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Mohamed Dahir / AFP - Getty Images file
A January 2010 photo, shows a Somali pirate and the hijacked Greek cargo ship MV Filitsa, anchored just off Hobyo in northeastern Somalia.
MOGADISHU - A Somali pirate kingpin nicknamed "Big Mouth" says he has renounced a life of hijacking ships that earned him fame and fortune before an international naval crackdown that has curbed attacks on maritime commercial and pleasure craft.
A U.N. Monitoring Group report on Somalia in 2010 said that Mohamed Abdi Hassan "Afweyne" commanded bandits in the Arabian Sea and off the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa for almost a decade, raking in millions of dollars in ransom payments.
"I have given up piracy and succeeded in encouraging more youth to give up piracy," Afweyne told Reuters on Friday.
"This came as a result of my efforts for a long period. The boys also took the decision like me. It was not due to fear from warships, it was just a decision," he said by mobile phone from his base in Adado in central Somalia.
Security analysts saw Afweyne's gesture as symbolic, saying he had already grown rich off the proceeds of piracy and seemed to have decided it was no longer worth the increasing risk.
"(Afweyne's move) may be a tacit recognition that the Somali piracy phenomenon no longer yields the lucrative criminal gains it did in previous years, thanks to successful naval operations and improved security and awareness on merchant vessels," said Rory Lamrock, intelligence analyst with security firm AKE.
"(Pirates) are getting shot up or arrested by private security companies and navies so he (Afweyne) is finding it increasingly difficult to find recruits," said Alan Cole, head of the anti-piracy program at the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
"As many as 1,500 young men have left home hoping to come back rich and not come home at all," Cole said from Nairobi, capital of Somalia's southern neighbor, Kenya.
Naval patrols deter piracy
In 2011, Somali piracy in the busy shipping lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the northwestern Indian Ocean netted $160 million, and cost the world economy some $7 billion, according to the American One Earth Future foundation.
But successful hijackings have been declining steadily since 2010 thanks to concerted patrolling by an international coalition of warships and the increasing use of armed private security guards on merchant ships.
Just seven ships were seized in the vast area of the Indian Ocean off Somalia in the first 11 months of last year, compared to 24 in the whole of 2011, after NATO, the European Union and other nations dispatched warships there.
Adado regional President Mohamed Aden Tiicey said Afweyne had actually withdrawn from active piracy some years ago, and was behind the surrender of 120 pirates over the past week.
"In 2010 our administration pardoned him and the then-interim government of Somalia also pardoned him and gave him a diplomatic passport," Tiicey said.
The U.N. Monitoring Group said last year that pirate chieftains such as Afweyne were being protected by Somali authorities from arrest. It said it had evidence a diplomatic passport had been issued to Afweyne by then-Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed as a reward for what Somali officials said was Afweyne's involvement in anti-piracy activities.
The UNODC said it remained skeptical about Afweyne's announcement. "He's a criminal so is by implication dishonest, so we take this with a pinch of salt," said Cole.
The U.N. report said pirate leaders are now increasingly involved in land-based kidnap for ransom of foreign tourists and aid workers in northern Kenya and Somalia, as well as selling services as counter-piracy experts and consultants in ransom negotiations, and exploring "new types of criminal activity."
Somalia has been in chaos since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. His fall spawned clan warfare and Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab militants who are fighting to topple the Mogadishu government and impose a harsh brand of Islamic law.
Related stories
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- Somalia pirate dens see decline as international efforts to stop seizures succeed
- Pirates seize 24 sailors on Greek tanker off Togo coast
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.
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The U.N. report said pirate leaders are now increasingly involved in land-based kidnap for ransom of foreign tourists
Why would anyone in their right mind consider that area as a tourist destination?
Big Mouth should of been sucking on the business end of a hellfire missle a long time ago.
I prefer the Pirates of the Caribbean.
Big mouth ... are we talking about fish here? big mouth bass...actually a good nickname for pirates who live on waters.?
They are not even real pirates in my book. Just criminals and she be addressed as such. If the shoe fits....
Real pirates are just criminals.....I think you have seen too many Disney movies
I can't understand why nobody can 86 him and call it a day ???
So he's robbed enough to be able to retire. And msn is publicizing this? In the name of God, (and quality journalism), WHY?
Don't believe anything muslims say! They all lie!
The UN should capture him and then hang his azz. That would take any skepticism out of the picture.
The UN couldn't catch a cold in the middle of winter.
This guy has also said he is afraid for his life because the UN is still hunting pirates all over that area. He has made his $millions and is trying to fade into the woodwork to avoid taking a bullet between the eyes. He is a coward -- a rich one, but nonetheless a coward. Now that someone knows where he is, he should be picked up and interrogated, his finances frozen and his cohorts arrested, as well. Once a pirate, always a pirate.
I'm surprised he hasn't told us he is entering the priesthood.
Saying all Muslims lie is bull@!$%# racist and inflammatory, a very small but unfortunately highly visible are causing problems, just like what happens here in the good old USA, and BTW, I am not a Muslim, but believe in fair play.
'I've got mine. Please don't come after me.'
Go get his stupid a$$, and take back his booty, and hang him high.
The Russians have a great way of dealing with pirates. They tie the pirates to the deck of their boat set the boat on fire and cast it adrift. Russians aren't very worried about the ACLU.
Sounds like crime did pay!
Bullpucky. And he's got a diplomatic passport? Should he leave his country, put him in one of the secret CIA prisons and torture him. Take his money. Actually taking his dough is the best way of doing him in. When he can't pay the warlords anymore, he'll lose that passport in a New York minute. And probably get hung in the process.
I'm just curious. Do you want him tortured in order to try to get information from him or just to practice torture? Not that I'm defending piracy in any way, but advocating torture doesn't seem very civilized.
Mass murderer. International crimes against humanity he should be hunted down like the Nazi's and executed.
In my mind, execution for first degree murder is acceptable. Torture, not so much.
Hmm........interesting that so many judge this man, from a country that has been abused by colonizers, torn apart by their puppets, and more lately taken advantage of because it was lawless and not able to defend itself. My understanding is that in the beginning, the pirates took up arms to defend their coast. However, it branched into another enterprise, unfortunately a criminal one.
It would be interesting to see how many of those who rush to judge this man, would think and behave if they were born and raised in Somalia.
Gregory, Pirate....self proclaimed and highly successful pirate, which equals murdering, thief. Failure to judge that is without question absolutely stupid. Don't blame him....you make me sick. If he captured you or someone you love and got to see just how a cold blooded killer acts, I bet you would retract such an shockingly dumb thing to say. I say....He is an international terrorist and should be treated accordingly.
Ok, I am stupid and make you sick. Sorry about that. To my knowledge, your facts are incorrect. What does that make you?? The Somilia pirates were not interested in murdering anyone. Just in money. The news media did not indicate very many deaths, if any from these attacks. I do not at all justify what they did, and it is great that the situation is becoming less of a threat to international commerce.
Great that you can be such a judge of other persons. Would like to see you grow up in such an environment and see how YOU turn out.
No, I would not retract anything I wrote.
Two questions:
1. What kind of "pirate" has his base 100 miles from the coast anyway?
2. Are we fresh outta drones? Blowing up pirates sounds like a good task for our little winged emissaries to me!
A part of our problem is that there are too many people who think the way Gregory does. There are those sad folks who can find a way to excuse just about every perverted action. In reality this human garbage is a murderer who needs to be executed and forgotten.
I never said that they should not be stopped. Our problem is that there are too many in the country who have their hand on the trigger, oops, sorry, not THEIR hand, but very wiling to have someone -"they"-go out and kill someone for them.
He calmly comitted crimes. The world community can calmly go out and stop him including killing him if necessary. The hate needs to be left behind.
Also, you show a real lack of understanding of the way I think.
It is hard to understand why many fellow citizens get their dander up when all someone tries to do is develop some understanding of an adversary, without jumping into rubber stamping hatred.
Sure. go after him, kill him if necessary or waranted. But let us try to understand the situation, so maybe we can help bring about some peaceful solution in the future.
The hatred can be left at home.
They are much more dangerous than the Pirates from Pittsburgh
Way ta go, Big Mouth! I'm so proud of you! But now we need to track you down and kill you, because we don't believe you should be allowed to retire in comfort.
Somalia was torn apart by a proxy war between the Soviet Union and America for years. Then Somalia's fishing industry was largely killed off due to pollution from a large number of ocean going oil tankers off it's coast. So what's to be expected of a people who have nothing left to lose?
Sometimes I wonder if American foreign policy is forever doomed. America installed and permitted the Shah of Iran to torture countless Iranians in it's holy war against Communism. Religious nut jobs are now in control of Iran and will soon have nuclear weapons. At least a million Afghans were killed and countless more injured during Afghanistans war with the Soviet Union. America's thanks to Afghanistan for helping to end the Cold War? Not one dime.
Barnes....
Love to blame America for all the worlds ills. ?? Try doing that in some of the countries you mentioned... and see if your ever captured if they will listen to YOU !!
America.. your best friend or your worst Nightmare !!
Yes, that is what I am trying to express. Just because one wants to understand an adversary does not mean that they should not be stopped including killing if necessary.
If you do not understand an adversary, it can lead to ruin. The Nazi regime was blinded by their own belief in self and hatred of "inferior races" like the slavic peoples, much to their demise.
No pirate should ever be safe anywhere on earth. People who make excuses for murderers are as much of today's problems as the criminals themselves. These people should be hunted to extinction.
According to certain Somali-Canadian Musicians, the Hijackings originally targeted only Fishing Vessels - Which was an action that they defended, saying that there was no other way for them to enforce their Territorial Fishing Rights in the face of HUGE International Trawlers coming into their waters and scooping up all of the fish their in an otherwise unchallenged manner....
Mr. Cole should learn more about the 'background', before you write someone off as a 'criminal' - General George Washington, after all, was a "Traitor" - At least from KING GEORGE'S POV, eh?
Well I hear tell that the sequel to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is about to begin filming, this walking, talking human turd & filthy mongrel muslim is planning to audtion for the led Ape in the movie and that's why he has stopped Pirating....plus he already has a huge "harem" of young boys he likes to have fun with as well.