Zanzibar and Piracy
Introduction
Piracy is certainly an Eastern Africa problem in recent years. It is, somehow, an expression of organised crime. For the last decade, piracy has made a home off the coast of Somalia and has, over the last three years or so, become increasingly disruptive to international trade. However, it has been a cause of deep concern for several centuries, indeed millennia in other parts of the world.
For much of the 20th century, piracy was regarded as a problem most frequently associated with the Straits of Malacca and neighbouring waters around Indonesia. Current trends show that pirates continue to operate in the Straits of Malacca, the South China Sea and off Somalia, but that, in the past three years, the overwhelming majority of attacks have taken place in the Gulf of Aden.
The consequences of piracy are well known and documented. In short, it brings with it instability in the region in which it operates, as well as vast economic losses and expenses for the shipping trade, thereby forcing merchant shipping to adopt other routes in order to avoid its dangers. This, in turn, has a direct impact on the revenue of coastal states, for instance, in East Africa and Zanzibar in particular, leading to a loss of income that may prove to be the most damaging result of all. There is, though, an even more insidious effect; piracy itself feeds and is fed by organised crime in many guises, as disaffected young men in poor communities become seduced by the lure of its illicit rewards and as it hampers wider efforts to establish the rule of law.
Apart from economic losses, piracy, if left unchecked, is an expression of the breakdown of law and order. Such a state of affairs, in itself, encourages pirates to continue operating, as it becomes common knowledge that neither they, nor the proceeds of their crimes, are readily capable of being subject to law enforcement measures by most States, given the difficulties of detection, interdiction, and prosecution.
The
Piracy is certainly an Eastern Africa problem in recent years. It is, somehow, an expression of organised crime. For the last decade, piracy has made a home off the coast of Somalia and has, over the last three years or so, become increasingly disruptive to international trade. However, it has been a cause of deep concern for several centuries, indeed millennia in other parts of the world.
For much of the 20th century, piracy was regarded as a problem most frequently associated with the Straits of Malacca and neighbouring waters around Indonesia. Current trends show that pirates continue to operate in the Straits of Malacca, the South China Sea and off Somalia, but that, in the past three years, the overwhelming majority of attacks have taken place in the Gulf of Aden.
The consequences of piracy are well known and documented. In short, it brings with it instability in the region in which it operates, as well as vast economic losses and expenses for the shipping trade, thereby forcing merchant shipping to adopt other routes in order to avoid its dangers. This, in turn, has a direct impact on the revenue of coastal states, for instance, in East Africa and Zanzibar in particular, leading to a loss of income that may prove to be the most damaging result of all. There is, though, an even more insidious effect; piracy itself feeds and is fed by organised crime in many guises, as disaffected young men in poor communities become seduced by the lure of its illicit rewards and as it hampers wider efforts to establish the rule of law.
Apart from economic losses, piracy, if left unchecked, is an expression of the breakdown of law and order. Such a state of affairs, in itself, encourages pirates to continue operating, as it becomes common knowledge that neither they, nor the proceeds of their crimes, are readily capable of being subject to law enforcement measures by most States, given the difficulties of detection, interdiction, and prosecution.
The