Pirates of Puntland: The Kings of PIRATESTAN

PIRATESTAN is usual name of illegal state of Puntland in North-Eastern Region of Somalia, where pirates operate freely.

Rise of piracy traced back 20 years; Somali area of Puntland has become a lawless pirate kingdom

David Blair

The Daily Telegraph

Vancouver Province

November 20, 2008

EYL, Somalia - The pirates who strike from Somalia´s lawless enclave of Puntland enjoy the esteem of those who bring immense wealth to their home region.

Last year, they made about $40 million from ransom payments alone. In the local capital of Bossaso, the shambolic Puntland´s government has an annual budget of only $30 million.

In Eyl, the traditional headquarters for Somalia´s ocean-going robbers, captured ships are anchored near the fast boats used by their captors. Piracy has become the mainstay of the local economy. An entire industry has grown up around refitting the vessels used by the gangs.

When hostages are brought in, they must be fed during their long period in captivity. Some restaurants have reportedly been established especially for this purpose.

New villas are springing up and the streets are filled with expensive cars, but the pirates have been careful to reinvest some of their profits in faster boats with long-range radios and satellite-navigation systems.

This has allowed them to extend their area of operations deep into the Indian Ocean, while once they were only a coastal threat and large vessels could avoid them simply by remaining out at sea.

Eyl is patrolled by numerous militiamen who would threaten any mission to rescue the hostages held in the town.

All this takes place in the homeland of Somalia´s officially recognized "president," Abdullahi Yusuf. Holed up in the capital Mogadishu, where he barely controls a few districts of the city, Yusuf is a national leader in name only.

But the 73-year-old warlord was president of Puntland between 1998 and 2004. Yusuf comes from the Darod clan, who form the majority in Puntland. But he is unlikely to have any control over his piratical clansmen. Without their efforts, the enclave´s economy would probably collapse.

BOOTY CALL - DRUGS, GUNS AND A COUPLE MORE WIVES - HOW PIRACY TOOK OVER LAWLESS SOMALIA

by GINGER ADAMS OTIS

New York Post

November 23, 2008

A visit to the remote coastal village of Eyl in Somalia, videotaped by a tourist in 2006 and posted on YouTube, notes that only two cars had visited the "lost town" of stone buildings and dirt roads in two weeks. Two years later, SUVs patrol the roads, new, expansive compounds have highspeed Internet connections, and there are jobs for restaurateurs, builders - even publicists.

Boom times have come to Piratetown.

In this lawless village in a lawless nation, the pirates are the power, the economy, the heroes. Sporting Western gangsta clothes and Kalashnikov rifles, the pirates spend millions - ransoms pocketed from foreign companies for hijacked ships - on electronics, a chewed narcotic called khat and multiple wives. They´ve become so successful - and brazen -that this week they attacked their biggest target yet: A Saudi Arabian oil tanker bound for the US.

"Everyone wants to be a pirate, the job application list is quite long," says John Burnett, author of "Dangerous Waters," a book about global piracy. "Two years ago there were 100. Now there´s 1,200. I was told by one pirate that it´s what his son hopes to be when he grows up."

All along the Puntland region of the Somali coast, on the Horn of Africa, there are signs of new construction as pirate houses - usually built from cement or stone and surrounded by high security gates - spring up. Pirates wheel around the villages in souped up SUVs and Toyota Land Cruisers - favored because they´re easy to maintain and modify with assault rifles.

Pirates have made an estimated $150 million in ransoms this year, according to the Kenyan government. But the bulk of that wealth goes to the pirates´ handlers - usually Somali warlords or cartel leaders living in Europe or the Middle East.

"The Somali pirates are the ones taking all the risk and get only a small share of the reward. But even that is enough to launch them into the stratosphere of the wealthy in Somalia," says a reporter working in the region.

Somali pirates divvy up what´s left following a simple rule: the man who carries the biggest gun gets the biggest cut.

"Pirates, the footsoldiers, have to bring their own weapons to a job, and the one who carries an RGB Winchester will get paid more than the one who has an AK-47, for example," a Mogadishu-based businessman who works with pirates told The Post. Pirates who finish a job and collect their ransom go on khat sprees, often traveling to large cities to spend a weekend in a luxurious hotel suite. They also warehouse hard-to-get food items like rice, pasta and beef and goat meat for their families. They build Arab-influenced houses, whitewashed on the outside, with anywhere from five to 10 rooms and graceful arches.

Those who routinely pull in a sizeable slice of the ransom action might also try to take a second, or possibly even third wife - a status symbol in impoverished Somalia, where most men can only afford to marry once, even though Islamic law permits four wives.

Other in-demand items include satellite phones, big screen TVs to watch Al-Jazeera and CNN, and lots of gold for family members.

"They buy multiples of everything - many cars, many cell phones, lots of TVs," said the Mogadishu businessman. "I once had a pirate tell me he bought 10 mobile phones in a month. Every few days he gave his old one away and bought a new one."

The pirate activity is a boon to surrounding villages that have been dormant for nearly 20 years, giving rise to restaurants, Internet cafes, cigarette kiosks, clothing stores and more.

Sometimes the towns are even complicit in the kidnappings: caterers from local restaurants are hired to cook Western food for kidnapped crews.

"The pirates are the biggest business in town. Why would anyone want to do or say something that would make that business stop?" the reporter says.

But the proliferation of the pirates - the hijackings have tripled from two years ago, and 12 ships were hijacked over nine days this month - may lead to the criminal industry´s downfall. Islamic leaders inside Somalia have objected to hijacking ships from Islamic countries.

And foreign powers have gotten more aggressive about defending steamers and cargo ships passing through the Gulf of Aden. Last week pirates had to battle the Indian Navy steaming to the rescue of one of its tanker after Somali raiders seized it.

Meanwhile, the recent spate of hijackings has included two targets that have drawn the interest of the American military: The Saudi Arabian supertanker Sirius Star, which holds a crew of 25 and $100 million in oil, and the MV Faina, a Ukranian arms ship bound for Kenya.

The ship held 33 Russian tanks, antiaircraft guns, grenade launchers, and numerous lighter weapons that the pirates likely were able to offload before foreign powers - afraid the machinery would fall into the wrong hands - intervened and surrounded the ship.

Now the Faina is trapped at sea, with pirates aboard demanding $20 million to release it and the crew. It´s a powder-keg situation that could backfire on the pirates who might not fully comprehend the danger they are in.

That goes double for the pirates currently controlling Sirius Star, which is loaded with valuable - and volatile - crude oil.

"These pirates have no idea that they´re sitting on a bomb. This is a floating bomb - you cannot have any sparks on the deck," Burnett says. "You´re not allowed to have a plastic cigarette lighter, much less a mobile phone or a camera. Anything that has an electric current, that isn´t well cosseted in layers and layers of rubber, is combustible."

It won´t just be the Sirius that explodes. Any wrong move, and the pirates will take down Eyl - and perhaps an entire country - with them.

YO-HO-HO

Attacks by Somali pirates have increased to more than 90 so far this year, compared to 31 in 2007 (Kenyan officials estimate that pirates have extorted $150 million in ransom in 2008).

They have plenty of targets - more than 20,000 ships travel around the Horn of Africa each year. Here are the locations of this year´s attacks, according to the United Nations, plus four of the 17 ships still in pirate hands.

Stolt Strength

Hijacked: Nov. 10

A chemical tanker, managed by a Panamanian company, is carrying phosphoric acid. Its 21 Filipino crewmembers are being held hostage.

Delight

Hijacked: Nov. 18

A Hong Kong cargo ship carrying 38,000 tons of wheat destined for Iran. The ship was taken to Somalia, and its 25 crew members are being held hostage.

Faina

Hijacked: Sept. 25

A Ukrainian ship allegedly delivering Russian-made tanks, anti-aircraft guns and ammunition to Kenya. The pirates claim to have found documents saying the ship is really headed for Sudan. The US military has surrounded the ship to make sure it doesnt off –load weapons. The pirates are asking for $20M.

Sirius Star

Hijacked: Nov. 15

The largest ship ever captured by pirates, this Saudi Arabian supertanker holds about $100 million in crude oil. It was en route to the US. The ship is being held off the coast of Harardhere for $25M in ransom. Islamic leaders in Somalia oppose its capture.

Sources: www.biyokulule.com