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 .