Family recollection (Scottish Review 2001)
Come on, my lads and lasses, there’s so much work to do and we must all work even harder.
Orr addressing his staff in Washington, where he was director-general of the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation after the second world war
For the few readers who don’t know which mainland local authorities have no railway stations, they are: Midlothian and Scottish Borders.
The world of the children 1
Kenneth Roy
The world of the children 2
Angus Skinner and others
The world of the children 3
Maggie Mellon
Piracy, like slavery, was something that most people thought was a matter of history. In fact, both of these crimes have reared their ugly heads in more contemporary forms within the past few years, to the extent of representing a serious international menace. As global phenomena not restricted to any particular country or region, they come under the authority of the United Nations. The issue of piracy has proved to be a hard nut to crack.
Piracy at sea has never been totally abolished. It has been an endemic menace in places like the Straits of Malacca over many years as a hazard to yachts and supertankers alike. It first broke through into modern international consciousness when some young men living in the Horn of Africa region, with very little income and a great deal of time on their hands, discovered that it was a veritable gold mine. Situated right beside one of the world’s major commercial shipping routes through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait out of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal, the dense passenger and freight traffic up and down the Gulf of Aden was too good to be true once the idea caught on and spread like the proverbial wildfire along the coast of war-ravaged and poverty-stricken Somalia.
This menace could not be ignored, even with some sneaking admiration for the initiative shown by Somali youth. The authority responsible for dealing with the problem is the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), one of several key departments of the New York-based UN General Secretariat that were decanted to the much larger premises at UN HQ Vienna, where it is headed by Ambassador Yuri Fedotov, formerly Russian ambassador in London. As deputy UN secretary-general he is also responsible for the entire United Nations operations in Vienna, which cover activities ranging from monitoring the nuclear test-ban treaty to regulating civilian activities in outer space, and much else.
The UNODC’s data base reveals the extent of the problem: US$170 million was paid in ransoms to Somali pirates last year, while around US$25 to US$30 million has been paid so far in 2012. The average payment made to pirates is US$5 million.
Ransom money inevitably finds its way into the world’s legal financial systems and has a destabilising effect on the region’s economies. Countries in the Horn of Africa face steep price rises, and proceeds are already being reinvested in other transnational crimes such as weapons smuggling, and human and drug trafficking. It is therefore a menace that has to be stopped, for more than one reason.
Fedotov states: ‘Piracy is also an issue of social and economic development as well as the rule of law and security. This means adding UNODC’s expertise on drugs and crime and terrorism to the overall promotion of the democratic development of countries in the region. We have to raise awareness of the dangers, while also offering alternative lifestyles for the young men enticed into going to sea’. This means not only the legal prosecution of those actively involved in the crime of piracy, but also tackling the problem at its roots, which are unquestionably on dry land.
By now a fair number of pirates have been captured by the warships of a number of states which sent naval forces to prevent the hijacking of civilian vessels. UNODC action on the first aspect therefore focuses on developing fair and efficient trials for the pirates, as well as securing the imprisonment of piracy suspects in the region. In Hargaisa, Somalia, for example, a model prison has been built and a prison academy is also being constructed in Puntland. UNODC’s piracy prisoner transfer programme is ensuring that convicted pirates are returned to Somalia to serve their sentences.
In order to prevent the proceeds of piracy being laundered and diverted to other illicit purposes, UNODC’s global programme against money laundering assists law enforcement and financial intelligence units to prevent the movement of cash. By doing so, it is seeking to deny the profits of piracy to the pirates.
But finally, the social problems that are the underlying cause of the criminal activities have to be tackled at their roots by a national Somali administration that is still trying to find its feet. The UNODC is currently implementing an ambitious advocacy programme reaching out to Somali youth. The programme liaises with community leaders, politicians, religious leaders, TV, radio and print media in order to make young people aware of the dangers of piracy.
Ambassador Fedotov, commenting on UNODC’s overall approach to tackling piracy off the Horn of Africa at its source:
We must ensure fair and efficient trials in line with international human rights standards, while also providing assistance for the imprisonment of pirates within the region. However, our work cannot stop there. Pirates must be denied access to their profits. Young people in the region also need to be offered alternatives to a dangerous life at sea. The logic is simple: No pirates – no piracy.
James Wilkie worked for the United Nations in Africa and Asia as well as for the Austrian chancellery and foreign ministry
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