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Extended Somalia pirate plan creates waves
Published: 18 Apr 12 09:02 CET | Print version
Updated: 18 Apr 12 14:03 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20120418-42009.html
Germany could fly bombing missions into Somalia to destroy pirate bases, if a plan set to be discussed in cabinet on Wednesday is adopted. The idea has infuriated opposition parties who described it as senseless and dangerous.
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Expanding the mandate to include airborne missions up to two kilometres inland to target “logistic facilities of the pirates” as the text describes it, has infuriated German opposition parties.
But Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet approved the expansion on Wednesday, which Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere denied was a radical transformation of the initial mandate.
"This is a small, useful, additional military operation - it doesn't take the mission to a new level," he told reporters on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels.
"This is about additional action on the beach, not inland."
But Green Party defence expert Omid Nouripour said it was “a bad, senseless adventure,” while his counterpart from the Social Democrats, Rainer Arnold said his party would either vote against or abstain in a parliamentary poll.
Despite opposition, the mandate is expected to be approved in the vote on May 11.
The Bundeswehr has criticised the EU mandate expansion, expressing amazement that for example, the physical extent of the missions had already been set – giving pirates the opportunity to react by, for example, simply moving their bases further inland.
Germany provides the biggest ship of the “Atalanta” fleet, the “Berlin”, which can carry up to 230 people. The mandate expansion would only include flying missions – troops would only engage on the ground in exceptional circumstances such as rescue missions.
DAPD/The Local/jcw
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Your comments about this article:
Although this problem affects the rest of the world, a workable long-term solution must be Somali-driven. The history of foreign meddling in Somalia¦#39;s internal politics is littered with disasters.
I doubt bombing pirate bases will accomplish an end to piracy in Somalia.
topafric.com
Then the European and American press comes along and places the pirate label on the very people they have been exploiting and stealing from. Now the peanut gallery are calling for bombing and killing the Somalis who are justified in defending their territory by any means necessary.
Same old racist colonialist attitudes and consequent behaviours towards those brown and black people.
Thanks for your good points, if true.
Also it has been reported that the waters off the Coast of Somalia have been overfished by large commercial fleets for years, depleting fishing stocks and hurting the livelihoods of the Somali fishermen who later became pirates.
The disintegration of a Central Somalian government has left no one to fight for balance and restraint from overfishing.
What do you suppose is going to teach them a lesson? Killig them? probably not, but if they take up arms against the free world,and its traders, they need to be put down like a rabid dog.
A couple hundred years ago (1804) the US Marines went to war against the Barbary Coast Pirates. THey hav ecome back and are a huge nuisance now. REMOVE THEM FROM THE WORLD