Turkish Navy and thereby NATO is way out of line in Somali waters

(Version anglaise seulement)

The Turkish military released a photo in which Turkish commandos are seen attacking seven Somalis teenagers in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia, on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009.

The Turkish military said in a comment that navy commandos aboard the Turkish frigate TCG Gediz, part of a NATO force patrolling the seas, had captured "seven pirates".

Commandos raided the skiff on Saturday morning upon a request to block it before it could attack two ships bearing the flag of Panama. A statement on the military's Web site says a navy helicopter aboard the frigate also took part in the operation.

Turkish navy commandos captured pirates in similar operations in the Gulf of Aden in July.

In both incidences no evidence was provided of any attack against any vessel and no danger to anyone derived from the skiffs and their crews.

In clear text this means that NATO - and in a similar fashion EU NAVFOR - believes they have the right to intercept any Somali looking fishing boat, disarm and arrest the crew.

None of such actions is warranted by any convention, international or national law and only based on the fictions and assumptions that these skiffs and crews could potentially turn out to engage in piracy.

Is every pick-up van in Texas, loaded with youngsters and a legally carried arsenal of guns (maybe on a hunting trip) automatically considered a terrorist threat, disarmed and the group arrested - no, and for good reason it has to stay like that - also in Somali waters.

Otherwise the escalation, where in future armed private security details on merchant vessels in innocent passage will be attacked by Somali defenders of their sovereignty.

Frustration on the side of the international captors and the difficulties to identify true pirate gangs can not be an excuse for going beyond the borders of any legitimate action - otherwise the legal standing of the international armada is jeopardized in toto.

The solution is as simple as it is unwanted by the navies sporting shoot-first-then -ask-mentality: Help with the fight against the real criminals from illegal fishing and dumping to real piracy but stay away from harassing every Somali boat and assist the Somalis to carry the fight against the real pirate gangs from land.

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