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Finally, after weeks of speculation and public debates, looks like the decision has been made.
(China Daily)
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-12/17/content_7311735.htm
China
is all set to send a naval fleet on a mission to fight pirates in
Somali waters, a military source told China Daily on Tuesday.
“There will be a significant peacekeeping operation (in Somalia),” the source said, but did not reveal the scale of the mission.
China
will tell a United Nations Security Council meeting this morning
(Beijing time) that “we wish to work with others to reach a positive
outcome”, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday, without
confirming the status of the mission.
“The Chinese government
supports the international community’s decision to cooperate on the
piracy problem according to international law and the UN Security
Council’s resolutions,” Liu Jianchao told a news briefing on Tuesday,
referring to Vice-Foreign Minister He Yafei’s meeting in New York.
A local newspaper provided some details of the planned mission.
“The fleet will leave the South China Sea and head to the Gulf of Aden and Somali waters,” the Global Times reported yesterday.
A Chinese journalist who is likely to accompany the naval fleet said the operation would last three months.
Piracy
off Somalia has intensified in recent months, with more attacks against
a wider range of targets. But the problem is the most severe in the
Gulf of Aden, which links the Mediterranean Sea, the Suez Canal and the
Red Sea to the Indian Ocean.
Two Chinese ships – a fishing vessel
and a Hong Kong-flag ship together with about 40 crew – were seized by
Somali pirates in mid-November.
In September, pirates seized a
Ukrainian freighter loaded with 33 battle tanks, and on Nov 15 they
seized a Saudi oil tanker then carrying $100 million worth of crude.
About
100 attacks have been reported off the Somali coast this year. Forty
vessels have been hijacked, with 14 still remaining in the hands of
pirates along with more than 250 crew members, according to maritime
officials.
The international community has already responded to
the piracy problem, with the UN clearing the way for sending troops to
the troubled waters by passing three resolutions since July.
More
than a dozen warships from Italy, Greece, Turkey, India, Denmark, Saudi
Arabia, France, Russia, Britain, Malaysia and the United States have so
far joined the hunt, leaving China the only country among the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council not yet taking an active
part.
A military strategist told China Daily that joining other
countries to fight Somali pirates would be a “very good opportunity” for
the Chinese navy to get into the thick of the action.
“Apart
from fighting pirates, another key goal is to register the presence of
the Chinese navy,” Prof Li Jie, a naval researcher, told China Daily.
China
has never dispatched any troops on combat missions overseas. But in
2002, two Chinese vessels – a destroyer and a supplier – spent four
months on a global tour, the country’s first.
Li also would not
confirm the mission but added that “if the navy’s special forces join
in, that will be in order to counter the pirates’ attempt to board other
ships”.
“In general, the mission is to deter pirates, because that is the basic objective,” he added.
Prof
Pang Zhongying at Renmin University of China said “joining other fleets
in the Somali waters will contribute to international security”.
Earlier, Chinese army personnel joining UN peacekeeping missions were engineering and medical staff, police, or peacekeepers.
But
now, dispatching naval ships would not be a problem as the menace of
Somali piracy has become a common threat to the whole international
community, Pang said.
“China’s image as a responsible sovereign
nation will improve by participating in such missions,” he said, but
noted he didn’t expect the number of troops in any such mission would be
high.
“It would be on a limited scale initially,” Pang said.
Special maritime police
In
Vienna, a UN official said on Tuesday that special maritime police
should patrol the Horn of Africa coastline to arrest the Somali pirates
who have been preying on commercial shipping.
“Pirates cannot be
keelhauled or forced to walk the plank, nor should they be dumped off
the Somali coast. They need to be brought to justice,” said Antonio
Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs
and Crime.
Costa urged law enforcement officers to be deployed on
warships as “ship riders” to seize pirates and try them under
appropriate legal jurisdiction.
A similar approach has helped prosecute drug traffickers in the Caribbean, he said.
Somalia welcomes Chinese naval presence
Somalia
welcomes the presence of the Chinese navy to fight pirates in its
waters, the ambassador of the African nation in Beijing has said.
“We
hope China joins the efforts of the international community in
supporting the Somali government,” Mohammed Awil said on Monday,
responding to media reports that China could dispatch a fleet to the
Gulf of Aden, where most of the piracy attacks have been concentrated.
Since
July, the United Nations has adopted three resolutions urging the
international community to respond to the piracy menace off the Somalia
coast.
On Monday, a French naval detachment is reported to have
begun escort duties in the troubled Indian Ocean waters off the Somali
coast as part of an EU anti-piracy naval operation.
But Awil said
the presence of foreign naval missions is not a long-term solution, and
sought international help for Somalia to build its own naval
capability.
“The international community should help our
government build up the Somali navy, and then our own navy will take the
responsibility of safeguarding Somali waters,” Awil told China Daily.
He
said his country has a naval presence in the northeast of the country,
but it is hamstrung by old ships which are no match for the hit-and-run
tactics of the pirates.
“So the solution is capacity building (for the Somali navy),” he said, urging help in logistics, equipment and training.
Apart
from problems at sea, the Somali ambassador, who has been in Beijing
since 2005, urged the global community to offer “serious help” to
counter Somalia’s domestic chaos.
A civil war which broke out in
1991 has left large swathes of the country under the control of
anti-government forces. But the domestic situation may get even worse,
as roughly 3,000 Ethiopian peacekeepers are due to withdraw by the end
of the year, leaving a security vacuum.
Awil said it was the responsibility of the international community to send peacekeepers to fill the vacuum.
“The
government has again and again requested the international community to
send peacekeeping troops,” Awil said, adding he didn’t know why “they
are not taking on the responsibility”.
He said the world may regret it one day as extremism has already taken root in Somalia.
“Now it is piracy; we don’t know what will come next,” Awil said.
Agencies contributed to the story
www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-17 08:12:48
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 16 (Xinhua) — Somalia’s Foreign Minister Ali
Ahmed Jama on Tuesday welcomed that China is seriously considering
sending naval ships to Somali waters for escort operations to fight
against piracy there.
Jama met Chinese Vice Foreign Minister
He Yafei on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the UN Security
Council on Somali piracy, during which a resolution was adapted to
further step up the international fight against on the piracy.
The Chinese vice minister told Jama that China firmly supports the
Transitional Federal Government (TFG) of Somalia in its peace and
reconstruction efforts, and that China will continue to do within its
ability to provide assistance to it.
He emphasized that
piracy off the coast of Somalia has become an international menace and
that China is also one of its victims.
At present, one
Chinese vessel and 17 Chinese nationals are still in the captivity of
Somali pirates, He said. “This has aroused the utmost concern of the
Chinese government and the general public.”
China hopes that
the TFG of Somalia will continue to cooperate with the Chinese side and
do its best to retrieve the hijacked vessel and ensure the safety of
Chinese crewmembers, He said.
China attaches great importance
to the TFG’s request for the international community’s help to fight
piracy, and supports the Security Council to adopt relevant resolutions
upon request, He said.
China is seriously considering sending
naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and waters off the Somali coast for
escorting operations in the near future, He added.
Jama
thanked China for its support for the Somali peace process and welcomed
that China is seriously considering sending naval ships to the waters
off the Somali coast for escorting operations.
Jama said that
the TFG of Somalia will continue to cooperate with the Chinese side,
and do its utmost to retrieve the Chinese vessel and rescue Chinese
crewmembers taken hostage by pirates.
Editor: Bi Mingxin
BEIJING,
Dec 17 (Reuters) – China may send naval ships to the seas off Somalia
to help the fight against piracy there, state media on Wednesday quoted a
Vice Foreign Minister as saying at the United Nations.
“China is
seriously considering sending naval ships to the Gulf of Aden and
waters off the Somali coast for escorting operations in the near
future,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted He Yafei as saying.
He,
speaking at a Security Council ministerial meeting, said that China
welcomed global cooperation in the fight against Somali piracy, and
supported efforts by other countries to send ships to the region, Xinhua
reported.
Earlier this month a prominent Chinese military
strategist, Major-General Jin Yinan, urged the government to send ships,
in comments reflecting debate about combating piracy in a country which
has generally confined its navy to waters near home.
Jin told a
Chinese radio interviewer that “nobody should be shocked” if his
government one day decided to send navy ships to deal with the pirates,
whose recent victims have included ships from mainland China and Hong
Kong.
Jin is the head of a strategy institute at China’s National Defence University.
A
surge in attacks at sea this year in the busy Gulf of Aden and Indian
Ocean off Somalia has pushed up insurance costs, brought the Somali
gangs tens of millions of dollars in ransom and prompted foreign
warships to the area.
Among the captured vessels are a Saudi
supertanker loaded with $100 million of crude oil, the Sirius Star, and a
Ukrainian cargo ship carrying some 30 Soviet-era tanks.
The
victims have also included a Hong Kong-flagged ship with 25 crew aboard
and a Chinese fishing boat reported seized off Kenya.
NATO ships began anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast in late October, but they have failed to stop the hijackings.
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