Is Somalia Piracy Justifiable?

By Chirusha de Mel

Let’s start off with a little background about Somalia. Somalia is located near the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. Since 1991 the government of Somalia is unstable and does not have a centralized government. The lack of leadership and the civil war left the Somalian individuals to fend for themselves. The nation went through many droughts, and wars.  Due to the lack of governance, Somalia was becoming desperate. Since Somalia does not have a consolidated democracy the Western nations find this as a perfect opportunity to take advantage of Somalia’s seas and exploit their resources, by illegally fishing and dumping poisonous toxins into their sea. This became a distinctive predicament for Somalia. The Somalian pirates initiated to ‘protect’ their sea as ‘coast guards’ by hijacking ships/cargos that have major profit. Some may agree that their actions are justifiable because they do not have a centralized government. I disagree because the Somalian pirates are not acting as coast guards and that their actions are not justifiable and therefore should be considered as a terrorism act.

In the article, Debunking the Piracy Myth, by Stig Jarle Hansen, “argues that it is wrong to claim that Somali pirates are driven by idealistic motives—protecting the Somali coastline—or even to claim that piracy started out as a coast guard activity; the pirates’ deeds simply do not match their words, and pirates never did behave as a ‘coast guard’(Hansen)”.  Hansen also mentions that piracy is profit driven. The Somalia piracy targets boats that bring the most profit. Pirates also avoid attacking the targets which are compared to attacks against fishing ships. Therefore, the pirates hunting ground, indicates that Somali pirates have no interest in attacking illegal fishing boats. Importantly, “in 1991, foreign fishing trawlers aggressively moved into Somalia’s rich and unpatrolled waters, at the expense of coastal fishing villages. Angry Somali fishermen secured weapons and began firing on foreign trawlers.” (Waldo, Mohamed).  This clearly indicates that these actions are not justifiable and that they derive revenues from these cargos.

With this in mind, the Somalian pirates began to outreach to the public by indicating that they know what they are doing is wrong, but it is the only way to get attention from the public.  Many may think this is a desperate call for help to unstable their weak central government.  However, this is just a psychological need for self-justification among the pirates.

Above all, it seems pertinent to remember that, due to the weak government they act in piracy. However, it does not mean Somalian pirates are right by hijacking ships for ransom. As well as using their weapons to kill foreign invaders. This can be seen as a terrorism attack. In comparison to my argument individuals can say, that some pirates are supporting the local population by having food program supplies. According to Hari, “the independent Somalian news-site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent “strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters.” As you can see, this argument can go both ways, but it is important to note that their actions by killing innocent civilians are not justifiable and that there are other proper ways to negotiate how to recover their weak central government.

Stig Jarle Hansen (2011) Debunking the Piracy Myth, The RUSI Journal, 156:6, 26-31, DOI: 10.1080/03071847.2011.642682

Hari, Johann. "You Are Being Lied to About Pirates." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 02 Oct. 2016.