Pirates of the World - What To Do, and Where Are They Now?

UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon has put forth a series of proposals on how to deal with international piracy.

The Security Council welcomed Ban's options. It said Ban's proposals provide 'a solid base for future work in order to enhance international, regional and nations cooperation in bringing pirates to justice.'

The options are:
- basic support for nations in prosecuting suspected pirates
- establishment of a Somali court, applying Somali law, in a third state in the region
- two variants for helping a regional state or states to establish a special court inside its existing judicial system to conduct piracy trials
- a regional court establishment by regional states and the African Union
- a international 'hybrid' tribunal with national participation by a state in the region
- a full internatinal tribunal, established by the Security Council.

Of course this is focused on Somalia, as that's the largest problem, but there are now pirates afoot in the Caribbean, too. And no, not of the Johnny Depp variety. THey're hijacking boats to sell the parts for marijuana - wow... no honor among thieves there!

Pirates who are stealing boat engines from fishermen have been exchanging them for marijuana in St Vincent, sources in the fishing industry are claiming. “The most amount of weed in T&T coming out of St Vincent,” the source said. “We understand these engines are going to St Vincent in return for a boatload of weed.
“These bandits are operating around all the fishing ports in the country and they are linked. “They operate out of one of the main rivers in south Trinidad.” The source said the marijuana is sold on drug blocks throughout T&T. He said while sea pirates have been stealing boat engines for years, the crime has escalated within recent times. The latest attack on fishermen occurred in the Gulf of Paria recently, resulting in the death of three fishermen from San Fernando and Claxton Bay.

Bandits with facemasks and armed with guns and cutlasses pulled alongside fishermen near Oropouche Bay in the Gulf of Paria shortly after dark in a pirogue and jumped onto their vessels. President of the Claxton Bay Fishing Association, Kishore Boodram, who lost the engine from his boat, Geronimo, and two of his fishermen, Motilal Ramkhelawan and Krishna Apoo, recalled, “They attacked four vessels that night. Ramkhelawan, 44, left behind three children and a mother he supported. “They planassed the fishermen and told them to jump overboard. It was about one and a half miles from shore and the fishermen begged them to throw something for them to hold on to while swimming.

By: Brant