International Law
Pirates in East Asia
Empire State University, Joey Bonura
It has been all over the news the past few years: Pirate attacks in Somalia, East Asia, and the Caribbean. The idea of a pirate attack sounds kind of ridiculous at first because an image of Blackbeard with an eye patch and a parrot on his shoulder is what comes to mind. Pirate attacks were something that happened in the 1800s when ships were filled with gold and precious treasures. It is not the typical thing that people worry about in this modern era with advanced terrorist attacks, war, and shootings.
But this is all changing. According to Peter Shadbolt in the article,“ Asia ' s sea pirates target treasure of marine fuel” there are been 22 pirate attacks in 2013 so far and 9 of them occurred in East Asia. This article was written in February 2013 so in a short period of two months there has been a very heavy amount of pirate attacks. Today’ s“ gold” comes in the form of gasoline and other expensive deteriorating goods that our world depends on. These items have to be transported by ship and they have become the perfect substances for modern day pirates to get their hands on.
On November 20, 2012,“ 11 pirates armed with machetes, long knives and pistols”( Shadbolt) boarded a fuel carrying ship. All crewmembers were forced onto life rafts and sent out to sea to deal with their own fate. The name of the boat was painted over and given a new name and identification number. Just like the old school pirates, the ultimate goal of the modern day ones is to have control and get away with the entire ship. Luckily authorities were able to hunt down the missing ship in this case and arrest the pirates.
But why has there been such an increase in Pirate attacks? The Idarat Maritime, a website that provides systematic resilience at sea, says that“… there is a situation in which the rule of law, and the control of territory, is insecure in many areas of South East Asia, and this, together with the high levels of corruption among officials, the increasing poverty and the existence of organized crime in the area makes it a natural environment in which piracy can flourish.” With all of this going on it is putting people in a very easy position to commit acts of piracy. They know it is worth the risk of getting caught because a lot of times they do not get caught due to corruption.