West can help 'eradicate pirates'

By Roger Hearing World Business News

President Farole says co-operation with international forces is needed

The president of the Somali region where most pirate attacks originate from has told the BBC he can "solve the problem" with western help.

The increasing number of attacks over the past year take place far out at sea, but the vast majority of the pirates come from the Puntland coast.

Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, President of Puntland, said his government was not getting much-needed assistance yet.

So far in 2009, there have been 143 attacks in the waters off Somalia.

Thirty-one of these have resulted in successful hijackings.

In the latest attacks, two dhows were taken over the weekend and on Monday there was an unsuccessful attempt to hijack a 250,000 tonne Liberian-registered oil tanker.

Security forces

President Farole, on a visit to London to meet British government officials, told BBC World Service World Business News his officials had already imprisoned 62 pirates, and there were 100 others awaiting trial.

As soon as this operation is taking place, and the task force is trained, actually they will be eliminated, may be within two years Abdirahman Mohamud Farole, President of Puntland

He said Muslim clerics, encouraged by the government, were preaching against piracy - 200 former pirates had sworn to give up. Even in the main pirate port, Eyl, he said, piracy was now "off-shore".

The president, who set up his government in January, said: "We can do something, because we have done, already, many things about it since my government came to power, but that does not mean that we can eradicate it without the assistance of the international community."

He said they were not getting that assistance as yet, but "we have put in place a comprehensive plan including the development of the coastal areas, giving opportunities to the youth in those areas and the communities for their livelihood.

"We have already allocated 600 of our security forces to be trained. We asked for assistance from the international community to train them, equip them with arms and provide some incentive.

"We have to have an additional injection of funds to pay them, and also equip them with speedboats and a mother ship and telecommunications equipment, because our coastal area is very mountainous - it's very difficult to travel from one village to another along the coastline.

He said that unless his government have speedboats to chase the pirates and get them out of their hiding places in small bays, "we will not be able to eradicate the pirates."

But the president believes that, with the necessary support, "we can sort it out."

International co-operation

Two dozen ships from European Union nations, including Britain, France, Germany and Italy, are currently patrolling an area of about two million square miles off the Somali coast. The president says he welcomes their presence, but he warned against any suggestion of raids on the pirate bases.

"We do need, for a while, the presence of international forces off the shore, but not onshore, because coming on the shore they cannot solve the problem; they may attack small communities and harm local communities who are not involved in the piracy, and are against the piracy.

"What solves the problem is co-operating with our administration, and if we operate on land and help establish our stations alongside them and co-operate together, we can eliminate the problem," the president said.

"As soon as this operation is taking place, and the task force is trained, actually they will be eliminated, may be within two years or a year or a three years - it depends on the establishment of the requirements that we are asking for."

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