P-3C patrol aircraft
Piracy in the Indian Ocean has flourished even though several nations now have warships on patrol in the Gulf of Aden. The media is clustered with piracy escapades daily.
On May 2, armed Somali pirates seized a Greek-owned ship with 24 crew members on board and earlier on the same day, a UK-owned ship had been hijacked by Somali pirates. A day before that on May 1, Portuguese navy successfully thwarted an attempted pirate attack on a Norwegian oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. The Portuguese navy found high explosives on board the pirate ship.
Piracy is socially acceptable and has become fashionable in Somali, pirates have money, power and are getting stronger by the day. They wed the most beautiful girls, build big houses, own new cars and new guns. Most of them are aged between 20 and 35 years and do it all for money. They get a ransom of $2m per captured vessel on average.
In days past, pirates have been known for arming themselves with AK-47s and RPGs (grenades) only, but it appears they are bracing up for real combat.
The move to dispatch two P-3C patrol aircraft and 150 Self Defense force members to bolster an anti-piracy mission off the Somalia coast, taken by the Japanese Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada is commendable and should be emulated by other stakeholders if the war on piracy is to be won.
No comments:
Post a Comment