Clinton Unveils Initiative to Combat Piracy
Posted by John Malloy on 04/15/2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday unveiled a diplomatic initiative to thwart attacks on ships off Somalia’s coast and combat what she called the “scourge of piracy.”
Noting that the pirates have been buying more sophisticated vessels with the ransom money they have been collecting, Clinton said it could be possible to stop boat-building companies from doing business with pirates.
“These pirates are criminals. They are armed gangs on the sea. And those plotting attacks must be stopped, and those who have carried them out must be brought to justice,” she told reporters after a meeting with Haitian Prime Minister Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis.
The United States also will work with shippers and insurers to strengthen their defenses against pirates and will call for immediate meetings of an international counterpiracy task force to expand naval cooperation, Clinton said.
Although she did not suggest the use of military force, she mentioned “going after” pirate land bases in Somalia, which is authorized in a U.N. Security Council resolution passed in December. 
Watch more of Clinton’s comments »
Clinton said the United States also will seek to beef up the capacity of Somalia’s fragile Transitional Federal Government by participating in a donor’s conference on Somalia next week in Brussels, Belgium. The State Department also will urge Somali officials and tribal leaders to take action against pirates operating from bases within their territory.
“We have a pretty good idea where the land bases are and we want to know what the Somali government, what tribal leaders who perhaps would not like to have the international community bearing down on them, would be willing to do to rid their territory of these pirate bases,” she said…
www.cnn.com
Posted by
John Malloy
on 04/15/2009. Filed under
International.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the
RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
Clinton said the State Department will “explore ways to track and freeze pirate assets,” similar to measures used against drug traffickers and terrorists.
