Pirates reportedly rake in $150M a year
Allan Woods
OTTAWA – She is just one big fish in a pond the size of Ontario, but HMCS Winnipeg, the Canadian navy frigate posted off the coast of Somalia, has made its own ripples in the fight against modern-day pirates.
Where the United States has crack Navy SEAL snipers and French commandos storm hijacked boats with guns blazing, Canada's contribution to the small NATO anti-piracy force carries a handmade stop sign, written in Somali and affixed to its helicopter's machine gun, to warn legitimate fishermen and make ransom-hungry pirates think twice.
"Before we start killing people, or shooting people, we want to make sure that we've given them an opportunity to stop what they're doing, if they haven't actually done an attack yet," Cmdr. Craig Baines told the Star in one of several interviews from the Gulf of Aden.
Though there has been quite a bit of shooting and killing in the last week, it's not all pirate hunting in the world's most important international shipping route.
The Winnipeg departed last night on a risky mission to escort a slow-moving, defenceless ship, belonging to the United Nations World Food Program, to the Somali coast. In the pirates' lair, the Canadian show-of-force is essential to make sure regions of the country affected by drought and ballooning food prices receive vital assistance.
"Whenever you transit closer to the shoreline the risk does go up a little bit because of the proximity to Somalia itself," Baines said, just before the mission got underway.
Overall, success for the Winnipeg and the four other NATO ships involved in Operation Allied Protector has been varied, and they have been up against ambitious pirate foes who have attacked without regard to a ship's flag, cargo or final destination.
Baines' crew of 240 navy sailors had barely settled into the routine of escorting valuable freighters through the Gulf of Aden when the first distress call came over the radio.
On April 4, the Winnipeg dispatched its Sea King helicopter to warn off suspected pirates, effectively repelling a possible attack with its Somali stop sign. Five days later it responded to a merchant ship that had been fired on.
The crew followed the pirates to a mother ship by moonlight and saw passengers tossing suspected packages of arms and ammunition to the bottom of the sea.
An armed navy boarding team searched the mother ship at first light, but found nothing and had to let it go free.
On Tuesday, the Winnipeg was called on for help again, but it was too far away and pirates made off with a Greek vessel, the MV Irene EM.
The action and the attention have all made Baines "a bit of a national celeb" in the words of one British NATO official. In a period where Afghanistan dominates the headlines, the attention afforded the Winnipeg is remarkable, though Baines said it is justified.
Insurance rates for ships to sail through the Gulf of Aden, a shortcut to the Suez Canal and European and North American markets, have jumped to $20,000 from $500 for a single passage. Several firms want to detour along the southern tip of Africa, through the Cape of Good Hope, to avoid hijackings and ransoms of up to $3 million.
But military and diplomatic officials say the warships will never solve the brigand scourge. All Baines and his crew can do is protect the most valuable shipments – oil tankers headed to the United States, food aid, military equipment and supplies for troops in Afghanistan – and hope to be close by when future incidents arise.
"If I was being brutally honest with you, the pirates are adaptable and if they see a warship they will go somewhere else," Baines said.
Even if pirate ships are captured or interrupted, how to deal with them is a jurisdictional nightmare, experts say.
A Somali donors' conference next week will discuss how to get past the short-term military response and build the capacity for the ineffective national government to police its ports with a mix of aid and expert assistance.
France will help train a Somali security force to hunt and take down the pirate networks.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for more drastic action against pirates, including tracking and freezing their assets, as is now done to combat drug cartels and terrorist groups.
"They're clearly using their ransom money for their benefit ... and we think we can begin to try to track and prevent that from happening," she said.
Allan Woods
OTTAWA – She is just one big fish in a pond the size of Ontario, but HMCS Winnipeg, the Canadian navy frigate posted off the coast of Somalia, has made its own ripples in the fight against modern-day pirates.
Where the United States has crack Navy SEAL snipers and French commandos storm hijacked boats with guns blazing, Canada's contribution to the small NATO anti-piracy force carries a handmade stop sign, written in Somali and affixed to its helicopter's machine gun, to warn legitimate fishermen and make ransom-hungry pirates think twice.
"Before we start killing people, or shooting people, we want to make sure that we've given them an opportunity to stop what they're doing, if they haven't actually done an attack yet," Cmdr. Craig Baines told the Star in one of several interviews from the Gulf of Aden.
Though there has been quite a bit of shooting and killing in the last week, it's not all pirate hunting in the world's most important international shipping route.
The Winnipeg departed last night on a risky mission to escort a slow-moving, defenceless ship, belonging to the United Nations World Food Program, to the Somali coast. In the pirates' lair, the Canadian show-of-force is essential to make sure regions of the country affected by drought and ballooning food prices receive vital assistance.
"Whenever you transit closer to the shoreline the risk does go up a little bit because of the proximity to Somalia itself," Baines said, just before the mission got underway.
Overall, success for the Winnipeg and the four other NATO ships involved in Operation Allied Protector has been varied, and they have been up against ambitious pirate foes who have attacked without regard to a ship's flag, cargo or final destination.
Baines' crew of 240 navy sailors had barely settled into the routine of escorting valuable freighters through the Gulf of Aden when the first distress call came over the radio.
On April 4, the Winnipeg dispatched its Sea King helicopter to warn off suspected pirates, effectively repelling a possible attack with its Somali stop sign. Five days later it responded to a merchant ship that had been fired on.
The crew followed the pirates to a mother ship by moonlight and saw passengers tossing suspected packages of arms and ammunition to the bottom of the sea.
An armed navy boarding team searched the mother ship at first light, but found nothing and had to let it go free.
On Tuesday, the Winnipeg was called on for help again, but it was too far away and pirates made off with a Greek vessel, the MV Irene EM.
The action and the attention have all made Baines "a bit of a national celeb" in the words of one British NATO official. In a period where Afghanistan dominates the headlines, the attention afforded the Winnipeg is remarkable, though Baines said it is justified.
Insurance rates for ships to sail through the Gulf of Aden, a shortcut to the Suez Canal and European and North American markets, have jumped to $20,000 from $500 for a single passage. Several firms want to detour along the southern tip of Africa, through the Cape of Good Hope, to avoid hijackings and ransoms of up to $3 million.
But military and diplomatic officials say the warships will never solve the brigand scourge. All Baines and his crew can do is protect the most valuable shipments – oil tankers headed to the United States, food aid, military equipment and supplies for troops in Afghanistan – and hope to be close by when future incidents arise.
"If I was being brutally honest with you, the pirates are adaptable and if they see a warship they will go somewhere else," Baines said.
Even if pirate ships are captured or interrupted, how to deal with them is a jurisdictional nightmare, experts say.
A Somali donors' conference next week will discuss how to get past the short-term military response and build the capacity for the ineffective national government to police its ports with a mix of aid and expert assistance.
France will help train a Somali security force to hunt and take down the pirate networks.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for more drastic action against pirates, including tracking and freezing their assets, as is now done to combat drug cartels and terrorist groups.
"They're clearly using their ransom money for their benefit ... and we think we can begin to try to track and prevent that from happening," she said.
