by Abdulkadir A Osman
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Somalia again is at top of failed and insecure states list in the world, while the capital city has already been nicknamed “Ghost City. Somalia seems to have suffered a lot and the anguish is still continual .
Thanks to Piracy and Terrorism , they’ve made the country negatively well-known than it was in 1970s where the capital city was one of the most beautiful cities in Africa, and Somalia it self was among strongest nations in East Africa. The above terminologies put Somalia in the headlines, where even the common man of foreign countries has got negative concept about Somalia. It is likely that every Somali citizen would be called pirate or terrorist. Who ever to be blamed and what ever the root cause is , Piracy drugged the already tarnished dignity of Somalia and Somali People as well on the dirty mud.
In Karachi , Pakistan’s most populous city, several Somali Students at tea shop, a Pakistani taxi Driver who has a good command of English has raised simple questions but difficult to answer ;non of us afforded to answer wholeheartedly. It all about piracy and their enormous ransom demand.
Although it has been released, Somali Pirates have held four Pakistani citizens hostage for almost 10 months. During these months the streets of Pakistan’s main cities could be seen volunteers collecting the ransom money , particularly the quota for Pakistanis because other nationalities are among hostages .The role of low class people was visible; the aim was to release Pakistani citizens who have been living in harsh condition in nearly a year.
Why do Somali pirates hold hostage for their Muslim brother ? . Pakistani people are religious who have an absolute respect for Muslims along with their governments even brutal dictators.
Where are the Somali Navy? . This question is little bit awkward to whom his country has been in misery for nearly quarter century , but taxi driver had a full right to ask because of his country has one of the strongest armies in the world.
Every one of us had simple answers that pirates don’t respect religion but money, and no navy because of no government. Some of us offered joking feedback ; “pirates are our current operating Navy”. Again non of us has prompted an acceptable response , we knew the multiple other tough questions would follow if we did so.
Unlike the other countries in the world , Pakistani People don’t ask questions pertaining to Somali anarchy , piracy or terrorism ,whether they have full knowledge of the country or not, that is only for respect .
Early days of Somali Piracy ,some people argued there was no piracy in Somalia other than fisherman protecting their sea from illegal fishery, may be true at that time, but these days pirates turned to be barbarians who kill , abduct, torture, and take ransom from innocent People .
Pirates don’t have respect within the Somali Society in every where. They are called “Burcad Badeed” which means pirates, they have been morally and physically segregated from their own societies though they have still had some sort of support. It is very true that illegal foreign fishing vessels in the Somali water have made indiscriminate resource extraction, but the fight against piracy can bring about a solution of this problem.
Abdulkadir A Osman
Karachi, Pakistan
[email protected]