The Toronto Star
May 4, 2009
On Monday morning, pirates pursuing a North Korean freighter were chased away by South Korean helicopter snipers. Meanwhile, a Russian warship freed eight Iranian hostages who have been in captivity for over three months. Both of these rescues came as the frequency of piracy attacks have been seen to grow in the lawless Gulf of Aden, a gulf off the Somalian coast. South Korea's joint chiefs made a statement to the press regarding the situation, saying that a South Korean warship sent a "Lynx" heliocopter in order to assist the North Korean vessel. The warship received a distress call that the North Korean vessel was being chased by a pirate vessel. After snipers aboard the Lynx helicopter prepared to fire warning shots, the pirate ship gave up chasing the North Korean vessel, the South Korean joint chiefs said. The dramatic incident occured 37 kilometers south of the Yemeni port of Aden, a port on the Gulf of Aden, which separates Yemen and Somalia. This incident was said to be a "rare instance of recent cooperation between the two Koreas". Relations between the two nations have deteriorated since the election of a conservative government in Seoul last year. This government has vowed to "get tough" on North Korea over its nuclear program. Pyongyang has responded to the vow by cutting ties and restricting key joint reconciliation projects. The Iranian embassy in Moscow has also reported that a Russian warship freed eight Iranians kept hostage by the suspected pirates last week. The Iranian embassy has stated that the eight hostages were held captive by the cruel pirates for close to three months, and thanked and the Russian navy for their courageous rescue.
In my opinion, these events signal the sad increase in piracy in international waters. These pirates are driven by a sense of economic desperation and seem to function above all laws both those of their own country and those that govern international waters. Their acts have affected nations across the board regardless of political affiliation. According to another source from BBC news (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7280042.stm), Robert-Herbert Burns, attacks have increased in international waters by 14% in the last year. Herbert-Burns, who is a maritime security expert at Lloyd's Intelligence Unit, commented that these acts have been "largely due to attacks off the Horn of Africa, specifically in Somali waters or in the territorial waters off Somalia". It is clear to see from this that international cooperation will be vital in overcoming this pressing problem that effects so many nations. Piracy is truly an act of desperation by those individuals that feel they have no means to improve their plight in life. I believe that the rise in piracy recently reflects the dramatic polarization between the wealthy and the poor nations of the world. The developed countries with their money, power, and influence are seen as the oppressors of those nations that belong to what we refer to as the third world economically. Particularly, nations of Africa and Asia find themselves increasingly in need of financial aid and humanitarian support. If we are to survive as a world community, nations of the world must function in a united fashion to improve the plight of those in need. There are organizations which have promoted the incentive of micro-lending, such as KIVA. These organizations encourage members of first-world countries to lend money to entrepreneurs in the third world who can use this money to become self-sufficient and empowered. This money is eventually repaid, and with it comes respect and a life-changing transformation for those in need. It is these types of ventures that we must all embrace as we move forward in the new millenium.
5 comments:
I'd like to say a few words not about the increase in cases of piracy, but the relationship between North Korea and the South. A cooperation between the North and the South is definitely what both countries should be working towards. However, North Korea has pushed it too far. For the past 20 years, North Korea has received a tremendous amount of help from the South Korean government. However, they did not hold up their ends of the deals not even once. They eventually used the money and help from South Korea to produce nuclear weapons. I agree with current South Korean President Lee's policy of taking a firmer stand against North Korea and stop helping them without them holding up their ends of the deal.
So I think this incidence shows a slight sign of peace between the two countries, but North Korea has not done anything yet that show any sign of loosening up. Peace was what we wanted, and we still definitely do. However, we need to start to change our tactics to form peace.
I still find it amazing that pirates think that they can own the seas, even in corrupt countries. With today's technology, there must be ways to prevent situations like these.
In relation to the piracy issue, Everything I’ve read about the pirates operating off Somalia in recent years indicates that while they’re certainly violent in the sense they use force to hijack people and property, they haven’t (for the most part) been violent in the sense that they’ve actually killed a lot of people. The piracy and hostage-taking have been irritating, yes, but “piracy” as a topic could be left to the realm of Johnny Depp jokes because these incidents didn’t tend to be life or death situations.
A pirate in the Somali coastal town of Eyl who identified himself as Farah told Reuters that “America has become our new enemy.” U.S. military officials have acknowledged that the killing of the three pirates could worsen the problem, an outcome that shipping companies have sought to avoid.
There are plenty of people who are treating the deaths of the pirates as an unambiguous good — and as I said, the pirates certainly had it coming. But it’s possible that instead of discouraging piracy, what we’ve done is discourage relatively low-violence piracy. We’ll find out.
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