A 10-nation board has approved USD 2.1 million in UN funding
for five projects to help Somaliaand neighbouring countries prosecute suspected pirates.
“Piracy off Somaliais a menace to the region and the world,” said UN Under-Secretary-General for
Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe, chair of the board overseeing a new trust fund. “Prosecuting
suspected pirates is an important piece of the international strategy to combat
the problem.”
An international armada of warships has patrolled an area in
the north of Somalia in the Gulf of Aden for more than a year in a bid to curb
piracy. But countries that have captured pirates have often struggled to bring
them to justice due to legal technicalities.
Four of the projects in line for the funding are designed to
support institutions in the Seychelles, which along with Kenya serves as a
regional centre to prosecute pirates, as well as in Somalia’s semi-autonomous
Puntland state and its breakaway region of Somaliland. They will specifically
deal with mentoring prosecutors and police, building and rehabilitating
prisons, reviewing domestic legislation on piracy and enhancing court capacity.
A media project will help local partners design and spread
anti-piracy messages across Somalia.
The trust fund was launched in January by a Contact Group on piracy off Somalia. Its
supervising board includes 10 voting members: Djibouti,Egypt, France, Germany,Greece, Kenya, the Marshall
Islands, Norway,Somalia and the United States. There
are also three non-voting UN bodies: the International Maritime Organisation,
the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the UN country team for Somalia.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council was expected to approve
next week a Russian draft resolution urging a stronger UN mechanism to ensure
effective legal action against pirates caught off Somalia’s shores. The text would
direct UN chief Ban Ki-moon “within three months to prepare a report outlining
various options of a stronger international legal system” to deal with the
pirates.
Somaliahas had no effective central authority since former president Mohamed Siad
Barre was ousted in 1991, setting off a bloody cycle of clashes between rival
factions. – (AP/NDTV)
