The Indian Navy, fresh from accidentally sinking a Thai fishing trawler that it thought was a pirate mothership, captured 23 pirates on Saturday. In what may be a troubling sign, eleven of the pirates were from Yemen, rather than from Somalia. No word yet on how the Indian Navy will dispose of the pirates, although it appears that Kenya is an option. Since Kenya depends on seaborne trade moving through pirate-afflicted areas, it has an interest in solving the problem, and may provide the thus-far-elusive legal jurisdiction for trying and imprisoning captured pirates. If Kenya can provide a reliable forum for the legal punishment of pirates, then warships will have an option other than either shooting pirates or letting them go.
Finally, see Virginia Lunsford's excellent brief history of "the golden age" of piracy, including a comparison between the Corsairs and modern Somali pirates.
--Robert Farley
