S3 Compre. 7C (Summary)

Last year, there were 31 hijackings in the waters off Somalia, making the notorious bandits operating in the South China Sea and Malacca Straits look almost lazy by comparison. As an experienced militia armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, it is not only the frequency of the attacks off Somalia that has maritime experts deeply worried. It is the audacity of the pirates, some of whom call themselves 'marines' and claim to be protecting the country's maritime resources from foreign exploitation.

Until five years ago, captains were advised to stay at least 50 miles away from Somalia's coastline. A series of hijackings led to a doubling of the safety zone. Yet, with the large ransoms allowing the pirates to buy faster boats, and more sophisticated Global Positioning Systems (GPS), they can strike even in rough waters several hundred miles out to sea.

The surge in attacks coincides with the worst unrest in Somalia since the early nineties. The Federal Government of President Abdullahi Yusuf, which is packed with former warlords, exercises little authority and claims to be unable to stop the piracy.

Monitoring Somalia's 1,880-mile coastline, the longest in Africa, is no simple task. For several years a joint US-European naval unit has patrolled the region, which is on the trade route between the Mediterranean, east Africa and Asia, in an attempt to discourage attacks and keep an eye out for terrorists. But the bandits simply shifted their bases.

One-off military operations, such as the raid in Somalia's desert by French special forces are ineffective deterrents, say experts. A gunman on a pirate ship typically earns between $10,000 and $30,000 for a year's work - a fortune in Somalia.

But as bizarre as it sounds, there is some truth in the pirates' claim that they are acting as a coastguard. Under international law, a country's 'exclusive economic zone' has sole rights over marine and mineral resources. Foreign ships are allowed to pass through these waters, but not to fish without a permit. Yet at any one time there may be up to 500 foreign-registered boats fishing in Somalia's rich waters that are fishing illegally, according to the Seafarers' Assistance Programme. As a result, pirate attacks are not even reported to maritime authorities: the ransoms paid are regarded as legitimate fines, both by the pirates and the ship-owners.