Tanzania to start prosecuting piracy cases

Pirate cases will now be prosecuted for hearing in Tanzania courts of law any time from now, the Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Mathias Chikawe also an MP for Nachingwea (CCM) has said. Minister Chikawe said in an exclusive interview yesterday in Dar es Salaam when contacted him to clarify why such cases are not being prosecuted in the country. Instead victims of such cases are taken to the neighboring Kenyan country for prosecution, this paper also wanted to know what the way forward for the government is over the matter. In clarification, the minister noted that, the prosecution of the people caught and charged on piracy along the Indian Ocean waters off the country’s frontiers is an agreement between one country with the other before are taken before the court of law. Contrary to what is now going to be practiced in the country over the matter, formerly suspects on piracy along the Indian Ocean waters were being prosecuted in Kenya and in Seychelles, the two countries had an agreement on international conventions which Tanzania had not yet entered. The call by the minister is rather different from what had been previously reported in one of the local news media organ in the country that, ‘Tanzania had no law that could enable prosecute criminals charged on allegations of piracy in court once apprehended by police and navy patrolling officers along Indian Ocean waters bordering national frontiers’. Clarification by the minister indicates that, Tanzania had not yet entered into agreement with others its neighbors in the prosecution of hard core criminals on piracy once arrested practicing their mischief.  In recent years, there has been a series of pirates attack on Indian Ocean waters by Somali citizens believed to be Islamist insurgents who tend to hijack ships navigating along the confluence of Indian ocean water and the perpetrators have been demanding lots of money from the owners of the shipping companies for their survival. Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been a threat to international shipping since the second phase of the Somali Civil War in the early 21st century. Since 2005, many international organizations, including the International Maritime Organization and the World Food Program, have expressed concern over the rise in acts of piracy. Piracy has impeded the delivery of shipments and increased shipping expenses, costing an estimated $6.6 to $6.9 billion a year in global trade according to statistics report by Oceans beyond Piracy (OBP).

Tanzania's Minister for Justice and Constitutional Affairs Mr. Mathias Chikawe

According to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), a veritable industry of profiteers has also risen around the piracy. Insurance companies, in particular, have profited from the pirate attacks, as insurance premiums have increased significantly.  A United Nations report and several news sources have suggested that piracy off the coast of Somalia was caused in part by illegal fishing.  According to the DIW and the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, the dumping of toxic waste in Somali waters by foreign vessels also severely constrained the ability of local fishermen to earn a living.  In response, the fishermen began forming armed groups to stop the foreign ships. They eventually turned to hijacking commercial vessels for ransom as an alternate source of income. In 2009, a survey by Wardheer News found that approximately 70 percent of the local coastal communities at the time "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country's territorial waters. The pirates also believed that they were protecting their fishing grounds and exacting justice and compensation for the marine resources stolen. By the end of 2011, pirates managed to seize only four ships off of the coast of Somalia, 22 fewer than the 26 they had captured in each of the two previous years. They also attempted unsuccessful attacks on 52 other vessels, as of 18 October 2013, the pirates were holding 1 large ship and an estimated 50 hostages.  According to another source, there were 151 attacks on ships in 2011, compared with 127 in 2010 – but only 25 successful hijacks compared to 47 in 2010. Pirates held 10 vessels and 159 hostages in February 2012.  In 2011, pirates earned $146m, an average of $4.87m per ship. An estimated 3,000 to 5,000 pirates operated, by February 2012 1,000 had been captured and were legally prosecuted in 21 countries.