A lawmaker from the Transitional Federal Parliament of Somalia has said foreign nations should use part of the 12 million U.S. dollars that navies spend yearly in patrolling the Somali coastline in rehabilitating pirates as a way of ending the threat.
Awad Ahmed Ashareh, who is also the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Information, Culture, Public Awareness and Heritage, told Xinhua on Wednesday that despite this show of might, 450 ships and 500 crew members are under the control of Somali pirates thereby rendering it an exercise in futility. "Piracy cannot be fought by use of force. It is a dangerous occupation the young men are embarking on due to lack of alternative and which can only be solved from the hinterland of Somalia," he said in Nairobi. "To fully eradicate the menace from the waters of Somalia requires enormous sums of money that will go towards creating employment and the psychological rehabilitation of the pirates conducted by Islamic scholars."
He said dumping of toxic waste and illegal fishing of the Somali coast are the genesis of piracy, with the pirates saying the ransom they demand goes towards cleaning up the waste.
"The pirates believe the Somali coastline has been destroyed, and this money is nothing compared to the devastation they have seen on the seas," the Somali lawmaker added.
Source: Xinhua
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