Forgotten at sea

No progress has been made in securing the release of the 17 sailors aboard MT Honour 25, which was hijacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden and is currently moored near Puntland, Somalia. Soon after the Palau-flagged ship was hijacked on April 21, the government and rights activists began assuring people that the 10 Pakistani sailors would be rescued. Instead, after three months of living in squalor, surviving on only plain boiled rice and contaminated water, the 17 crewmembers are becoming desperately ill. Unfortunately, none of the countries whose nationals are among the crew, nor the ship's owners, have shown willingness to meet the hijackers' ransom demand, believed to be around $3 million.

The ship's owners also refuse to negotiate. The company that hired the Pakistani crewmembers reportedly claims to be nothing more than middlemen, absolved of responsibility. Meanwhile, Pakistan's response has been to step away from this "international issue" while claiming the vessel is in a "no-go area". But several navies have regularly been going into the area to rescue their citizens and send pirates to the bottom of the sea. Among them is the Indian Navy, which rescued a merchant ship with one Indian national aboard in July, and has previously been involved in naval battles against pirates.

It is also worth remembering that piracy meets the definition of terrorism, and terrorists should be dealt with militarily. It is clear that Somalia and the rebel governments of Somaliland and Puntland are either incapable of policing their waters, or are actively conniving with the pirates. Whatever the case, Pakistan's interest should be in protecting its citizens, not sparing the feelings of a dysfunctional state.

It would be one thing if we were unsuccessfully offering carrots and threatening with sticks to get our sailors released. Instead, we have failed to even do that much. Governments that are unwilling to save their own citizens do not deserve to be in power.