose alliance of governments struggling to contain Somali piracy. In the grand scheme of things, pirates are not actually a huge threat to the global order, although their regional effect is pretty severe.
But if the world's governments *perceive *pirates as a serious threat -- and torture would certainly encourage that perception -- then the governments' "cure" for piracy could end up being worse than the "disease." Today's low-intensity "war on piracy" could morph into something akin to the unending, politically charged, super-expensive "war on terrorism."
The reported shift in pirates' attitudes has been a long time coming. Last month, South Korean commandos stormed a captured vessel and killed eight pirates. A surviving member of the pirate band told Reuters he and his minions would show no mercy to any South Korean crews they encountered in the future. "We never planned to kill, but now we shall seek revenge."
We've heard similar threats before. Pirates vowed vengeance in 2008 after U.S. Navy SEAL snipers killed three bandits holding hostage Richard Phillips, captain of the cargo ship Maersk Alabama.
That particular threat came to nothing, but there is evidence the pirates are serious this time. "There have been regular manifestations of systematic torture" perpetrated by pirates against ship's crews, Maj. Gen. Buster Howes, chief of the E.U. counter-piracy force, told the Associated Press this week.
"A few years go, they were very constrained and much more respectful," Howes said of the pirates. But now "they've shown a willingness to use violence much more quickly and much more violence."
The AP speculates that the rising brutality could be partly a response to better self-defense tactics by crews. When pirates attack, it's now standard practice for crews to lock themselves in armored safe-rooms called "citadels." The bandits might use rockets or guns to try to blast open the citadel.
But since most citadels have radios for contacting the E.U., NATO, the U.S. Navy or some other rescue force, pirates trying to crack open a safe-room "know the cavalry is coming," Howes added. Impatient pirates could be rougher in their haste.
And that violence could continue even after pirates have successfully captured a ship and its crew. U.S. Marines and other commando forces have gotten quite good at assaulting and recapturing hijacked ships. Pirates often get killed or imprisoned as a result. The growing danger of a career in piracy raises the stakes and could excite the pirates -- who are, it should be remembered, mostly illiterate young men.
There's a real risk of out-of-control escalation in the pirate war. Crews get better defenses, so pirates get more violent. In response, governments begin treating pirates like terrorists -- an approach Central Command naval boss Vice Adm. Mark Fox advocated last week. "There cannot be a segregation between terrorist activity, in my mind, and counter-piracy. We can't be passive and hopeful it doesn't happen."
Fox even implied that nations should attack pirate networks on land, despite every international body outside the African Union categorically ruling out large-scale military intervention in Somalia, for obvious reasons.
Remember, for all their violence, pirates are not terrorists, despite the U.S. Navy's occasional confusion. "At the moment, I still think their aims are irreconcilable," analyst Martin Murphy said of pirates and Somali jihadists. "One is for private gain, the others are in it for something more transcendent."
Moreover, pirates are actually a minor threat to global commerce. $12 billion a year might seem like a lot to you and me, but to the $75-trillion global economy, it's a drop in the bucket. For that reason, the best analysts recommend a careful, measured, moderate approach to dealing with pirates -- one that begins by strengthening East African political institutions and encouraging regional efforts.
But with pirates possible torturing seafarers, a cool response becomes less politically palatable. Naval blogger Raymond Pritchett fears the "piracy war" could spiral out of control as violence escalates at the level of individual bandits and their hostages. "One video of merchant sailors being tortured on a mainstream news telecast," he mused, "and this problem gets political in a hurry."
Photo: U.S. Navy
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