EU foreign affairs chief to visit Africa in May to push for more piracy prosecutions

EU to push for piracy prosecutions in Africa

LUXEMBOURG — The European Union’s foreign affairs and security chief will visit Africa next month to press for more help in prosecuting pirates arrested by European warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden, she told a meeting Monday.

Catherine Ashton wants to see the suspects on trial as close to home as possible instead of transported to Europe for prosecution.

An EU armada has detained scores of suspected pirates in recent months but only a handful will ever wind up in court. The vast majority were disarmed and put back on their boats with enough food and fuel to reach land.

EU nations are reluctant to pay the cost of transporting them back to Europe for trial and it is hard to successfully prosecute pirates unless they are caught red-handed hijacking or attacking a ship.

Compounding the problem, Kenya — one of only two African nations to sign an agreement with the EU to take on piracy cases — recently stopped accepting suspects, saying they put undue strain on the country’s congested justice system.

Dutch Defense Minister Eimert van Middelkoop told The Associated Press on Monday that Kenya’s decision made Ashton’s trip “highly relevant.”

Van Middelkoop welcomed Ashton’s planned tour of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the Seychelles as a possible way of putting more piracy suspects behind bars.

“It is very unsatisfactory that we can’t prosecute the pirates,” he told the AP on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers.

He said the Dutch frigate HMS Tromp that recently served with the EU mission detained 83 pirates in two months and turned 73 loose.

The remaining 10 were arrested April 5 in a daring high-seas rescue mission after they hijacked a German container ship.

The pirates were flown back to the Netherlands where they are in jail awaiting transfer to Germany where they will be put on trial.

Six pirates who mistakenly tried to attack a French warship last week are still in custody aboard the French boat BCR Somme, military spokesman Adm. Christophe Prazuck said Monday.

They will be handed over to judicial authorities, but the French have not yet determined where they will be prosecuted.

While getting piracy suspects into court remains a problem, the increasing international focus on protecting shipping off the coast of lawless Somalia is paying dividends.

The International Maritime Bureau says piracy attacks worldwide fell by more than a third in the first quarter this year thanks to a decline in raids in the Gulf of Aden.

The IMB credited tougher anti-piracy action by international navies with reducing the number of attacks in the Gulf of Aden from 41 a year ago to 17. The east and south coasts of Somalia recorded 18 incidents, down from 21 a year ago.

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Associated Press Writer Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.