[from: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jobxWTmigwctUzwCb1DtFPH5CReg ]
Somali pirates who hijacked a Ukrainian freighter carrying Kenyan military weapons defiantly demanded 20 million dollars in ransom despite being surrounded by three foreign warships on Sunday.
Ali said of the ransom demand: “We are not pirates, we are just protecting our natural marine resources. Some countries want to make our waters a dumping site for the industry of the West. We are supported by the local community.”
The coastal waters off Somalia, which has not had an effective central government for more than 17 years and is plagued by insecurity, are considered to be among the most dangerous waterways for shipping in the world.
Does anyone think it is justified as this could be considered a defense of Somalia territory?
Could the pirate not be said to be homesteading the sea?
Did they give some sort of notice of the exact territory?
Not that I know of; I’ll try looking for this via alternative articles, though.
I haven’t found anything to confirm whether a notice of territory has been issued, but I did find a very pro-Somaliland article that I previously have not seen before (it’s from 2006, however):
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1880
Highlights include the ending paragraphs:
Every government of Somalia has exploited the country’s population. International meddling created the TFG and, unintentionally, a more powerful UIC. If either group were to become a true government, the population likely will once again become oppressed. In the meantime, the two groups appear headed back into civil war, which will likely result in the kind of chaos the country has not experienced since 1995.
Prime Minister Gedi of the TFG recently said, “It is totally misguided not to accept the government. The alternative is chaos.” Unfortunately, he’s got it exactly backwards. It is, in fact, the attempts to impose a government on Somalia that create chaos.
The only thing else I’ve come across is older news concerning pirates using strict good conduct with a previous encounter with French warships, however.