The German Navy will expand the powers and allow you to fight with pirates off the coast of Somalia

The warships of the Navy (Navy) of Germany will participate in the fight against Somali sea pirates in the African horns. To do this, it is planned to expand the mandate deployed in the region to the contingent of the Russian Navy, according to the German newspaper Financial Times Deutschland .

The German military, which have been deployed here since the end of January 2002, in the framework of the anti-terrorist operation "Long Freedom" control maritime communications, accompany merchant vessels and inspect transported goods in order to block the channels of illegal supplies of weapons to al-Qaeda terrorists. According to the current mandate of the Bundestag, they are forbidden to participate in skirmishes with pirates. However, in November of this year, the mandate has the next extension. It is planned to make amendments to the new document, which will give German military the right to participate in the fight against pirates.

For expanding the mandate, the chairman of the Bundestag committee on foreign policy Ruprecht Polenz (Party of the CDU) spoke out. "I would welcome if the mandate met new tasks," he said.

He was supported by an expert at the German Social Democratic Party in the Bundestag on defense issues Rainer Arn Arnold, who also expressed the hope that the Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany will "bring clarity" on this issue before the start of the summer holidays.

In the area of ​​the African horn, the naval forces of the United States, France, Germany and Spain are concentrated, which patrols the Gulf of Aden and Somalia. The French and American sea fleet has repeatedly persecuted pirate ships trying to hide with the prey in the territorial waters of Somalia. The zone 12 miles (almost 90 kilometers) is protected by international sea law.

On the eve of the UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution , which gives countries the right to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia. The consent of the 15 members of the Council of People's Commissars was achieved after France, which is one of the co -authors of the project, took an Indonesia reservation that this document and the measures stipulated in it to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia would not create a precedent for other areas of the world.

Since the beginning of the year, the pirates attacked 20 ships in front of the Somali coast. Now there are three vessels in the hands of the pirates, including the German cargo ship Lehman Timber. On one of the captured ships are also four citizens of Russia. The ship Amia Scan, owned by the Dutch company Rieder Shipping, was captured in the Gulf of Aden on May 27 of this year. In addition to Russians, five Filipinos are also on board. Pirates hold a ship in the port of Bargal in the north of the country, threatening to kill the sailors if they are tried to free them by force.

Pirates attacks in most cases according to the same scheme: armed pirates capture ships, take hostage to the team and hide with their prey to the Somali territorial waters, where their redemption requirements come from, the German edition says.

After the last decades of the Civil War in Somalia, there is no effective state order, and the Provisional Government of the country does not have any naval forces.