Combating Somali piracy ... Roman style

In the year 75BC, Gaius Julius Caesar, citizen of the great Roman Empire was sailing on a Roman battle trireme in the Mediterranean when pirates attacked the ship. Caesar was captured and ransomed, as was the practice back then. Legend has it that the great man was not impressed when the pirates decided to bill his family in Rome only 20 gold talents, a massive fortune at that time. He felt his worth was at least double that and demanded that they increase the ransom. The pirates, being men of commerce, obliged and were duly paid 50 talents of gold for their skulduggery.

Upon being released after spending 40 days in the dark, damp underbelly of the pirates’ ship, Caesar warned the pirates that he would return, hunt them down and kill them all. One can presume that the pirates all broke out into merry, drunken laughter and probably dumped him rather unceremoniously on the deserted shoreline, leaving him with a fairly long distance to walk to the nearest town and an even longer voyage back to Rome and his home estate outside the city. To be fair, they probably had no idea who they were dealing with.

Unfortunately for these particular pirates, Caesar, being Caesar, raised a fleet, hunted down the men that took him captive and exacted his revenge in true Roman fashion; he boarded their vessel with his legionaries, cut down anyone who resisted and crucified anyone who was left. It was the beginning of a rout that Caesar’s great rival Pompey finished emphatically by crushing pirates across the Mediterranean and clearing the routes of trade for the Empire.

It is perhaps interesting to note how the Romans achieved this, particularly since the world is once again facing the vexing problems that Caesar, Pompey, Cicero and their piers faced over two millennia ago.

Firstly, they assembled a great fleet and sent them out with orders to engage and destroy pirates wherever they found them.

Secondly, and more importantly, the Romans knew that to remove the threat posed by pirates at sea, you have to cut them off from their home base on the land. With this principle in mind, Rome invaded Illiria in 68BC, home base of the most prolific and successful piracy in the Adriatic, and effectively stamped the problem out.

Two thousand years have passed and once again the ocean trade routes of the great empires of the world are increasingly threatened by piracy. The epicentre of the current plundering is Somalia where pirates all but control the Gulf of Aden. At least 12 ships are currently under the control of pirates. This year alone has seen 67 attacks with 26 successful hijackings so far in this area alone. In short, it is reaching epidemic proportions and shows no sign of letting up.

The great maritime countries of the world have all sent warships to the region. Mirroring the Roman strategy, the great fleet has been assembled. The weakness with this modern response, however, is that it contains a single prong and no pressure is being brought to bear on the source. As outlined in this fascinating article, piracy is becoming a very lucrative career in Somalia and the money that is being earned is drawing poor Somalis into the coastal towns to sign up in droves. Pirates drive cars, have big houses, flash money around and have multiple wives – not bad going in a country racked by war and poverty. Not that hard to spot a pirate either you would think!

The relatively soft and diplomatic response of the international community will make the problem much harder to solve. Where a refusal to negotiate with pirates or pay ransoms should be the norm, huge ransoms are being paid. While this may appear to be the right thing to do in the interests of the crew and a quick resolution to each individual problem, it has simply resulted in the pirates having the cash to buy improved radar systems, bigger, faster boats and more sophisticated weapons. With the additional resources and new recruits signing up daily, piracy has predictably exploded in the region. The more ransoms that are paid, the bigger the problem will become. The world should not negotiate with pirates.

Cicero knew this of course. He had this to say about pirates:

“ … for a pirate is not included in the category of lawful enemies, but is the common enemy of everyone. In his case, good faith and sworn oaths should not be recognised.”

It seems to be a common theme when it comes to pirates. In English Admiralty law, when dealing with pirates “neither Faith nor Oath is to be kept”, which effectively meant that any contract entered into with a pirate was not legally binding.

It is also somewhat mystifying as to why the international community has not made an attempt to blockade the access to known pirate ports along the coast and cut the pirates off from their safety net on the land. Any objection by the Somali government, such as it is, could quite easily be countered by pointing to the unacceptable crisis unfolding on their coast and asking them to condemn it and take responsibility for stopping it. If they are not able to do this themselves, they should ask for international assistance and provide the intelligence needed for the international community to do it for them.

Between Darfur and the Gulf of Aden, it is pretty clear that Somalia is out of control and is beginning to pose a geopolitical threat not only to its neighbours but also to the trade of the world at a time when world trade really does not need any further economic setbacks.

Another method that could be employed is the formation of convoys with armed protection. By grouping numerous large ships together under the protection of a large corvette, pirates would have to take huge risks to board a ship and take control of it. By keeping this strategy in place for a prolonged period, a stranglehold could be placed on new hijackings slowly starving the pirates of money and resources.

A riskier but potentially feasible option might include the attempted boarding of one or all of the ships currently held by pirates. The weakness exploited by the pirates is the relative ease with which huge ships can be boarded from a small craft under cover of darkness. Why not use this against them by landing small teams of specially trained navy seals to retake the ships in exactly the same way? The longer this option is not exercised, the more sophisticated the weapons and techniques of the pirates will become. It should be done sooner rather than later if it is to be attempted at all.

Perhaps another way of turning the strengths of the pirates into a weakness is to use the relative poverty and lawlessness of the region that provides pirates with both recruits and the freedom from prosecution, to offer rewards for the successful capture of known pirate kingpins. Instead of giving money away in ransom, offer it to those who deliver the perpetrators into the hands of the world justice system. If the ICC can try Rwandan and Serbian generals for war crimes, surely it can extradite and try pirates for hijackings? If pirates pay US$1 000 for an official to turn a blind eye, offer him $10 000 to look again.

The solution will probably be complex and involve more multilateral action by the major players in the UN Security Council. On June 2 2008, the UN Security Council passed a resolution allowing the patrolling of the Somali coast for six months by countries cooperating with the Somali government. The resolution allows the use of “all necessary means” to stop “piracy and armed robbery at sea, in a manner consistent with international law.”

In conjunction, more pressure will probably need to be placed on the Somali government to take ownership of the problem and negotiation with pirates’ needs to be stopped before the operation gets too sophisticated and well funded. Ultimately, the piracy is a symptom of poverty and lack of control by a central government in Somalia. A stable Somali government with a clear mandate to eradicate piracy and help from the international community would probably yield the best results.

That does not appear to be on the cards any time soon. Somalia will probably produce many fine young pirates in the years to come. The Romans would probably not be very impressed with our efforts so far.