Did South Korea target the right pirates?

[논둑길맨발로]

Did South Korea target the right pirates?
By Yong Kwon

The dramatic rescue of the merchant vessel Samho Jewelry from Somali pirates by the South Korean destroyer Choe Yeong on January 21 has temporarily silenced domestic criticisms against the South Korean navy's performance since the sinking of the South Korean corvette the Cheonan in March 2010.

Many defense analysts, including the former South Korean commander of naval operations, Yun Yeon, believe that recent South Korean naval operations in the Indian Ocean will also send

 
a message of deterrence to North Korea. [1] While the bravery of the South Korean commandos and the extreme competence of the South Korean navy in rescuing all the hostages alive should be lauded, the South Korean media along with other major world publications have proven incapable of seeing beyond the symptom of piracy and revealing the socio-economic causes of this international plight.

While South Korea's "Operation Dawn" in the Gulf of Aden was meticulously planned, the country also enjoyed an element of luck. Even high-ranking ex-commanders admitted that the entire operation would not have taken shape had the destroyer not been active on the high seas.

In a report on the rescue by the South Korean National Assembly, the Ministry of Defense also revealed that another Somali pirate vessel approaching the MV Samho Jewelry, armed with missiles and other weapons, could have serious hindered the success of the operation.[2]

According to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB), incidents of piracy in 2010 numbered 445, a rise of 9.6% since 2009. At the same time, the number of abductions of sailors also grew from 1,050 to 1,181. Piracy in the Indian Ocean remains a bigger issue than perhaps the media makes it out to be. South Korea alone depends on maritime transit for 99.7% of its imports and exports; piracy strains not only South Korea's economic life line, but also the entire continent's ability to take advantage of global commerce.

Due to tensions with North Korea along the Northern Limitation Line (NLL; the disputed maritime between South Korea and North Korea on the Yellow Sea), the South Korean navy is unable to deploy more than one of its vessels to the Indian Ocean at a time.

Even with the cumulative efforts of the combined international task force, the Indian Ocean is too vast for any fleet to provide protection for all the merchant vessels. With piracy increasing despite the efforts of multi-national operations in the past few years, it is clear that the international community must move to resolve the root cause of piracy instead of hammering down on the symptoms.

The incorporation of anti-piracy operations in the Gulf Aden into "Operation Enduring Freedom", the military campaign in Afghanistan, may lead many to believe that the attacks on international shipping may be influenced by al-Qaeda or its fundamentalist philosophy. In reality, piracy in Somalia is entirely a reaction against the monopoly of East African maritime resources by the developed world. Specifically speaking it is the depletion of fish from the Somali coast that is converting hungry fishermen into pirates.

Having driven bluefin tuna into near extinction in the Atlantic Ocean, an increasing number of European trawlers have moved into the Indian Ocean to take advantage of the abundant yellowfin tuna population. Although fishermen from the European Union are not the only offenders, they constitute the most serious wrongdoers in the Somali case.

According to Somali fishermen, the poachers not only engage in destructive overfishing but also employ vicious measures against local fishermen who protest the excessive appropriation of the vital natural resource. Kenyan analyst Mohamed Abshir Waldo reported instances of European poachers attacking local demonstrators by pouring boiling water on them and even shooting at them or running over their canoes and fishing boats with their trawlers.

Waldo continued to testify that roughly $450 million worth of fish have been forcibly extracted from the Somali people. The above number does not represent the profits taken from the Somali people, but foodstuffs that are critical to the fundamental survival of the impoverished nation.

Research by Somalia Diaspora Network revealed that 3.5 million Somalis faced starvation in 2009. In March that year, the United Nations estimated that only 2.8 million Somalis receive food aid. This leaves hundreds of thousands without access to even the most meager food supplies. It is this desperate condition that gives young starving men a direct incentive to pursue the lucrative business of piracy.

In addition to the food crisis, coastal communities are suffering from serious and debilitating health issues. Several multinational corporations have taken advantage of the chaos in Somalia by dumping waste off its shores for one hundredth the cost of proper disposal of such content in Europe.

The 2004 tsunami literally brought to surface the extent of the abuse. Twenty years of toxic medical, industrial, chemical and radioactive waste began washing ashore. As a result of these selfish cost-cutting measures, coastal communities in Somalia are now forced to bear the burdens of respiratory and skin infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, and abdominal hemorrhages.

When pirates hijacked a Ukrainian freighter in September of 2008, they claimed that ransom money would be spent cleaning up the toxic waste continually dumped on the shores of their country. Under the pretext of securing justice for Somalis, the pirates take a certain degree of support from the Somali public, of whom 70% support their actions as a form of national defense.

A potential solution must secure both immediate reparations and a strategy to combat overfishing. This requires world governments to decommission excess fishing boats that are depleting marine resources throughout the world. The consequence of inaction will be catastrophic. Continued absence of a global response that rectifies the economic injustices will foster a generation of Somali pirates who had never actually been fishermen and conduct piracy not out of desperation or a vehicle of redress, but rather as a profession.

The global community also needs to remind itself that the piracy problem may not be limited to Somalia alone. Disaffection towards the developed world has been echoing from Senegal to the Philippines, where thousands of fishing communities have been affected. The piracy in Somalia may leave a powerful precedence for other fishing communities to engage in maritime violence as an alternative source of income. Consequently, the cost of providing sufficient protection for shipping will adversely effect the troubled global economy.

The actions by the South Korean navy against Somali pirates may have boosted morale and showcased the fleet's capabilities to North Korea. However, President Lee Myung-bak along with other world leaders must realize that there is more at stake. A comprehensive plan to restore the ecosystem of fishing zones throughout the world and the establishment of fishing regulations based on restraint must be enacted in the near future. Otherwise, states throughout the world risk not just their sailors, but their entire economic foundation taken hostage.

Notes
1. Yun, Yeon. "Maritime transit is not free." Chosun Ilbo. Jan 23, 2011.
[2] "New facts from the National Assembly meeting on the Gulf of Aden." Donga Ilbo. Jan 24, 2011.

Yong Kwon is a Washington-based analyst of international affairs.

(Copyright 2011 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us about sales, syndication and republishing.)

1월 21일, 삼호선을 해적으로부터 구출한 한국의 드라마틱한 작전은, 잠시나마 한국해군을 천안함사건의 비난으로부터 멀어지게 하는듯 하였다. (천안함사건에서 생긴 해군에 대한 한국내의 비난을 해적소탕으로 무마할수 있었다는 뜻인듯)

윤연(Yon Yeon)이라는 인사를 비롯한 많은 군사분석가들은, 최근의 이 해군의 작전을, 북한에 대한 일종의 메시지로 믿고있다 (1번 참고자료).

에덴만작전 "Operation Dawn of Gulf of Aden" 은 치밀하게 계획된것이였고, 한국은 럭키하게 작전성공을 즐기기에 이르렀다.

하지만, 한 보고서에 의하면, 미사일과 중화기로 무장한 작전을 자칫하면 큰 문제를 가져올수도 있었다 (2번 참고자료)

International Maritime Bureau (IMB) 에 의하면,...해적의 수와 해적에 의한 피해는 해마다 증가......하고 있다. 한국만 피해를 보는것이 아니라, 이는 국제적인 문제이다.

NLL문제로 야기된 남북간 긴장에 의하여, 한국군은 사실, 인도양에 군함을 파견할만한 상황이 아니였다.

에덴만에서 해적에 대한 국제적인 합동작전은 그 배후에 알 카에다가 있다고 믿고 있는듯 하지만(?), 사실은 소말리아해적이 생겨나는데는, 동아프리카의 독재와 국제적인 대기업들의 어업에 의한 아프리카인의 굶주림에 따른것이였다.

날로 늘어나는 유럽계 회사들의 조업에 의하여 bluefin 튜나가 거의 멸종위기에 이르렀다. 물론 유럽회사만의 탓은 아니겠지만, 적어도 소말리아의 경우, 그것이 주된 원인인것은 틀림없다.

소말이 어부들에 의하면, 유럽의 밀렵자 (소말리아 사람들은 그들을 밀렵자라고 본다는 뜻) 들은 과도한 조업에 그치지않고, 조업량과 바다에 있는 물고기의 양에 대한 조사결과를 조작하면서까지 자기들의 이익만을 챙기고 있다고 한다. 심지어 그들의 과도한 조업에 항의하는 로컬항의자들에게 총격을 가하고, 자기들의 배로 항의자들의 배에 올라타기도 한다고 한다.

(중략......소말리아의 내정혼란을 틈타서 자행되는 다국적 서방회사들의 과도한 조업이 소말리아를 포함한 인근국가의 빈곤과 기아의 원인이라는 뜻이겠죠....암튼, 그들에 의하여, 소말리 사람들은 살길이 막막하다고...)

그에 그치지않고, 역시 소말리아의 혼란을 틈타서 서방다국적 회사들이 소말리아의 해안에 버리는 방대한 양의 쓰레기에 의하여, 소말리아 사람들의 건강은 심각하게 위협받고있다고 한다.

2004년에 발생한 쓰나미가 해안가를 휩쓸고가면서, 바다에 버려졌던 유독의약품쓰레기, 공업, 화학, 방사성 유독쓰레기들이 해안가 주민들의 호흡기 질환, 피부질환, 구강괴양과 출혈, 그리고 위(내장)출혈등 질병에 시달리고 있다.

2008년, 우크라이나선박을 납치하였을때, "해적"들은 몸값으로 받은 돈은 해변가에 남은 유독 쓰레기를 청소하는데 쓸것이라고 성명을 발표하기도 하였다. 소말리아민중의 정의의 이를으로 행해지는 이러한 해적행위는 70% 소말리아민중의 지지를 받기도 한다.

해결책은 사실 간단하다. 서방세계의 과도한 조업과, 그에 대한 방치 등을 막아야 한다. 그렇지 않으면, 결국 소말리 해적을 양산하는 결과를 낳을수밖에 없으며, 그 해적들의 일부는 애초에 어부가 될 기회조차 없었던 사람들일수도 있다. (원래대로라면, 어업을 주업으로 하게 될 젊은 사람들이 어업의 붕괴로 어부가 될 기회조차 없게 되여, 부득불 해적의 길로 가게 된다는 뜻인듯)

해적문제는 소말리아에 국한된것이 아니다. 발달국가들에 대한 불평은 세네갈에서 필리핀에 이르기까지, 수천수만에 이르는 어업관계자들이 불만을 제기하고있다.

국제사회는 이러한 불만의 목소리에 귀를 기울려야 한다. 그렇지 않으면, 소말리아 해적과 같은 행위가 많은 나라에서 일어날것이며, 그것에 대처하는데는 결국 더많은 비용이 들어갈것이 분명하기때문이다. 그것은 결국 세계경제를 위협하는 요소로 될것은 자명하다.

한국의 해적에 대한 대처방식은, 한국군의 사기진작과 북한에 대한 군사적인 시위의 효과가 있을수도 있겠다.

그러나, 이명박과 기타 국제리더들은 반드시 그러한 시각만 가지고 있으면 안될것이다. 글로벌한 조업구역내의 에코시스템의 회복노력과, 국제적인 조업제한, 출항금지등 포괄적인 대책을 조속히 마련하는것이 시급하다.

그렇지 않으면, 선원들이 해적에게 위협받는 상황에 그치지 않고, 국제적인 경제기초가 "인질"로 잡히는 수가 있다.

Notes
1. Yun, Yeon. "Maritime transit is not free." Chosun Ilbo. Jan 23, 2011.
[2] "New facts from the National Assembly meeting on the Gulf of Aden." Donga Ilbo. Jan 24, 2011.