Piracy

Lord Triesman Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Triesman]

My Lords, I join the House in thanking the noble Lord, Lord Luce. I admire his long attention to the detail of this issue. I also thank other noble Lords who have taken part in the debate, as well as the committee of the noble Lord, Lord Teverson, which has added a great deal to our knowledge.

In the United Kingdom there has always been an interest in Somalia, not least because so many Somali citizens live here, and I used to find that many in the interim Government held dual citizenship. Indeed, the interim President, President Yusuf, who did not hold dual citizenship none the less declaimed frequently to me that he was partially British as he had a British liver. He told me that he was the longest-surviving transplant patient with a British liver and he held this country in great esteem.

Greater action has always been needed to address state failure, failure in the rule of law, failure in civil institutions and fratricidal clan warfare—the failures on dry land, as the noble Baroness, Lady Nicholson, described them, which lie behind the piracy. The instability both internally and internationally, in the Yemen and through the Horn of Africa all make us focus on this issue. It is quite right to say that the African Union has a vital role to play. I believe that it needs and deserves greater support in what it does. It has always had painfully small resources and it has always addressed the reality that military action is not the sole response. There needs to be a much wider palette of opportunities for response.

At present, as I understand it from the One Earth Future foundation’s analysis—there are probably other analyses—the annual headline cost of piracy is in the order of $6.6 billion. Just 1% of that amount is spent on building Somali anti-piracy capacity and on prosecution. Ban Ki-Moon’s special adviser on Somali piracy reported last year that just one in 10 captured pirates are brought to the point of prosecution. Convicted prisoners are held in a variety of countries, as we have heard, and many of those countries are themselves under considerable pressures, as is the Seychelles. I share the concern of the right reverend Prelate and the noble Lord, Lord Greenway, that many victims of piracy will feel that this is hardly an adequate response to some of the things that they come to suffer at the hands of the pirates.

I also know, and accept, that there have been advances, but, as the noble Lord, Lord Luce, said, the problems are still there. The advances are significant and they cover what my noble friend Lady Warwick described as 2.5 million square miles—something like 4 million square kilometres—of ocean. One good year—and it has been a good year—is not a guarantee of good years in the future. There is still a huge amount to be done, although the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Stirrup, has been absolutely right to celebrate the successes that there have been.

My feeling this evening as we debate this is that in the previous Government we sustained a naval and supply presence. That has now been cut, notwithstanding the priorities expressed by the Prime Minister. Those are matters that should concern us if we take the issue as seriously as the Prime Minister urges us to do. Therefore, what aid have Her Majesty’s Government provided and will they provide to create sustainable economic opportunities in Somalia? What careful and pragmatic analysis has been made of trade opportunities that would assist? What arrangements have been made with Somaliland, Puntland and their neighbours in Kenya and Ethiopia to assist in dealing with many of the problems? My question includes Ethiopia because of the outstanding assistance that was consistently provided by the late Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, whenever he was asked to enlist his help, particularly with clan factions.

Should not the United Kingdom, as chair of Working Group 1 of the CGPCS, deploy its frigate more frequently, and preferably permanently? The noble and learned Lord, Lord Howe, and others described that help as being a very interesting EU naval role and one that could well be better co-ordinated with NATO assistance, and I am sure that that is true as well. What future role does the Minister see the Navy playing?

Can the Minister also tell us what pressure has been brought to bear for internationally agreed standards for accredited private security companies? Those standards have been promised for a long time. How close are we to agreement on them? When will the United Kingdom ratify the 2005 protocols concerning acts of terrorism at sea and the enforcement powers that are sought to deal with it? Before the Minister tells me, perhaps I may say that I readily accept that we did not do so in the latter part of the Government in which I served; I am merely eager to know what progress there is now.

What are the Government doing to assist the Seychelles on the imprisonment problems it plainly has and which are stretching its resources to breaking point? What progress is being made on the new maritime intelligence co-ordination centre in that nation—another issue raised by the noble Lord, Lord Hannay, earlier?

Will we contribute to the Dutch-German joint investigation team which has been tasked with pursuing what they have described in their terminology as the “kingpins and financiers”, the “money launderers”? It is obviously not whatever the maritime and piracy equivalent is of the term “foot-soldiers”. Those are pursued, but not many are brought to trial. What about the people who organise them, finance them, and benefit from them?

Finally, what is our contribution to assist the new Somali president to build the authority of his Government, his courts and civil institutions? We have here a permanent presidency. It will succeed or fail on the basis of the tangible support that it receives, and the expertise that we are prepared to deploy.

I accept that not one of these issues is easy, but they are all essential to progress, both on land and on the water.