Brussels, 22/02/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 22 February, during the presentation of his report on piracy to EU ambassadors at the Policy and Security Committee (COPS), Jack Lang highlighted a need for, “rapid and tough action” to counter the growing problem of piracy off the Somali coast. Lang presented the EU with the results of his work carried out as the UN Special Adviser for legal problems linked to piracy. He is proposing an action plan for Northern Somalia or, to be more precise, the two regional areas of Puntland and Somaliland which are seeking self-determination and where most of the piracy takes place. He informed the press that “if we want to eradicate this problem, we need to tackle it root and branch”. He is hoping that the proposed measures can be ratified “over the next few months”.
He also explained to the press that this plan would be drawn up by the international community in “cooperation with the authorities of these two regions… and would include two dimensions: a socio-economic chapter and its security-penal equivalent”. The former is expected to ensure “an alternative to piracy”. On the basis of the certified agreements signed with the two authorities, it would be possible to “develop genuine local business activities… such as fishing, rearing and exporting cattle”, explained Lang. Other measures would also aim to relaunch business opportunities in the two countries' most important ports, Bosaso in Puntland and Berbera in Somaliland.
The legal aspects contained in the plan should help guarantee that “pirates are pursued on land”, emphasised Lang. He is proposing to set up a jurisdiction for overseeing the question of piracy and “building a penitentiary with a capacity for 500 prisoners” in each of these regions. Aid from the international community would include training judges, who could possibly be recruited from among the Somali diaspora. The United Nations (the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) could also help by helping to fund prison-building programmes. The estimated cost of building these prisons would be around $25 million as opposed to the “cost of piracy, which has now risen to $5-7 billion”, underlined Lang. Under the same legal aspects of the plan, the UN representative is proposing to create a decentralised Somali court (negotiations are taking place with Tanzania) and taking those sponsoring piracy to task. He said that this plan involves around 6 to 7 people whose names are quite well-known. Their operating networks should be identified and action taken against these people. (A.By./transl.fl)