This morning we were confronted with the sad news that an American yacht called "Quest" had been pirated 240 miles off the coast of Oman.

 

There are currently two yachts being held captive and six yachtspeople. This of course pales into insignificance compared to the variously reported  thirty + commercial ships and between 500 and 700 hostages being held by Somali pirates.

 

This is intolerable. It is a disgrace that the inaction of the international community is allowing this to happen. This is nothing other than a state of war. One which we are not engaging in but observing. Worse still it is very easy to solve. Very easy, very straightforward.

 

At the moment the worst fate a Somalian Pirate can expect to suffer is a long jail sentence in a westernised prison, which lets be honest with all the "human rights" accorded to prisoners in Europe nowadays is quite likely to be akin to a long stay at a holiday camp for a Somalian.

 

For God's sake the Dutch Navy who were attacked by pirates, who then surrendered once they realised it was a navy ship they had attacked, fed the pirates and refuelled them so they could reach home safely. They did however take their weapons off them the inhumane brutes that they are. Now the poor pirates will have to spend some of their own ransom money buying new weapons. No doubt if the pirates took the Dutch navy to our European courts for their brutal treatment they would probably win a settlement!

 

The European "task farce" (on this occassion that is not a typo) stands by and reports that the pirates are now using 8 captured ships as mother ships from which they daily spawn the qat fuelled bandits to go forth and rape the shipping channels from which they reap millions and millions of dollars.

 

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!  This is easy to solve.

 

China, the oil producers in the area, America and Europe, lets bring in South Korea (because they have just demonstated how to deal with the issue) meet tomorrow afternoon. Not in the Swiss alps or Acapulco next month. Tomorrow afternoon. Video and or teleconferencing is fine. Even Skype would do.

 

They lay a chart of the Indian Ocean out on the table (less than £20 at www.gaelforcemarine.co.uk ) They draw shipping channels, "safe highways" about 100 miles wide from the south of India to the Gulf of Aden, the Persian Gulf to connect into it and from the South of Africa to connect into it. 100 mile "exclusion zones" should then be declared either side of the "safe Highways". They declare a "No Go zone from say 50 miles off the shore of Somalia all the way to the shipping lanes. Where there is not 50 miles available for their inshore fishermen, then from the beach to the shipping lanes.

 

Then an announcement is made through all means possible to the world in general and Somalia in particular that if any vessel large or small is found within one hundred miles of the safe highways or in the exclusion zones they will be an immediate authorised target for sinking by air attack. Honestly - 48 hours maximum and say £30 total, if Skype was used ( I concede a little more if video conferencing was used) could organise this including the cost of the chart, a ruler, a pencil and possibly a rubber. In fact if the inevitable debate about costs break out and cause a delay I will donate the neccessary. However it is probably not the money that is the barrier it is the WILL.

 

No vessel large or small could commence to enter the "controlled gates" into the safe highways without being authorised and registered by the controlling force. Getting an entrance ticket so to speak. This of course could be an electonic broadcast and receivable signal say for example using the "Class A" AIS they are all fitted with. If not an electronic tag. If I'm not mistaken even cars in central London have to do something similar. So DO NOT tell me it can't be done. In addition two armed soldiers could be put on board each vessel until the system settles in. Commercial shipping could pay a fixed fee each, which would be a damn site less than the insurance premiums, probably wage premiums and certainly ransome payouts are currently amounting to. Oil prices would fall overnight. 

 

Immediately the "mother ships" whose positions it seems are known should be taken captive. Ah! but says EURNAVFOR we have to actually catch them in the act of Piracy before we can legally arrest them. Let me think about this for a while .......done. Crap, twaddle and politically correct BS! Arrest them tonight. If they have hostages tell them now that if one ship moves one inch and if any single hostage is harmed, one hair harmed, then every single Somalian pirate aboard will die. Not sometime in the future - before dawn. If they give up they can spend thirty years (which will ineviotably be reduced to fifteen - don't even start me....) in the holiday camps we provide for them in Europe. I am certain it will seem like a good deal to them. In fact if it came to it we could even lie to them and shoot them dead but I do realise that telling lies is bad so I would accept it if our nice European forces did not want to employ these inhumane tactics. Three letters come to mind. S.A.S.  

 

The exclusion zones either side of the safe highways, and the no go zone from the beach or 50 miles off the beach in Somalia are then patrolled by satellite, warship and military aircraft. Every single authorised ship in the safe highways could also report any ship outside the safe highway within the range of its radar in the exclusion zones.

 

 

Next, as the plan has effectively thrown a cordon round the seaward side of Somalia, we send say 2000 heavily armed forces onto the ground in Somalia and surround the relatively small area where everybody knows the pirates operate out of. Nothing. Nothing is allowed to move through the barricade without complete and thorough stop and search. Start immediately closing it down tighter and tighter without engagement. Let the pirates know that they and possibly their families will die if one single hostage is harmed. Ruthlessly prosecute them with the death penalty if there is one murder. 

 

Look, I am in a rage today about this situation. It is not funny. It is deadly serious. It is people's lives. Hundreds of lives. It is the functioning of the world's economy. It is the lack of will that is leaving us in this situation. 

 

My heart goes out to those taken hostage yesterday. To all those currently hostage. I am exasperated by the international community. I have said for some time to those that I have discussed this issue with that we will only see some action when Americans are taken hostage. I am no fan of American gung-ho, trigger happy (this happens in the movies) tactics round the world. Also we have seen time and again the iniquity of what they call "collateral" damage (killing of innocent people), the high number of "friendly fire" incidents (killing of the "good guys" supposed to be on their side) they are involved in. We have also seen the Americans and the British with others act completely without justification and perhaps healthy doses of cynical hypocracy in other instances. But in my view this situation needs immediate and decisive action.

 

Europe has had its chance and sadly my guess is that now that Americans are taken we may see some of the long overdue hard hitting tactics required to sort this mess out. A mess we have allowed to happen by playing by our (stupid) rules while the other side don't play by any rules and run rings round us picking off targets and peoples lives with impunity. 

 

Enough is ENOUGH! Get it done Cameron, Obama et al.