re: #916 Dustyvet

NATO forces let captured pirates go
First, the good news — NATO forces freed 20 hostages from the grips of pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Dutch commandos chased the pirates back to their mother ship, seized the ship, and liberated the hostages. Good for them; job well done.

Until …

Dutch commandos freed 20 Yemeni hostages on Saturday and briefly detained seven pirates who had forced their captives to sail a “mother ship” attacking vessels in the Gulf of Aden, NATO officials said. …

The commandos briefly detained and questioned the seven gunmen, he told Reuters, but had no legal power to arrest them.

“NATO does not have a detainment policy. The warship must follow its national law,” he said.

“They can only arrest them if the pirates are from the Netherlands, the victims are from the Netherlands, or if they are in Netherlands waters.”

[Link: rpc.blogrolling.com…]

Maritime law is a tangled rat’s nest. That’s why ALL parties affected by piracy have to sit down and come to a common agreement over how it will be handled, and then vigorously enforce that common understanding.

I don’t see that happening any time soon.