Somalia: Piracy (EUC Report)

Earl of Sandwich Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Grand Committee

[The Earl of Sandwich]

My Lords, I congratulate the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, and the sub-committee on the report. I missed the debate of the noble Lord, Lord Luce, last year, so this is a valuable opportunity for me not just to speak today but to inform myself on an important area of foreign policy. This policy, as the Minister knows very well from his experience of Africa, ties defence priorities closely to those of international development. The unexpected release and safe return of the chemical tanker “Royal Grace” last week brought welcome relief to the operation as well as to those on board. I hope that we shall soon learn the fate of the other tanker MS “Smyrni”. These welcome facts further suggest that Atalanta, while not resting on her laurels, should already be rated as a major success of international co-operation alongside the remarkable military and political turnaround in Somalia itself.

The noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe of Aberavon, said memorably in the last debate that the name Atalanta gave it a NATO benediction. It is true that, provided that there are no golden apples or false rewards, the name implies great rapidity from a defence point of view. It has been a spectacular demonstration of our own naval command and control over the past four years. I am personally enthusiastic about the Navy—perhaps not quite as gung-ho as the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, about a land operation but I think that we have done magnificently. For the EU, as the noble Lord, Lord Davies, has mentioned, it should mean a feather in the cap of the EEAS for its solid support of the operation. It should also get a mention in Sub-Committee C’s new report about to be published.

There are, of course, always dangers ahead. Last December, the Piracy Ransoms Task Force called for greater co-ordination among the countries and agencies involved. I am surprised that the committee has not pronounced more on the question of ransoms. There remains a widespread concern that while the incidence of piracy has come down, the amounts of ransoms are increasing. There are also fears that complacency may set in, armed guards will be reduced and the cycle may begin all over again. The trend of kidnapping in the region, notably in west Africa, has recently been upwards.

As for Somalia itself, the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, said in October that the priority should now be the re-establishment of stability and the rule of law. Nobody could disagree with that. He expressed the hope that the international community,

“will not allow that task to fail through lack of resources and lack of political will”.—[Official Report, 24/10/12; col.280.]

I agree with that aspiration: there is an upward trend of political will but no easy path ahead—as the noble Lord, Lord Jay, has expressed, and the noble Baroness, Lady Young, has already brought home to us.

Somalia is,

“possibly the toughest place in the world to be a child”,

according to the CEO of Save the Children when he returned from that country. The number of people in urgent need of humanitarian aid is expected to exceed 2.1 million in the coming months. The figure is down from last year but it is still large. Again, success is relative. Recurrence of the 2011 famine has been largely averted in rural areas, but there is still an imperative to plant crops and avoid food dependency while encouraging the return of traders and small businesses to towns. Here, I strongly agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Young.

I am glad to say that one of the most effective programmes is the SEED employment programme, funded by the UK, which works alongside the FAO in Puntland and south-central Somalia. It generated 56,000 jobs and has trained nearly 4,000 women and young people in livestock and agriculture. This is exactly the kind of programme that must revive the economy. When extended to coastal areas, it will provide alternatives to piracy, which everyone knows is a side-product of the civil war and of anarchy over the past decades. Employment, small business support and trade should feature prominently at the London conference that will be held on 7 May. Somalia is making a rapid recovery. We in this country are host to many Somali refugees and should be well placed to encourage the return of business leaders and professionals who will help rebuild their communities.

On the rule of law, there are many gaps to be filled, as we all know. I hope that the Minister will bring us up to date with the work of EUCAP NESTOR, notably in Puntland and Somaliland, and tell us whether there has been any progress in setting up the new land-based coastal police force. The committee report states that,

“Nestor could and should be the gateway to a permanent solution”.

The name “Nestor” is familiar to me because it is the name of my grandson, whom I took to see HMS “Belfast” yesterday afternoon. I hope that everyone will see him as a figure of wisdom in the future.

I am not familiar with the intricacies of Somali politics. The noble Lord, Lord Avebury, who came to the previous debate but who unfortunately is not here today, pointed out in October that until last summer the Puntland maritime police force had been very effective in closing bases and arresting pirates. Then it fell foul of other recognised authorities, including the UN, and even of its own South African trainers, one of whom was shot dead. Where food and commodities are scarce, clan loyalty and corruption easily turn into police connivance with the enemy—the pirates. Now that the new federal Government have greater confidence and are earning international recognition, will the Puntland police force be allowed to resume its former effectiveness? What will AMISOM and IGAD contribute to this exercise? Tributes are paid to them in the report. The government response to the committee mentioned training in Uganda but was silent on the calibre of the police forces in Somalia.

Finally, I hope that the Minister will congratulate Kenya and the Seychelles. They have expanded their courts and prisons over the years to accommodate hundreds of detained and convicted pirates. Perhaps he will update us on the attitudes there. In the context of what the noble Lord, Lord Jopling, said, will the Minister say to what extent and on what terms the pirates and prisoners are being returned either to civilian life or to face judgment in Hargeisa prison, which we have helped to rehabilitate, or elsewhere in Somalia?

We must be grateful that greater stability in Somalia will have valuable consequences over the border with Kenya, at a time of uncertainty following elections there. I hope that the world’s largest refugee camp will empty, that refugees will return home and that the acute conditions of poverty, malnutrition and ill health that we have seen so often on our TV screens over the past 20 years will disappear. Whether or not Atalanta is extended, the mission will have played a major role in this—largely, let us admit, for the benefit of the Gulf states and developed countries such as our own. Internal political stability can rarely be guaranteed by outsiders. Ultimately, it must depend on the Somali people themselves.