Piracy

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Avebury]

My Lords, the capture of Kismayo makes it harder for al-Shabaab to generate income and to replenish their weapons and ammunition. However, the military success needs to be followed by the establishment of an interim administration in Kismayo and the province of Jubaland as a whole that balances the interests of the local clans. Can my noble friend say what discussions are going on between regional stakeholders to this end, and whether they might be facilitated by a disinterested chairman from either IGAD or the AU? Although the Kenyan troops were welcomed, they do not want to be seen as an occupation force, and the sooner civilian government can be established with its own police force the better.

Piracy has dropped by half this year compared with last, but there are still 11 ships and 188 hostages held at the latest count. We shall not have solved the problem until the pirate bases, almost entirely in Puntland, are taken out. An operation by Sterling Corporate Services and the Puntland Maritime Police Force to forcibly close down the bases and arrest pirates was already achieving results when it was abruptly curtailed, leaving the police and SCS staff without pay or rations. The UN was hostile to the programme because the PMPF was an armed force not subject to control by the recognised government of Somalia. It was treated as being on a par with terrorists, and its sponsors had violated the terms of the arms embargo on Somalia. But since there are 800 half-trained and well armed police at their well equipped camp, would it not be sensible to legalise them as servants of the Somali Government, or as a component of AMISOM, and allow the UAE to resume their funding and training?

Progress is being made in the region on setting up networks of courts where pirates can be tried and prisons where resultant convicts can serve their custodial sentences. Kenya’s Court of Appeal has ruled that the state’s courts can try pirates arrested in international waters, and I welcome that. In June, Prime Minister David Cameron signed an agreement with the Prime Minister of Mauritius to establish a court there. Subsequently, however, a row erupted between the parties because it appeared to have been agreed that we would enter into talks with them on the future of the Chagos Islands and that turned out to be a misunderstanding. Could we at least say that once the imminent court rulings on the islands are out of the way, the UK will happily enter into discussions with Mauritius on the future of the islands in the hope that good relations between our two countries can be restored and so that setting up the piracy court can be accelerated?