A two-day international conference on piracy around the Horn of Africa was kicked off earlier today in Nairobi. Placed under the auspices of the UN and the Kenyan Government, the event is a venue for many to discuss the rampant piracy off the Somali cost. A statement from the UN Political Office for Somalia said that the UN-backed December 10th-11th meeting is significant as piracy is linked to the need for peace and stability in the war torn nation.

The 75th Press Release Update released by Ecoterra a few hours ago sheds light on the event, as well as on several other cases of Horn of Africa piracy and their worldwide repercussions. I therefore re-publish it integrally.

75th Update 2008-12-10 23:51:12 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. – Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International — Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past – with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme – Media Officer: +254-733-385868

Day 77 – 1833 hours into the FAINA Crisis – Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

While sources close to the seized vessel confirmed today only that the crew is apparently all right, though an earlier skirmish had been reported, critical voices urged both sides in the negotiations to finally come to terms.

A Russian frigate currently protecting civilian ships from Somali pirate attacks near the Horn of Africa is escorting another convoy of four vessels in the area, a Navy spokesman said. Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said the Northern Fleet’s Neustrashimy (Fearless) is currently escorting the Russian Nadezhda (Hope), the Fesco Yenisey flying a Marshall Islands flag, along with the Panamanian Symphony, and the Cayman Islands-flagged Nanami. The Neustrashimy will continue to escort commercial vessels through the dangerous waters off the Somali coast until the end of the year when it will be replaced by the Pacific Fleet’s destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, which left a naval base near Vladivostok on Tuesday on course for the Indian Ocean.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed it’s call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships ———-

Security sources said that two Yemeni fishing ships with 22 fishermen on board were hijacked on Wednesday by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden, Yemen’s Interior Ministry said. The pirates attacked the ships as they sailed off the Mait area near the southern port city of Aden, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.The ministry affirmed that the 22 fishermen taken as hostages by the pirates were Yemenis, but sources of Yemen’s Coastguards Authority said that seven fishermen escaped on a small boat and had claimed the pirates attacked the two ships as they sailed in the Gulf of Aden. A total of 17 crew members on board in coastal waters in the Gulf of Aden were hijacked, a state-run website then reported late Wednesday. “Before the pirates took control of the two ships, seven Yemeni fishermen escaped on a small boat to report the attacks to the authorities in Aden”, independent sources confirmed.

Philippines’s Foreign Undersecretary Esteban Conejos reconfirmed to the media on Wednesday that the pirates had released the Greek-owned MV Captain Stefanos and its 19-man crew, as reported. The ship was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on 21 September, and it had 19 crewmembers, including 17 Filipinos, one Chinese and one Ukrainian, on board when it was hijacked. Conejos said all the crewmembers were safe and added that the ship was currently on its way to Italy, and then to Greece. The department also said that Somali pirates are still holding 91 Filipino seamen, on board six international ships, hostage. There has always been an element of risk in the seafaring life, but these days, with piracy resurgent off the Horn of Africa, the dangers have seldom been more glaring. Nevertheless, in the Philippines, whose citizens make up nearly a third of the world’s commercial sailors, economic considerations trump concerns for personal safety. Recruiters say they’ve seen little falloff in demand for jobs on even the most dangerous routes.

According to reports of some Filipino sailors who were freed late last month by Somali pirates, it could even be fun. The all-Filipino crew of the Greek-owned tanker Centauri, which was hijacked in September, told news agencies that the pirates treated them well, even playing cards with them and sharing meals. While some legislators in the Philippines have called for restrictions on the maritime recruiting market, Salvador Santos, assistant general manager of the Luneta Seafarer’s Center, a private organization that offers counseling and other assistance to sailors, said he did not think the men were being exploited. “It’s up to the sailor whether to accept the offer,” Santos said. “The important thing is he knows what he’s getting into.” News reports of pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden apparently had not deterred sailors from seeking jobs on oil tankers and other commercial ships. “We haven’t seen any change in the number of people who come here,” Santos said. “On the contrary, perhaps because of what is happening in Somalia, we’ve heard that more sailors are seeking to be deployed there because the money is good.” A sailor who boards a ship bound for Somali waters gets double pay plus hazard pay, Santos said. That could mean more than $3,000 a month for a cook, more than a minimum wage-earner in the Philippines would make in a year. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration says that 30 percent of the world’s merchant sailors, about 270,000, are Filipinos. They are likely to continue to find themselves in pirate-threatened waters for some time to come. “The Philippine government is doing its best to protect its sailors, whom we consider heroes,” said Crescente Relacion, executive director of the Office of Migrant Workers Affairs at the Department of Foreign Affairs.

“We are in constant communication with the ship owners, with foreign authorities and with the families of the sailors who remain in captivity.” Santos, of the Luneta Seafarer’s Center, said it should not surprise anyone that Filipino sailors are enthusiastic about sailing despite the dangers. “Given how hard it is to find a job in the Philippines that pays as much as a sailor would get abroad, I think it’s not surprising that sailors would take some risks,” he said. Santos noted that Filipino workers have even smuggled themselves into war-torn Iraq because of the high pay offered there. “About the only thing we can do,” Santos added, “is make sure that the sailor’s needs are met and he is equipped with all the knowledge and information he must know before he embarks on a dangerous assignment”.

With the latest captures and releases still at least 15 foreign vessels with a total of around 335 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 123 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 15). Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail.

Other related news ——-

A two-day conference, sponsored by the United Nations and hosted by the Kenyan Government, opened today in Nairobi and brought together officials from more than 40 countries, as well as representatives from regional and international organizations. During the first day technical experts elaborated recommendations and the ministerial-level meetings are scheduled for Thursday. The conference is seeking to also develop an improved approach to pursuing, arresting, and charging pirates. The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime is reported to have proposed a $1.3 million program to enhance justice and law enforcement efforts in Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, and Yemen. Plans to cut ransom supply routes and money laundering opportunities for Somali pirates are some of actions being considered to stem the rising tide of piracy. Estimates show that at least three billion shillings may have been paid to Somali pirates since January.

The pirates have attacked about 100 ships this year. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, United Nations Special Representative for Somalia stated that the international community must work harder to block access to finances for pirates. “What is important is to freeze the money. We need to go after the pirate´s associates, the brokers. We know the names and they should be arrested,” he said, on the sidelines of a two day anti piracy conference in Nairobi. He said the United Nations will work with partners to block avenues where pirates invest their money. But he said the ultimate solution will be to have a functioning government in Somalia. In this all experts agreed and also that law enforcement supported by foreign navies must include the fight against illegal fishing, toxic waste dumping as well as against trafficking in arms, drug or humans. The experts had to elaborate recommendations concerning four key sectors. While recommendations were elaborated on enforcement actions, capacity building as well as on the commercial and financial implications, the rapporteur of the working group on the legal implications and a legal framework had to state that no agreement was achieved, citing time constrains. Deliberations concerning the finalized recommendations will continue tomorrow on ministerial level. An official with the East African Seafarers’ Association, Andrew Mwangura, said that international efforts would have little lasting impact without involving the local population in Somalia. “If you are not going to involve the local community, it cannot achieve anything,” he said. Mwangura said a strategy to combat piracy needs to be part of a coordinated effort against other illicit activities in the region.

Meanwhile the U.S.-American Bush administration announced today that it will push for international action–a last ditch attempt to stabilize the East African nation, but as Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper told FP, it will take weeks–maybe months–even to get coastal surveillance under control. The chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff Admiral Michael Mullen said Wednesday he was “extremely worried” about potential safe havens for terrorists in Somalia and Yemen. “A significant objective in Afghanistan and Pakistan is to not have a safe haven, and I am concerned about the potential for a safe haven in Somalia as I am in Yemen,” Mullen said at a Pentagon press conference. “I try to pay a lot of attention to the evolution of potential safe havens, these two in particular,” said Mullen, the highest-ranking US military officer and the top military adviser to the president.

“So I’m extremely concerned about that,” adding that he believes the United States and the international community needs “to do all we can to impede the arrival of more safe havens out of which we can be threatened”. Mullen however ruled out US intervention in Somalia if the Islamists take over the country. “It wouldn’t be the US military,” he said according to an AFP report. The U.S. plan outlined by State Department officials who requested anonymity would encourage shipping and cruise operators to do more to fight attacks, bolstering navigation strategy with non-lethal technology such as alarm and surveillance systems, anti-boarding devices such as water cannons and electric fences, and long-range acoustic devices that generate painful noise. Under the plan, an international naval presence would continue, and countries would improve sharing of intelligence about threats of piracy. Nations would coordinate an international effort to disrupt pirates’ financial resources, and attempt to reach consensus on how to deal with pirates after they are captured. The U.S. does not plan to increase the number of Navy vessels now patrolling the sea lanes around the Horn of Africa, but the administration wants to utilize growing support in Europe for coordinated action against attacks at sea on shipping and cruise vessels.

The United States is seeking international authorization to hunt Somali pirates on land with the cooperation of Somalia’s weak U.N.-backed government. A U.S. draft resolution circulating among council members and obtained by The Associated Press proposes that all nations and regional groups cooperating with Somalia’s government in the fight against piracy and armed robbery also “may take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia” including its airspace. Presumably that could involve the U.S. military, which withdrew from Somalia after the killing of 18 U.S. troops in 1993. The resolution is to be presented at a session on Somalia with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and senior officials from a number of countries will attend an anti-piracy meeting at the UN in New York on Dec. 16, according to reports. The U.S. intends to back efforts to deploy an international peacekeeping force in Somalia to replace a contingent led by Ethiopia scheduled to leave the country by the end of this month. The U.S. says pirates based in coastal camps have links to an Islamic extremist group that has taken control of much of the country. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who will both be in New York on Monday, may also attend the Somalia talks, which are scheduled for Tuesday, diplomats said. U.S. Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Alejandro Wolff confirmed that Washington hoped to see a resolution adopted. “There is complete council solidarity and consensus on the importance of dealing with the piracy problem and thwarting it, and dealing with it with every tool at our disposal,” he said. “Clearly this implies both at sea and, if needed, with the consent of the Somalis, on land,” Wolff told reporters.

It was not clear what form that Somali consent would take. The country has been in virtual anarchy since the collapse of a dictatorship 17 years ago. Islamists now control most of the south. Feuding, heavily armed clan militias hold sway in many other areas and a weak, Western-backed interim government has little authority outside the capital of Mogadishu. Diplomats familiar with the text said it was not clear what kind of force would be permitted for countries in “hot pursuit” of pirates who decide to bring the chase onto dry land. It was also unclear if the U.S. military would participate. The latest US initiative may be seen as a further response to a crisis that has “clearly escalated,” according to a senior UN diplomat. President-Elect Barack Obama, who did not make piracy a high-profile issue during the presidential campaign, did not comment on the issue, which represents one of the final foreign-policy initiatives for the Bush administration.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet on Wednesday asked parliament to approve the use of a German warship in a European Union anti-piracy mission off Somalia, spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said. The naval mission, code-named Atalanta, was formally constituted on Monday. Participation by the Germans must wait until the German parliament grants authorization. That is scheduled for December 19. The authorization is expected to then run through to December 15, 2009. Germany has offered a naval frigate, the Karlsruhe, and up to 1,400 sailors, airmen and other military personnel. The German Foreign Ministry meanwhile issued an “urgent” warning against visiting Somali coastal waters. “There is a very high risk of pirate attacks in the entire Gulf of Aden, including Yemeni coastal waters and adjoining waters,” it posted on its web page for travelers and stated there is “no effective protection” against the raiders.

The German government has agreed that the sailors on the Karlsruhe should have a “robust mandate” to shoot at pirates and liberate prisoners by force if other deterrence fails. The vessel normally has a crew of 220. They will only be allowed to capture pirates and send them to Germany for trial if they have harmed German citizens or ships. Wilhelm said the primary aim of Operation Atalanta was to protect relief shipments into Somali ports from pirate attack. Armed soldiers – so called riders – would be put on board the chartered UN World Food Programme cargo vessels. The German government said the anti-piracy operation did not relieve shipping companies of their responsibility to keep their own ships safe. The EU expects to operate a flotilla of six warships and three reconnaissance planes in the area, with seven EU nations involved in the operation. According to German news agency DPA, the modern German Navy has no experience fighting pirates. Europe’s most recent experience with rampant piracy dates back to the early 19th century. For hundreds of years, German states paid ransoms annually to pirate lords on North Africa’s Barbary Coast. Germany’s military ombudsman, Reinhold Robbe, warned on N24 television that “the resources currently being deployed” would not solve the piracy problem. He said the West had to ask itself about the causes and promote the authority of the Somali government so that the people of Somali could earn an honest livelihood. “Otherwise, I fear, this deployment won’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

The Hapag-Lloyd company said it decided to allow the passengers to leave the vessel after the German government turned down a request for a naval escort through the Gulf. Officials in Berlin said this was because the Columbus does not sail under the German flag. Hapag-Lloyd’s website says the 15,000-gross-ton vessel is registered in the Bahamas. Hapag-Lloyd disembarked 370 passengers and crew from its cruise vessel MS Columbus in a Yemeni port Wednesday so the vessel could cross the pirate-infested waters without them.

Shippers based in the Emirates are being approached by independent security firms with offers of gangs of “tough guys” to join the crews of vulnerable vessels. Smaller Dubai-based dhow operators, who cannot afford to stop sailing to Somalia, are taking expensive detours of up to a week to minimise the danger of seizure. Amid widespread concern at the failure to mount a concerted international response, owners are under pressure to find their own means of protecting their vessels and cargoes in the Gulf of Aden. Despite rising concern in the industry, a UAE seafarers´ charity is urging companies against hiring private security, warning that this would put seamen´s lives at risk. “These companies are offering business in the UAE — they are doing so anywhere here where there are ports,” said the Rev Stephen Miller, the director and port chaplain for the Mission to Seafarers. “But so far there has been no take up. It would not be a good thing. When pirates come aboard and meet no resistance then generally no one gets hurt. “If someone is firing down at them then they will respond. A pirate´s bullet does not discriminate between an armed security man and a crew member”.

Mr Miller could not identify any of those offering protection to the UAE maritime industry. Daren Dickson, from the security firm Drum-Cussac, based in the English Channel island of Jersey but with an office in Dubai, said: “Basically everyone is trying to cash in. Piracy is high profile now and there are firms offering maritime security and tough guys walking the dockyards touting for business.” Mr Miller said UAE-based shipowners had so far resisted such offers of protection partly because they would then be legally liable for any violent deaths that might occur on board. “The owner is responsible for whatever happens on the ship so if someone dies then the owner is liable for that death,” he said. Meanwhile the lack of a legal framework for dealing with pirates if they are captured is hindering navies from taking stronger action against maritime pirates and encouraging the use of private muscle, a shipping body warned. “We have been pushing for more robust action by navies. If they were stopping and searching mother ships and confiscating vessels then the number of attacks would go down,” said Cyrus Mody, a manager at the International Maritime Bureau in London. “The UN is debating what would happen to pirates if they are caught. We don´t have a framework for that and it is a big hindrance for the entire deterrent process.” The IMO advises strongly against the use of private security companies and seeks solutions from regional agreements on maritime safety.

Military and counter-terror sources report that the pirates have set up a land-based intelligence-financial-logistic logistic network in the Persian Gulf, East Africa andâ?¦ northern Europe. Information turned up by the US Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet intelligence were reported by DEBKAfile to have revealed that the Somali pirates had organized their traffic on business lines by establishing a sort of “back office” in Abu Dhabi. It is allegedly run by money changers earning a rake-off on ransom payments as the pirates’ agents. They have since established similar “agencies” in Mombasa, Kenya; Piraeus, Greece; Naples, Italy; and Rotterdam, Netherlands, which work through spies at shipping and marine insurance firms. The pirates’ undercover agents obviously gather information from their shipping contacts in the Gulf, in East African and European ports on the merchant vessels heading for the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean as well as their cargoes.

They brief the pirates on the presence of security guards and weapons available for the crew aboard the vessel. The pirates are always on the lookout for “special cargoes”, meaning smuggled goods or merchandise exported illegally or contrary to international law, such as clandestine weapons shipments. Such consignments, like that of the Ukrainian MV FAINA, which carried a large unregistered cargo of 33 T-72 tanks and other armaments – and is still held – increase the ransom value of the vessel and pay more than routine freights. The pirates also use their proxies to negotiate ransoms and terms for releasing the hijacked vessels, rather than exposing themselves and their locations. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that the pirates’ logistics and intelligence are far superior to that of the European counter-terror operation. This gap seriously detracts from the international patrol fleet’s prospects of getting to grips with the pirates.

All warring parties in Somalia have committed war crimes against civilians including rape, murder and the use of people as human shields, a human rights’ body said in its latest report. “The combatants in Somalia have inflicted more harm on civilians than on each other,” said Georgette Gagnon, Africa director at Human Rights Watch. A bloody insurgency began in the Horn of Africa nation early 2007 after Ethiopian forces helped kick out the Islamic Courts’ Union (ICU) – a Islamist regime that was in power for six months. The Horn of Africa nation has been plagued by chaos and civil war since the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, but the last two years have been particularly miserable for civilians. Aid agencies say around 10,000 civilians have died and over a million have fled to avoid the crossfire since the insurgency began. A report released by HRW – “So Much to Fear: War Crimes and the Devastation of Somalia” – details how government forces, Ethiopian soldiers and insurgents have indiscriminately opened fire on civilian areas.

Drawing on the testimony of 80 witnesses, HRW accuses government forces and allied militia of torturing detainees, killing and raping civilians and looting their homes. The report includes testimony from teenage girls raped by government forces, parents whose children were shredded by Ethiopian rockets and people shot by insurgents for working as messengers for the government. Around 200,000 civilians have fled to neighbouring Kenya, even more are internally displaced and hundreds have died already this year as they attempted to cross the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, usually after being forced overboard or abandoned at sea by smugglers. According to the UN, 3.2 million Somalis, 40 per cent of the total population, are dependent on humanitarian aid as a result of the conflict, drought and high food prices. Western governments have backed the transitional federal government in the hope that it will halt the march of Islamist insurgent group al- Shabaab, which has made huge gains in recent months. HRW said that blindly supporting a regime that targets it own civilians is not the solution. “There are no quick fixes in Somalia, but foreign governments need to stop adding fuel to the fire with misguided policies that empower human rights abusers,” Gagnon said. HRW called for a policy review and said that the incoming Obama administration would have the opportunity to “break with the failed policies of its predecessor”. Ethiopia announced in late November that it will pull it troops out by the end of the year, leaving behind only a small African Union peacekeeping force to help the government keep the insurgents at bay.

by Dr. Megalommatis Muhammad Shamsaddin

A shameful and disreputable representative of America’s most racist elites, who is a former ambassador to several African countries, gave – a few days ago – two speeches in order to embellish the role played by America in Africa. This inimitable person is Phillip Carter III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.

To go through his two speeches, one may momentarily imagine that Africa reached such development and prosperity that is going to adhere to the ….. European Union.

This is the role of the missionaries of evil: they promise eudemonia and they deliver pestilence. The representatives of hypocrisy and prefab disaster see positive development everywhere, even where unspeakable degradation is obvious to all the locally concerned people who after all are the ultimate reality to be taken into consideration.

Read the criminal lies of the apostle of hypocrisy and the defender of the utmost criminality, Phillip Carter III!

Try to find in his speech the persecuted Nubians of Sudan who are asked to leave their homelands so that the Sudanese dictator builds a dam in the Nile; try to read a reference to the massacred Ogadenis of the criminal, terrorist pseudo-state ‘Ethiopia’ which gave Hitler an unsurpassed lesson on how inhumanity works! Search for a denunciation the well financed by colonial England and the pro-English American establishment warlords of Somalia!

In vain! Phillip Carter III has no time for them, and after all, they don’t disturb him at all; they serve him and his invisible masters. And their target to exterminate a great number of African masses through various methods.

Phillip Carter III hates Africans, and more particularly the Hamites and the Kushites of the North and the East.

Why?

Ask him!

Search in his speeches for a sentence in which Phillip Carter III condemns the racist Amhara and Tigray elites that propagate the criminal and inhuman program of ‘Ethiopianism‘, aiming at the cultural, national or physical extermination of a dozen of Kushitic African nations!

You will find nothing!

Why?

Because they are his (and his invisible masters’) servants.

Do your ingenious best to find in his speeches a clause for the independence of Darfur, the self-determination of Oromia, and the liberation of Kabylia from the Pan-Arabist pestilence of the colonial regime of Algiers, the puppets of the French…..

Again nothing!

Make an effort to detect the idea Phillip Carter III has about the oppressed tribes of Nigeria that struggle for independence! Attempt to imagine what this false prophet of American help intends to deliver to the multi-divided Afars and how he plans to terminate the criminal involvement of Rwanda and Uganda in Congo.

You will find nothing; all Phillip Carter III cares about is how he will identify new gangsters of nations like Meles Zenawi, new puppets like Kibaki, and new renegades like Rayale and AbdillahiYusuf of Somalia.

He will call them ‘new leaders of Africa“, and they will prove to be the latest gangsters.

At a certain moment, you will find his comical words about ‘democratic institution building’; this shows what excellent skills the disreputable ambassador has in Science Fiction.

It is up to you to denounce the felony Phillip Carter III; in fact, every African and every Human must.

Protest against his fallacious purposes, write to express your indignation; call his office (Bureau of African Affairs (AF) 6234) in the State Department: 202-647-2447 (http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/112065.pdf). I republish here his two speeches, and his official biographical sketch.

Do not let him believe that you don’t know him — as one of America’s foremost enemies of Africa.

The United States’ Unprecedented Commitment to Africa, 2000 to 2008 and Beyond
Phillip Carter III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

The World Affairs Council of Arizona
Washington, DC
November 20, 2008

Good evening and thank you.

Since 1918, the World Affairs Council has opened the door for local citizens to engage in diplomacy through education and awareness of international issues — and through hosting global leaders.

The U.S. Department of State is proud to partner with you — and looks forward to continuing this successful relationship.

I would like to note that the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs is celebrating our 50th Anniversary this year. Created in 1958 by President Eisenhower, the bureau sought to change what had been a traditionally Eurocentric policy view of Africa.

We at the State Department are proud of the anniversary, and look forward to working with our sub-Saharan partners and organizations like your own, to advance Africa’s future as we transition into our next half century.

U.S. Policy in Africa

Over the past eight years, the United States has made an unprecedented commitment to Africa — this current Administration has gone further than any previously in engaging and assisting the continent. We are working with our sub-Saharan partners to pioneer a new era of growth and development in Africa.

The partnerships and programs forged during the past eight years have supported significant African progress — and have laid a foundation for sustaining that support in subsequent administrations.

Tonight — I would like to highlight these partnerships and programs — but also sneak a peak — towards the future and potential of the continent in the 21st century.

Over the past eight years, the United States has changed its approach to Africa. As part of our broader mission to build and sustain a network of democratic states that respond to the needs of their people and conduct themselves responsibly in the international system – we have partnered with African leaders, governments, and civil society organizations to combat disease, build peace, expand prosperity, and improve governance.

We have defined success not just in the narrow terms of resolving specific crises, but in the broader sense of supporting Africans in building institutions and adopting policies that sustain long-term growth, freedom, and justice.

The U.S. commitment to Africa reflects a recognition that our success and security increasingly depend on conditions in distant lands, and that we are at greater risk if Africa is a place where extremist ideologies are fostered, states are failing, and violence and instability spread across borders.

To challenge these potential risks, the United States has committed to fostering growth and development in Africa. At the 2005 Gleneagles G-8 Summit, President Bush announced that the United States would double its assistance (bilateral and multilateral) to sub-Saharan Africa from a base of $4.4 billion in 2004 to $8.7 billion by 2010.

By increasing investments in health and education, stimulating growth, improving the investment climate, and making trade work for Africa — the U.S. is on track to meet that pledge.

Programs and Initiatives

I would like to highlight some of the programs initiatives that have spurred African growth and development.

Millennium Challenge Account (MCA)

The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) is a revolutionary foreign assistance program that seeks to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth by awarding sizeable grants — not loans — to countries that practice good governance, seek to take responsibility for their own development, and are committed to achieving results. Of the 18 compacts signed to date – eleven totaling over $4.8 billion have been signed with sub-Saharan African countries.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA)

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is a program that rewards reforming African countries with U.S. trade preferences — this initiative has helped to reduce barriers to trade, increase exports, create jobs, and expand business opportunities for African and U.S. entrepreneurs.

With 41 countries presently qualified, AGOA has helped increase two-way trade between the U.S. and eligible African economies to over $50 billion — more than six times the level in 2001, the first full year of AGOA.

Agriculture and Food Security

The United States is also the world’s largest donor of food aid, providing over $5.5 billion to fight global hunger in 2008 and 2009. The Presidential Initiative to End Hunger in Africa (IEHA) is a multi-year initiative launched in 2002, providing a total of $1 billion for 2006-2010, and aims to increase agricultural growth and raise rural incomes.

PEPFAR

The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative.

When President Bush launched PEPFAR, approximately 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Today, PEPFAR supports lifesaving treatment for over 1.7 million people worldwide, care for 6.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission during nearly 12.7 million pregnancies, allowing nearly 200,000 children to be born HIV free.

The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI)

The President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) was established in 2005. The U.S. has committed $1.2 billion in new malaria funding to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 African countries. In 2007, the Malaria Initiative reached more than 25 million people with effective prevention and treatment interventions.

Africa Education Initiative

In 2002, President Bush established the Africa Education Initiative (AEI), a multi-year $600 million initiative focused on increasing access to basic education in over 40 Sub-Saharan African countries through scholarships, textbooks, and teacher training programs. By 2010, AEI will have trained nearly one million teachers, provided 550,000 scholarships for girls, and distributed 15 million textbooks.

Peacekeeping

The United States has been the most important contributor to African force generation efforts through our Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program and large scale provision of peacekeeping equipment. Since 2005, the United States has directly trained nearly 60,000 African peace keepers in 22 countries. Of these troops, over 82% have deployed to African Union and United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Terrorism

The Trans-Sahara Counter-terrorism Partnership is a multi-year effort, funded at about $150m per year, to leverage and coordinate military, law enforcement, development, and public diplomacy elements to enhance the capacity of the trans-Sahara region to deter and defeat terrorism, and counter extremist ideology. We are seeking to build on the success of this program with a parallel East Africa Regional Strategic Initiative, to counter the terrorist elements that destroyed our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam ten years ago, and continue to threaten regional stability.

Conclusion

Over the past eight years, a renewed commitment to the African continent has been started or carried forward in large part on a fundamental, bipartisan agreement of what needs to be done — such as brokering peace agreements, training African peace keepers, PEPFAR, or MCC. While much has been accomplished, the United States Government will continue to build on the foundation laid by this and previous administrations. We still have a way to go — but with greater security, disease prevention, and political and economic freedom, the African continent of the 21st century can strive to reach its potential.

Thank you very much.

Released on December 3, 2008
———————————————————-

Address to the First Annual International Conference on Africa
Phillip Carter III, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs

The Africa Initiative Project,
Arizona State University, Tempe AZ
November 21, 2008

Good afternoon and thank you all for being here. I would like to thank Arizona State University for hosting us this afternoon — and especially The Africa Initiative Project for bringing us together for their first annual conference.

This conference is very important – it not only allows for a deeper understanding of African history – but contemporary U.S.–Africa Affairs. Combining a rich historical perspective – with an interdisciplinary vision and awareness for the future – provides a great means to address challenges on the African continent.

We at the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs are also celebrating an important milestone this year – our 50th Anniversary. Building upon a half century of accomplishment, the Bureau looks to the next fifty years with great hope and excitement.

U.S. Policy in Africa

Over the past eight years, the United States has made an unprecedented commitment to Africa — this current Administration has gone further than any previously in engaging and assisting the continent. We are working with our sub-Saharan partners to pioneer a new era of development in Africa.

This afternoon, I would like to highlight our policy priorities on the continent.

Democratic Institution Building

The first defining priority is Democratic Institution Building — we are engaged in supporting the rise of freedom and democracy throughout sub-Saharan Africa. During the past two decades, progressive democratic reform has adapted to local values, customs, and practices. Outgrowths of democratic, well-governed states that adhere to the rule of law, support the will of their people, and contribute responsibly to the international system are developing.

We have partnered with these nations to build democratic institutions, conduct free and fair elections, and govern justly. These outcomes mark an important historical shift. In the past four years alone, there have been more than 50 democratic elections throughout Africa. Almost three-quarters of sub-Saharan nations are now classified by Freedom House as ‘Free’ or ‘Partly Free’ – up from less than half in 1990.

Despite significant progress, recent elections in Kenya and Zimbabwe have hindered these advances. These elections, marked by voting irregularities, contestable results, and post election violence, demonstrate that the path to democracy is often challenging.
Notwithstanding these impediments, the United States will continue to work with our international partners to support democratic institutions, promote free and fair elections, and expand freedom and prosperity for the benefit of all.

For example, we will continue to strongly support the democratic transition in Liberia — and to strengthen democratic institutions in post-conflict countries, such as the DRC and Burundi.

Although conflict resolution is an essential part of our foreign policy objectives, we believe that to sustain long term peace and stability on the continent – it is not enough to just end wars – but we must move beyond post-conflict transformation to consolidate democracies.

Economic Growth and Development

Our second foreign policy priority is the expansion of Economic Growth and Development.

At the 2005 Gleneagles G-8 Summit, the United States committed to doubling its assistance (bilateral and multilateral) to sub-Saharan Africa from a base of $4.4 billion in 2004 to $8.7 billion by 2010 — We are on track to meet that pledge.

To accelerate growth in Africa, the United States implemented the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), a revolutionary foreign assistance program that seeks to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth by awarding sizeable grants — not loans — to countries that practice good governance, seek to take responsibility for their own development, and are committed to achieving results. Of the 18 compacts signed to date since the programs inception in 2004, eleven totaling over $4.8 billion have been signed with sub-Saharan African countries – Senegal and Malawi are in the process of developing compacts – and another eight African nations have MCC threshold programs to help them qualify for full compact.

The United States Government has also enacted the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a program that rewards reforming African countries with U.S. trade preferences — this initiative has helped to reduce barriers to trade, increase exports, create jobs, and expand business opportunities for African and U.S. entrepreneurs.

With 41 countries presently qualified, AGOA has become a cornerstone of our trade and investment policy in Africa — it has helped increase two-way trade between the United States and eligible African economies to over $50 billion — more than six times the level in 2001, the first full year of AGOA.

Programs such as MCC and AGOA are strengthening African economic health and underscore our cardinal interest in the continent’s economic affairs. Not surprisingly, in 2007, sub-Saharan Africa experienced a growth rate of 6.5% – one of its highest in decades.

Disease

The third U.S. foreign policy priority in Africa is the fight against Disease. As the leading cause of death on the continent, disease is one of the greatest challenges to Africa’s future. Rising to meet this challenge – the United States is partnering with sub-Saharan nations to target the prevention, care and treatment of disease — most especially HIV/AIDS, malaria and neglected tropical diseases.

To address the severe and urgent HIV/AIDS crisis, President Bush led the world into action with The U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). PEPFAR is the largest commitment ever by a single nation toward an international health initiative. Through PEPFAR, the U.S. Government has already provided $18.8 billion in HIV/AIDS funding, with a reauthorization of up to $48 billion for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria over the next five years.

When President Bush launched PEPFAR, approximately 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa were receiving antiretroviral treatment. Today, PEPFAR supports lifesaving treatment for over 1.7 million people worldwide, care for 6.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS, and prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission during nearly 12.7 million pregnancies, allowing nearly 200,000 children to be born HIV free.

Responding to the malaria crisis, the President launched the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) in 2005. The U.S. has committed $1.2 billion in new malaria funding to reduce malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 African countries. In 2007, the Malaria Initiative reached more than 25 million people with effective prevention and treatment interventions.

In the fight against what we call ‘neglected tropical diseases,’ – the President – in February 2008 – announced a five year – $350 million initiative to eliminate the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as a major threat to health and economic growth in the developing world. Focusing on seven major diseases, from snail fever to hookworm, this initiative aims to provide integrated treatment for more than 300 million people in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Through the prevention and treatment of disease, programs such as PEPFAR and PMI are touching the lives of millions. In collaboration with our regional partners, we will continue to develop sustainable healthcare infrastructure so African nations can address these challenges through their own national institutions.

Conflict Resolution

Conflict Resolution represents our final foreign policy priority on the continent. In the past seven years we have seen the end of major conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire, North-South Sudan, Ethiopia-Eritrea and Angola. Although the current peace is fragile in several of these countries — and challenges persist in Darfur, Eastern Congo and Somalia — Africa has demonstrated a trend toward conflict resolution and stability.

I would like to highlight three distinctive areas demonstrating this trend – peacekeeping, counter-terrorism and maritime safety.

Firstly – through our participation in the Global Peace Operations Initiative (GPOI), the United States, along with our G8 partners, is committed to building global peace and security by training and equipping 75,000 peacekeepers worldwide by 2010. The United States has been the most important contributor to African force generation efforts through our Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program and large scale provision of peacekeeping equipment. Since 2005, the United States has directly trained nearly 60,000 African peacekeepers in 22 countries. Of these troops, over 82% have deployed to African Union and United Nations peacekeeping missions.

Secondly – to combat terrorism, the United States is pursuing a multidisciplinary regional approach in the trans-Sahara region, as well as the Horn of Africa.

The Trans-Sahara Counter-terrorism Partnership is a multi-year effort, funded at about $150m per year, to leverage and coordinate military, law enforcement, development, and public diplomacy elements to enhance the capacity of the trans-Sahara region to deter and defeat terrorism, and counter extremist ideology. We are seeking to build on the success of this program with a parallel East Africa Regional Strategic Initiative, to counter the terrorist elements that destroyed our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam ten years ago, and continue to threaten regional stability.

Lastly – the United States is also partnering with African nations to support progress in strengthening maritime security — particularly — anti-piracy measures – in sub-Saharan Africa. The ability of African nations to control their coastal waters is critical to regional trade and economic growth – control of sovereign natural resources, including fisheries – the delivery of critical humanitarian assistance to Somalia – and efforts to stem the trafficking of drugs, weapons, and humans on the continent.

Conclusion

In closing, the United States Government is committed to work with our African partners to promote democratic institution building, conflict resolution, economic growth and development, and the prevention, care and treatment of disease throughout the African continent.

When African nations cultivate freedom, prosperity and justice, their populations are more likely to reject extremist ideology, build strong economies that benefit all people, and replace disease and despair with healing and hope. These are unwavering priorities of the United States Government today, tomorrow and in the months and years ahead.

Thank you very much.

Released on December 3, 2008
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Phillip Carter – Official Biographical Sketch

Phillip Carter was appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs in August 2008. He previously served as Ambassador to the Republic of Guinea. Mr. Carter has also served as the Director for West African Affairs and the Deputy Director in the Office for East African Affairs at the U.S. State Department.

Prior to that assignment, he was the Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Antananarivo, Madagascar and DCM in Libreville Gabon. Before his arrival in Gabon in 1997, he was an international financial economist in the State Department’s Office of Monetary Affairs in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. During this period, he dealt with international debt and capital matters and served as the Department’s point-person on International Monetary Fund issues with Africa.

From 1992-1994, he served as the Economic and Commercial Counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prior to Bangladesh, Mr. Carter was the Economic and Commercial Officer in Lilongwe, Malawi for three years. From 1987-1989, he worked in the Department’s Office of Caribbean Affairs as a desk officer responsible for bilateral matters concerning the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and the Eastern Caribbean, as well as regional economic issues such as the Caribbean Basin Initiative. From 1982-1986, he served as the Deputy Principal Officer at the U.S. Consulate General in Winnipeg, Canada and as vice consul at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.

Mr. Carter received a Masters degree in International and Development Economics from Yale University and earned a Bachelors degree in Economics and History from Drew University where he was a member of the International Economics Honor Society (Omicron Delta Epsilon). He is the recipient of a Superior Honor Award, The Franklin Award, and several individual and group Meritorious Honor Awards. He speaks French and Spanish. A member of the Senior Foreign Service, Phillip Carter holds the rank of Counselor.

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An explosive situation prevails aboard MV FAINA; according to converging information, crew members attacked — unsuccessfully — some pirates, in an effort that clearly reflects the impossibility of a human being to be help hostage of such a piracy for 1800 hours without a major international reaction.

Quite unfortunately and extremely inhumanely, the MV FAINA crew members have become — precisely like the pirates themselves — the victims of an incredible conspiracy against Somalia, the Somali Nation, and the entire Horn of Africa region.

   Ukrainian Merchant Vessel – MV Faina as observed from the guided-missile cruiser the USS Vella Gulf

   [Enlarge]

The negotiations have been carried out in a deceptive way in order to offer the NATO admirals the timing they had planned; the pirates and their negotiators cannot realize that some guys among them have been deceived and have therefore cultivated illusions as regards the final outcome.

On the other hand, the crew members, their physical and psychological resistance, and their lives are the least concern of the criminal gangsters who impersonate respectable admirals and generals, politicians and diplomats, PR specialists and well known statesmen – all hidden behind the anonymity.

There is little to be done in order to avoid the terrible hit prepared against the prefab ghost of piracy that became an apocalyptic hot air balloon about to go burst over the western part of the Indian Ocean. This possibility of successful exit, I will analyze in a separate article. Here I publish the latest Ecoterra Press Release update, issued a few hours ago.

74th Update 2008-12-09 13:52:38 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. – Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International — Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past – with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme – Media Officer: +254-733-385868

Day 76 – 1799 hours into the FAINA Crisis – Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

Crew members on the arms laden cargo ship held by Somali pirates attempted to overpower two of their captors, prompting the hijackers to threaten to punish the men on Tuesday. Speaking to AFP from the MV FAINA cargo they hijacked on Sept 25 and have held off the coast of Somalia ever since, a spokesman for the pirates said the incident took place late on Monday. ‘Some crew members on the Ukrainian ship are misbehaving. They tried to harm two of our gunmen late Monday’, said the pirate, who declined to give his name. ‘This is unacceptable, they risk serious punitive measures. Somalis know how to live and how to die at the same time, but the Ukrainians’ attempt to take violent action is misguided’, the spokesman added. He said two of the pirates were taken by surprise when a group of crew members attacked them.

‘Maybe some of the crew are frustrated and we are feeling the same but our boys never opted for violence, this was a provocation’, the pirate spokesman explained. More than 120 attacks by Somali pirates have been reported this year alone in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean but all the hijackings have so far been resolved peacefully through the payment of ransoms. The pirates of FAINA have lowered their ransom demand to US$3.5 million and told AFP late last month that an agreement had already been reached for the ship’s release. In recent days, some sources have reported frustration among the pirates over delays in the ransom payment.

The operation to release the crew of the FAINA is continuing, Vasyl Kyrylych, chief of the foreign ministry press service, told a news briefing at the ministry, according to the Ukrainian press agency. “The pattern for setting the hostages free is being carried out now. We hope to witness successful completion of the release operation soon”, he said. Pirates captured the FAINA with 17 Ukrainian citizens among its crew off Somalia on September 25. The FAINA is under surveillance of several US ships whose objective is to prevent unloading of the military hardware. As reported, the pirates and the ship-owners reached agreement on November 30 on releasing the dry cargo ship with defence technologies aboard. Local observers had spotted the vessel delivering the ransom to MV CAPT. STEFANOS and believed it was a vessel concerning MV FAINA. After MV CENTAURI and MV CAPT. STEFANOS were released FV FAINA remains solely at the coastal stretch off Harardheere.

Ukraine expressed on Tuesday its desire to join the European Union’s naval task force protecting ships in the Gulf of Aden against Somali pirates.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed it’s call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships ———-

The Greek ship-owner’s company Chartworld Shipping Corporation (Athens) finally confirmed that the Greek ship MV CAPT. STEFANOS with a Ukrainian citizen as a crew member, one Chine and 17 Filipino seafarers, captured by Somali pirates September 21, was set free following 11 weeks of captivity. The crew members’ state of health is estimated as satisfactory, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry informed. According to the ship-owner’s information, presently the released ship is heading for Brindisi port (Italy).

With the latest captures and releases still at least 15 foreign vessels with a total of around 335 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 123 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 15). Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail.

The First Victim of War is the Truth!

Did pirates attack Aussie cruise ship? A traveler on board the Australian cruise ship MV Athena says owners are trying to cover up news of a pirate attack. Pirates did attack a cruise ship carrying 400 Aussies off Somalia, says an Australian passenger, but the cruise company — which claimed that the 52 boats reported to have approached the ship were manned by ‘friendly’ fishermen — is trying to cover up the incident, the passenger says. The Melbourne woman, who remains on board the MV Athena and does not want to be named, said passengers who informed relatives back home of the attack had been given “a real dressing down” by the ship’s crew. Classic International Cruises Australia, which owns the Athena, has said there was no substance to reports that dozens of pirate boats attacked the ship and tried to board it on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the company said the boats turned out to be fishing vessels whose crew were “very friendly”. However, the Melbourne woman who contacted wire service AAP said there was no doubt the ship was the target of a co-ordinated pirate attack as it passed through the Gulf of Aden, separating Yemen and Somalia. She said the crew had ordered passengers to stay indoors after small motorboats surrounded the vessel. Observers using binoculars on the bridge reportedly counted between 30 and 40 small boats to the port side and 12 to starboard at the height of the incident, she said. “Less than an hour later the master of the vessel, Captain Antonio Morais of Portugal, confirmed to listeners that two attacks by pirates had taken place”. Crew members used blasts from high-powered water cannon to drive back the pirates who clearly wanted to board the Athena, the woman said. She said the official line now being put around the ship was that “as no shots were fired by the assailants it was merely a reconnaissance mission by those in the motorboats rather than an attack as such”. And yesterday, two days after the attack, Captain Morais again addressed passengers to stress that “no attack” had occurred.

Other related news ——

The United Nations will convene a two-day international conference in Nairobi, Kenya, to discuss the rampant piracy off the coast of Somalia. The gathering, hosted by the Kenyan Government, will begin on 10 December, when technical experts will discuss the issue. The following day, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, and Moses Wetangula, Kenya’s Foreign Minister, will co-chair a ministerial-level meeting. Some 140 representatives from 40 countries are expected to attend the event, which will be addressed by President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya. “It is clear that the problem of piracy is linked to the need for peace and stability in Somalia itself’, said UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Mr. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah. ‘We hope that this high-level Conference will lead to greater international attention and cooperation between countries, regional and international organizations’. He said the gathering is very important and timely given the increasing threat of piracy in Somali waters which threatens the safety of trade routes. “We hope that this high-level Conference will lead to greater international attention and cooperation between countries, regional and international organizations”.

Spain could delay sending about 200 military personnel to participate in the international anti-piracy naval operation off the coast of Somalia, Spanish daily ABC reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed military sources. Defence Minister Carme Chacon has decided not to seek authorisation from parliament on Wednesday to send the Spanish ship SPS Victoria to the Somali coast, which means it will not set sail on Jan. 8, as was expected, ABC said. The sources cited by the newspaper said the ship may now join the task force in the second phase of the anti-piracy operation, called Atlanta. EUNAVOR operation ATALANTA began today with only two ships from France and Britain and two surveillance planes from France and Spain.

Germany has led calls for a debate on a UN special pirate court for those caught by the European mission, given that the EU will not transfer prisoners to countries with the death penalty, potentially leaving it with pirates on its hands. “The EU is reviewing agreements whereby suspects could be taken by third countries that are willing and in a position to launch criminal proceedings”, said Mr Steinmeier and added: “Moreover we are in favour of reviewing whether the United Nations could use existing international courts or found a new one to conduct such criminal proceedings”.

A task force from Russia’s Pacific Fleet left its main base in Vladivostok on Tuesday for a tour of duty in the Indian Ocean, a fleet official said, according to the Russian news agancy RIA. The task force comprises the Admiral Vinogradov, an Udaloy class missile destroyer, a tugboat, and two tankers. “The current tour of duty will demonstrate the ability of the Russian Navy to protect the country’s interests in the world’s oceans”, said Capt. 1st Rank Roman Markov, a spokesman for the Pacific Fleet. According to the official, the task force will pay a visit to the Indian port of Mormugao and participate in the joint naval exercises INDRA-2009 with the Indian Navy in January. INDRA is a biennial Russian-Indian exercise aimed at practicing cooperation in enforcing maritime law and countering piracy, terrorism, and drug smuggling. INDRA-2009 is the fourth such exercise since 2003. The task force will also conduct joint exercises with a task force from Russia’s Northern Fleet, led by the Pyotr Veliky (Peter the Great) nuclear-powered missile cruiser, which will arrive in the Indian Ocean after a current tour of duty in the Atlantic and the Caribbean. Following the exercises, the Admiral Vinogradov will replace the Neustrashimy (Fearless) missile destroyer from Russia’s Northern Fleet in the Horn of Africa to protect commercial shipping from pirate attacks off the Somali coast. Vice Admiral Konstantin Sidenko, commander of the Pacific Fleet, earlier said that Russian warships from the fleet would make several long-range training sorties in the South Pacific and Indian oceans in 2009, and participate in a number of exercises involving live-firing drills. Russia announced last year that its navy had resumed and would build up a constant presence in different regions of the world’s oceans.

A more romantic environment of piracy: The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1718