On 11 April, French commandos captured several Somali pirates who took hostages the 30 crew members of the luxury yacht le Ponant. Apparently a ransom was privately paid for their release. The French government admitted that they responded militarily to the incident. The pirates captured will be tried in French courts. The French president called for the establishment of an UN-sponsored anti-piracy force. Many other governments are involved in anti-piracy tasks in what has become one of the most dangerous piracy spots on the planet.
Au contraire, in the UK the Royal Navy has been instructed by the Foreign Office not to detain pirates because of the risk of breaching their human rights. The Sunday Times further reports that the Foreign Office is also concerned that captured pirates could claim asylum in Great Britain. Feel free to reach your own conclusions. The Foreign Office is headed by David Miliband, from planet Zorg. The latest entry on his ill advised official blog, Tale of Two Penalties, deals with soccer results. Naturally, there is not a single entry for two of our own planet’s problems: Somalia and piracy.
The Royal Navy was once the envy of the maritime world. Sea thugs knew their game was over once Royal marines had them on their sight. Fortunately, that mix of respect and fear still lives in the private sector. Many Private Military Companies (PMCs) with maritime capabilities employ former Royal Navy personnel, who increasingly find it that their vocation can only be fully realized on a private capacity. Mr Miliband please continue focusing on the human rights of pirates and let maritime PMCs do their job.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment