Word: aden
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...because of the very different conditions on shore in Africa. The countries along the strait possess the resources and organized governments necessary to stand up to piracy. Those crucial elements are lacking in destitute and disorderly Somalia, where most of the pirates that are terrorizing the Gulf of Aden hail from. That fact alone makes the situation in Malacca and Somalia "completely different," warns Nazery of the Maritime Institute. "Piracy, whatever happens at sea, is symptomatic of a different problem - the instability of the political situation in Somalia," he says. As the nations along the Strait of Malacca learned, fighting...
China's rapidly growing Navy today patrols the Gulf of Aden, helping to protect Chinese commercial ships from piracy. It has eight new kilo class submarines - whose silence underwater makes them difficult to detect. Many of them are housed at a huge, new Naval base on the tropical island of Hainan, the "Hawaii" of China. Just last week, Admiral Wu Shengli, China's top naval officer, said his country needed to acquire more high tech weaponry in "order to boost the ability to fight in regional sea wars." Toward that end, many military analysts believe, China will soon build...
That sounds like a scene from an action movie, but in the Gulf of Aden it is legal business practice. That's because the pirates are regarded as criminals, rather than terrorists, under U.S. or international law, which bans money going to individuals or organizations listed as terrorists. Unlike in, say, Iraq, Somali pirates appear to have little interest in killing hostages who are seized along with vessels, and the crews are usually released with the ships when the ransoms are paid. "Paying ransoms is not illegal," says Guillaume Bonnissent, a special risks underwriter for Hiscox Insurance...
...European officials insist they don't pay ransoms to pirates. And why would they? Shipping and insurance companies now routinely pay ransoms of millions of dollars, dropping sack-loads of cash from airplanes into the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden, despite assertions from politicians back home that the money is fueling the rampant piracy...
...Gates' reasoning is unlikely to deter many companies, which simply cannot afford to lose hugely valuable vessels and cargo to seaborne bandits. Indeed, insurance premiums have risen along with the ransom amounts, according to Regester, who estimates that coverage for a single voyage through the Gulf of Aden costs about $20,000. With shipping companies hard-hit by the global downturn, some opt simply to take their chances running the gauntlet of pirates, rather than pay insurance premiums. "I reckon less than 10% of vessels are insured now," says Regester. "K&R policies are considered a luxury." Whether...