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India, Yemen in talks over detained pirates

MANAMA: Indian and Yemeni authorities are working together to find a mechanism that would allow the Indian navy to hand over the pirates that it has apprehended during a recent anti-piracy operation in the Gulf of Aden.

Official sources told The Hindu on conditions of anonymity that talks with Yemen had commenced, and were making progress.

The Indian naval ship, INS Mysore had been involved last week in the capture of 23 pirates, comprising 11 Yemenis and 12 Somalis. The incident had taken place in the piracy-hit, Gulf of Aden. Anti-piracy operations and the action taken by INS Mysore, were also discussed in detail at the Manama Dialogue — an international security conference in Bahrain. It was felt that international maritime law was deficient in addressing situations where foreign navies captured pirates at sea.

During the conference, Deputy Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral D.K. Joshi sought a response from Yemeni vice-minister of foreign affairs Ali Muthna Hasan, who was also present, on whether Yemen could take custody of the pirates that the Navy had detained. It has now been recognised that between 330-500 pirates are active in Somalian waters, said the sources.

They are backed by six to eight mother ships. In Somalia, piracy is led by three main clans.

Sources pointed out that countries involved in counter-piracy operations had raised some concerns. First, operational coordination among countries whose ships have been deployed needs to be improved. “I do not see how India, for instance, can work with other navies unless there is single point of control that is mandated by the United Nations,” said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, senior fellow for South Asia at The International Institute for Strategic Studies, during a conversation with The Hindu.

Second, there are issues of national sovereignty which need to be addressed. For instance, the U.S. is likely to pilot a resolution in the Security Council that would legalise the attacks on pirate bases located on land, the sources said. Many countries have reservations about such an approach as this could set a “dangerous precedent.”

Some of the Arab littoral states around the Gulf of Aden want a larger Arab role. Some delegates called for attacking the root causes of piracy which lay in the collapse of civil societies, poverty and weak political institutions.

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