Sea-piracy is not a new phenomenon. They have been going on for the last so many centuries and have sparked off many battles and controversies in the past. One of them being the Arab invasion of Sind under Mohammad Bin Qasim in 712 AD. Raja Dahir’s failure to check and punish the pirates of Arabian Sea, who targeted the Arab traders and their family members, is said to be an important reason for the first Muslim invasion to India.
The only difference is that some piracies are being carried out by the criminals and non-state actors while many others by the governments. While Somali pirates – and like them many others – are either criminals or non-state actors looting and hijacking ships, in the last five hundred years pirates, enjoying official patronage of the western imperialist powers, pillaged and plundered the whole world. In fact criminals of western European nations were packed off in the ships and sent to North and South America and Australia to work in agriculture fields and jungles. Whatever they did in the alien land was legal for them. These western governments not only gave licence to their people to commit crime in the sea but also indulged in trafficking of human beings from the western African countries. Lakhs of them were shipped to Americas to cut jungles and make the land cultivable.
These state-sponsored pirates took the entire Africa, Asia, the two Americas and Australia hostage. Many of these pirates even posed as traders to occupy the world. Till 17th and some part of the 18th century they did not dare to venture much into the Mediterranean water as they were afraid of the Ottoman navy. In the early part of the 17th century the Turkish vessels chased the British till Great Britain twice. There was complete sway of the Ottoman navy in the Mediterranean and in the early decades of 17th century they sank over 400 European ships.
Today thanks to the United States of America, the war-torn country on the Horn of Africa virtually ceases to exist and there is no central authority left. In the last couple of months pirates from this country have taken the Gulf of Aden by storm and targeted dozens of big and small ships. They hijacked a ship and kept its Indian crew members hostage for more than 65 days. The Indian navy had to take a strict action against a similar attempt by them. In one such action their mother boat was hit by missiles fired by the INS Tabar. Navies of other countries like Iran also boosted their presence in the region to check the growing menace of piracy.
Pirates normally take advantage of the narrow sea-lanes. Malacca Strait in the East Indies, where daily 200 ships pass, Bosporus in Turkey, Gibraltar, etc. are some narrow passages. There are other narrow sea-routes as well such as Suez Canal, Panama Canal etc. but these places are more properly manned as the government of the region collects toll. Even the Bosporus falls between Asian and European Turkey and thus is more protected. This notwithstanding the fact that it is one of the toughest ship-routes of the world and can be targeted. However, till lately Malacca Strait was known throughout the world for maximum number of piracy. Piracy has something to do with the political upheaval in the nearby country and several other factors. Since ships normally carry cargo and do not even have 40 – in many cases much less – crew members; they are unprotected and vulnerable to attack. Unlike ships, which normally do not have any security personnel, the pirates are armed and operate from small fast motor-boats. They somehow manage to sneak into the ship to loot or hijack it.
Piracy in the Gulf of Aden is the direct result of the pauperisation of East Africa, or for that matter a large part of the Dark Continent. War lords rule the roost and there is no alternative left for many in that country. Old conflict with the Ethiopia, which earlier enjoyed Communist Russia support and is now enjoying the American backing, reduced the country into a barren war-zone.
While the official pirates of the West became rich and ruled the world for centuries these small time pirates are not going to last long. But they have at least managed to attract the world’s attention towards the bigger crime committed by the international gangsters.