Overview on Piracy and Surveillance in the Region Workshop On Maritime Safety and Port Security. Mombasa, 3 - 4 Septembe - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Overview on Piracy and Surveillance in the RegionWorkshop On Maritime Safety and Port Security.Mombasa, 3 - 4 September 2009

Introduction

1. Piracy off the Somali coast poses immediate and future challenge, causing difficulties, primarily for Somali population.

2. At the global scale, Piracy has affected ship routings, increased insurance premiums and triggered an expensive, marine-based response through flotilla provided from numerous nations.

3. Although Somalia has a transitional Gov't in place, it does not exercise effective control over the entirety of the national territory.

The Challenges

• Absence of effective central authority which undermines ongoing efforts to deal with piracy. Clandestine arms shipments by some foreign governments, accompanied by the influx of foreign fighters into the country, have complicated the security situation in Somalia.
• Prevailing environment of insecurity in the country. Fighting between insurgent groups and the government security forces has created an environment that is conducive to the proliferation of piracy both on land and offshore.

International Response to Piracy

• Task Force 101 which is an old mechanism to make the seas secure was followed by NATO Task Force, (Operation Atlanta)
• A number of individual country initiatives:
• Turkey, Russia, India, Yemen among others have deployed warships.
• Spain for example is providing the aerial surveillance.
• France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Norway and others deployed warships to escort merchant ships that carried humanitarian cargo from Mombasa to Somalia.
• Many suspected pirates have been arrested at sea, tried and jailed.
• Kenya, Tanzania and the Comoros among others continue to fight the crime.

However…

For how long can we sustain these operations?

The legal issues remain a big challenge to us.

Piracy conducted into deep sea gives credence to allegation that intelligence is passed on to pirates from external sources.

Coordination Mechanisms and Inter-cluster Linkages

• Response to piracy has to be multi-dimensional, formation of four working groups.
• a) institutional frameworks,
• b) legal instruments,
• c) policing and
• d) enforcement.
• However, these dimensions are reactive and there is an important need to respond to piracy at the root level, working on the causes, often socio-economic.
• A holistic approach serves to address both push and pull factors that encourage Somali nationals to engage in what is essentially a risky livelihood strategy.

The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) was created in New York on January 14, 2009.

• Formed as an international cooperation mechanism against piracy. (U.N. Security Council Resolution 1851, Sponsored by the United States and passed unanimously on December 16, 2008)
• Currently 28 nations participate in the CG:
• Australia, Belgium, China, Denmark, Djibouti, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Republic of Korea, The Netherlands, Norway, Oman, Portugal, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, and Yemen
• Several other nations have requested to participate. Six international organizations including the AU, the Arab League, EU, IMO, NATO and the United Nations Secretariat also participate in CG efforts.

CG participants have established four working groups:

• Military and Operational Coordination,
• Information Sharing, and Capacity Building, chaired by the United Kingdom;
• Judicial Issues, chaired by Denmark;
• Commercial Industry Coordination, chaired by the United States; and
• Land-based Initiatives and Public Information, chaired by Egypt.

CGPCS (cont’d)

• Discussions within the CGPCS agreed that the Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) leads the efforts of the United Nations on all issues related to piracy and armed robbery at sea off the coast of Somalia.
• Department of Political Affairs (DPA), has established and chairs a “Sub-working Group (SWG) on Piracy”, that reports to the Somalia Integrated Task Force (ITF). The SWG has four thematic clusters:
• Cluster 1: Sea-based/ Maritime Initiatives.
• Cluster 2: Land-based Initiatives
• Cluster 3: Regional/Legal Initiatives
• Cluster 4: International Initiatives
• The Department of Political Affairs(DPA) coordinates all activities and responsibilities as stipulated in resolutions 1816, 1838, 1846 and 1851.

Nairobi Nexus and Inter-Cluster Linkages

• Agencies operating from Nairobi in combating piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia, have initiated coordination architecture.
• Facilitate identification of existing institutional linkages to enhance the initiatives to combat piracy in Somalia.
• The Nairobi coordination architecture developed
• into a multi-agency forum with active
• participation of UNPOS, FAO, UNDP,
• UN Office Drug and Crime, IMO,
• WFP, ILO, Interpol, UN Somalia
• Monitoring Group and International
• Office Migration (IOM).

Responsibilities of the Joint Security Committee

• Formed for the purpose of implementing of security elements of the Djibouti Agreement.
• Mandated to coordinate all tasks related to the functioning of national security forces, coast guards and the Somali police service.
• Its Technical Working Groups are supporting establishment and functioning of transitional security sector institutions.
• Provide expertise in the planning, coordination, implementation and monitoring of the development of the Somali Security.

Security Sector Assessment (SSA)

• At the request of the TFG, a joint UNPOS and US led Security Sector Assessment (SSA) has just been launched in Nairobi.
• The SSA will provide TFG and international community a snapshot of the status across the Security sector and provide a variety of options for the structure of the new Somali National Security Force.
• The SSA whose geographical scope includes the TFG, South/Central, Puntland and Somaliland will focus on Police, Justice and Penal, Intelligence and Military sectors as well as the current financial mechanisms.

Way forward

• Reinforcing the security situation in Somalia would help in reigning in piracy.
• A stable security environment is likely to deprive the pirates of the freedom with which they conduct their operations - offshore and on land.
• Security stabilization would pave the way for effective Government control.
• Political track through the Djibouti process has to move simultaneously with implementation of the security track.
• Once the Gov’t exercises control, it is expected that mechanisms that help wean the youth away from the street and crime. This represents the development and reconstruction track of the peace/reconciliation process.

Concluding remarks

• The issue of piracy has to be addressed from a multidimensional approach.
• Root causes and contributing factors of piracy lie as much on land as they do off shore.
• By adopting a comprehensive strategy that the problem can be addressed in a holistic manner.
• The strategy would have to involve stabilizing the security situation and shoring up the Government, to enable it exercise effective control throughout Somalia.
• This can be achieved only through the
• international community lending financial
• and material support to the unity Government.

Questions ?

Thank you for your attention.