Transcript Workshop On Maritime Safety And Port Security Mombasa 3

Overview on Piracy and
Surveillance in the Region
Workshop 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…
The legal
issues remain
a big challenge
to us.
For how long can we
sustain these
operations?
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.