Somali Pirates: Grab One Ship, Attack Another Using the First One as "Mother Ship"

Red is Sinar Kudus attack, yellow MV Emperor attack

First, the NATO report:

March 17. 2011
Latitude: 16 15N, Longitude: 060 26E
---WARNING WARNING WARNING---
Alert Number 125 / 2011
At 0612 UTC / 17 MAR / a merchant vessel was reported under attack by 1 skiff from nearby suspected pirate mothership SINAR KUDUS.
***This vessel managed to evade hijack*** The Pirate Attack Group is still in the area.
_______________________________________

March 16, 2011
Latitude: 14 21N Longitude: 059 25E
---WARNING WARNING WARNING---
Alert Number 124/2011

***This vessel has been pirated***
At 1642 UTC / 16 Mar 11 / a merchant vessel was reported pirated in position 14 21N 059 25E travelling 005 at 6 kts.

Now, EUNAVFOR report from here:

At approximately 0730Z on 16 March, the Bulk Cargo Carrier MV SINAR KUDUS was pirated approximately 320 nautical miles North East of the island of Socotra in the Somali Basin. Within 24 hours of being taken, she was used to launch an unsuccessful attack on the MV EMPEROR.

The MV SINAR KUDUS, which is Indonesian flagged and owned, was on its way to Suez (Egypt) from Singapore when it was attacked. Details of the attack are not known at this time but initial reports from the crew stated that 30 to 50 pirates had boarded and taken control of the vessel. The MV SINAR KUDUS has a crew of 20, all Indonesian.

Within 24 hours of the attack, the MV SINAR KUDUS was used to launch a further attack on the Liberian flagged Bulk Carrier MV EMPEROR. A skiff with 5 pirates on board was launched from the SINAR KUDUS and attacked the EMPEROR but was repelled by the armed force from the merchant vessel. The EMPEROR was subsequently reported to be safe.(emphasis added)

Somali Pirates: Danes Suggest Sinking Pirate "Mother Ships"

Reported as "Denmark’s ruling party proposes sinking ships to disrupt piracy":

Denmark's ruling party, the Liberal Party, on Tuesday proposed that the Danish navy should be able to sink mother ships to disrupt piracy, the Politiken newspaper reported.

Liberal Party spokesman Michael Aastrup Jensen said that the mother ships are used as platform for skiffs which are used by pirates to attack merchant and other vessels in diverse areas.

Jensen added that the proposal on how to combat piracy will be published on Tuesday. The Liberal Party also proposed that Danish naval mandate should allow to board and confiscate pirates' mother ships.
***
Nils Wang, current Commanding Officer of the Danish Defense Academy, said that a wider strategy is needed for anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean than simply chasing pirates.

"There are many different initiatives that have to come into play, and the pirates have to be helped to get back into fisheries," said former officer of the Admiral Fleet Denmark. "The problem is that overall, what is going on in anti-piracy is relatively uncoordinated, and that is a major problem."

Wang proposed that the United Nations sets up a new and efficient coastguard, in which Denmark could contribute. Wang's proposal calls for foreign ships to pay fishing licenses so that Somali pirates can once again work as fishermen.
***

"...{Anti-piracy is relatively uncoordinated, and that is the major problem." Okay - you put your finger on the problem - but who will lead the way to a solution?

The same internationalists who up to now have been wringing their hands and dithering? The crowd that thinks passing a strongly worded UN resolution is the same as doing something?

The same folks who will worry about whether the Danish flag is just too un-PC to go after largely Muslim pirates?

Denmark!

In a neatly related note, Norway has suggested arming its merchant ships to fight pirates, as set out here:

Norway is considering arming Norwegian ships to protect crews from piracy, Industry Minister Trond Giske Friday tells business daily Dagens Naeringsliv.

Giske said he will present proposals Friday for new regulations to combat piracy.

"Mafia organizations are involved in piracy. These are no[t] poor kids who row out and highjack big boats," Giske said.

The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry calls for regulation on the use of armed guards in accordance with the Ship Safety Act, and the Ministry of Justice has prepared a regulation change that would allow Norwegian-registered ships temporarily to have firearms on board.

Somali Piracy Going International?

A senior U.S. diplomat says here:

Piracy in the Red Sea may be becoming a "multinational" business with Yemenis joining Somalis in the lucrative crime, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

"We are also seeing ... perhaps a new business model occurring in the Red Sea and things that we have traditionally labelled exclusively Somali piracy may in fact be multinational piracy," the top U.S. diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said.

Pirates involved in last month's killing of four American hostages on a yacht seized near Somalia were both Somalis and Yemenis, while Yemenis were on board a pirate ship recently captured by a Danish warship, he said.

"We may be seeing a situation, as yet unconfirmed, where we have individuals from several nations on the periphery, from states that are not governed well ... being involved in piracy," Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Carson told reporters in London.
***
But Carson said the problem of Somali piracy would not be resolved on the high seas. "We recognize that the area of the Red Sea is enormous and that you can put hundreds of boats out there," he said.

The problem could only be resolved "by ending the impunity that exists on land. It will only be resolved when Somalia has a government with a security force, a police apparatus, a court system and laws that allow it to prevent and prosecute pirates who seek to carry out activities offshore," he said.

Well, it might have helped to have jumped firmly on this problem several years ago, before it exploded into something that has a "business model" tied to it.

Since that didn't happen, now the problem requires "a little less talk and a lot more action."