WATERS DANGEROUS : MODERN-DAY PIRACY
AN INTERNATIONAL CRIME
Piracy has existed for as long as civilisations have plied the oceans for trade and exploration. It has been a fertile subject for literature and swashbuckling Hollywood classics, but modern pirates have none of the charm of their storybook predecessors. The pirates of modern oceans are ruthless gangs of seagoing robbers, well-organised and armed with assault rifles and antitank weapons. Historically, their hunting grounds have been limited to narrow bodies of water which funnel shipping into predictable routes, easily accessible from coastal bases.
The 1990s saw a regional boom in piracy in the Indian Ocean off Somalia and East Africa, where it was challenged by multinational naval taskforces, with notable success. But far from being contained and eradicated, this predatory crime continues to occur in major sea lanes around the world, threatening all nations reliant on maritime trade and costing the global economy billions of dollars every year.
THE NATURE OF MODERN PIRACY
According to international law, piracy is any illegal act of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or passengers of a private ship, and directed against another ship on the high seas or
