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Undercover
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PIRACY : GULF OF ADEN
They don’t really care
Yemen can emerge as a new piracy hub in the Gulf of Aden…
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 None of the World Summits (G-8, G-12, G-2) are complete without parochial discussion of the perennial poverty problems of countries like Somalia, Yemen, Tajikistan. Never have world leaders thought beyond poverty and aid while discussing these nations. This year's G-8 meet was quite preoccupied with discussions related to Iran, North Korea, and global recession. But no one (literally!) even discussed the growing civil disorder and their consequences on geopolitics and the global economy that is germinating in these countries. Though all African countries are facing turmoil but it is Somalia that is affecting the international trade more than others. From a criminal network to sea-piracy, everything is quite active in this land. Around 10 hijackings by Somali pirates took place in April 2009 itself and a total of 135 in 2008 with the latest being that of cargo ship with 15 Indians and a Turkish cargo ship with 23 crew on board in July, 2009. Even a western-backed transitional government and African Union peacekeepers are not being able to keep these pirates at bay. The Gulf of Aden, a lane of strategic importance and significance to international shipping, being a transit point to 21,000 ships annually, has become a hub of piracy. This horrifying saga does not condense here itself. Yemen is fast becoming a comfortable incubator and a safe route for terrorism. The government there seems to have failed to control rural and tribal areas. This has affected the natural resource scenario too. The flow of oil has already reached a critical level. The World Bank predicts that Yemen's oil and gas revenues will nose-dive during 2009 and fall to zero by 2017, so much so that UK Royal Institute for International Affairs predicts that the country’s instability could envelope Northern Kenya and Saudi Arabia too. An official report by the Central Bank of Yemen in May, 2009 revealed a decrease in Yemen's oil revenues by 74.5 per cent during the first quarter. With Saudi Arabia, being the immediate neighbour of Yemen, growing terrorism and state collapse would come as a security threat for it too. It wouldn't be surprising if extremist groups in Yemen emerge as new maritime pirates. This will not only increase the incidence of piracy but will also affect international trade to a large extent. Yemen’s extremists are destroying oil reserves in Yemen and are also trying to infiltrate the Saudi border. On analysing the bigger picture, it seems quite evident that the ‘global powers to be’ must urgently shift their focus from just poverty elimination and aid-driven strategy to making these nations more stable. Till then, Jacksons’ song “All I wanna say is that. They don’t really care about us” will aptly flow in their air.
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Sray Agarwal
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