New deal with island nation will help with the prosecution of pirates
Denmark has reached an agreement with the Republic of Seychelles that the island nation will accept, jail and prosecute pirates captured by the warship Esbern Snare. Convicted pirates will thereafter be incarcerated in either of Somalia’s autonomous regions, Somaliland or Puntland.
The agreement, which was announced by the foreign minister and defense minister on Wednesday, is the latest development in Denmark’s strategy to help fight piracy in the Somali basin and off the east coast of Africa.
The Esbern Snare, Denmark’s largest warship, has been actively patrolling the Horn of Africa for pirates as part of the Nato-coordinated anti-piracy action Operation Ocean Shield. The Esbern Snare is one of some 28 ships from several Nato countries involved in the effort.
Until this week, the Esbern Snare had no recourse but to set the pirates it caught free on land, due to the lack of an international procedure for their prosecution.
“First and foremost we can make it more risky to be a pirate and that’s something we are doing by, for example, creating an effective means for prosecution,” foreign minister Lene Espersen said of the new agreement.
“The arrangement with the Seychelles ensures that going forward we will be able to prosecute pirates in the region they come from instead of dragging pirates by the dozen back to Denmark to prosecute them here,” Espersen added.
The new strategy to fight pirates also entails some changes in the Danish military’s efforts.
From now on, the Esbern Snare will patrol for pirates for at least six months of each year. Currently, the ship has been averaging ten months per year on pirate patrol.
“Six months is a very generous contribution to the international effort to fight piracy,” Espersen said. “Especially in view of the fact that Denmark should not carry the burden alone, but should naturally share it with a group of other Nato countries.”
In addition, the government is considering whether to deploy surveillance airplanes to search the seas and whether to give Nato a Danish mandate to precision-bomb land-based pirate camps in Africa. But those decisions are pending.
“For the time being, it remains a navy operation,” said the foreign minister.
Source: Denmark National Administration
