Enough is ENOUGH!

Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Sat 19 Feb 2011 13:37
Phuket Saturday 19th February 1655 Local 0955
UTC
08:10.25N 098:20.38E
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.
If any vessel at any time is found in the "exclusion" or "no go"
zones then it is simply attacked from sea or air, and sunk. Let me just
define "sunk" for you. It does not involve arrest and a long discussion about
whether the guys are fishing before bringing them on a two year holiday to the
Hague before a trial starts, when at worst they may get the holiday camp
treatment. No, not that kind of sunk. I mean the kind of sunk which says you
were warned and now your craft and most likely you will be destroyed. No further
questions.
"Oh! what about the rights of the poor Somalian fishermen" I can hear
the smacking-a-child-is-akin-to-murder PC brigade sobbing. Easy. We are
throwing away enough fish clinically known as "discards" to feed the whole
of Somalia. So if we must do something, they can stay at home and we can
send them the fish our fishing industry is forced by Europe to kill and
then dump. DuH! 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.
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