Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Breaking News: UN Approves Pursuing Pirates on Land

We're a little slow on the uptake on this one (still getting our bearings here at arrrrgh.net), but this is a game-changing UN policy shift that will allow military forces to pursue pirates onto land when in "hot pursuit". The CNN article quotes U.S. Secretary of State Rice as saying that the current, lame-duck U.S. President is behind the resolution; however, the BBC Video claims that the Commander of the U.S. Navy's 5th fleet, William Gortney, warned of the danger of killing innocent civilians on shore. It will be interesting to see if, when, and how this new policy is executed in the coming months.

Zep mentioned that NPR reported this policy shift is conditional on the approval of the Somali transitional government, but that makes me wonder about the authority of this resolution (and ultimately its ability/likelihood to be executed). As both the above BBC piece and a related NPR piece highlight, these issues (along with piracy in general) are interwoven with the challenges facing the weak government in Somali.

No comments:

Post a Comment