UN backs new courts and prisons for pirates

The UN Security Council on Monday called for the establishment of specialized international courts and prisons and new laws to combat Somali pirates. The council voted unanimously for a Russian drafted resolution to step up the international battle against the growing threat from piracy off the Somali coast. The pirates are currently holding dozens of vessels and hundreds of hostages. An international navy is trying to battle the scourge in the Indian Ocean. One of the key elements of the new resolution calls for courts to try pirates in a third country outside of Somalia. The resolution said the council "decides to urgently consider the establishment of specialized Somali courts to try suspected pirates both in Somalia and in the region, including an extra-territorial Somali specialized anti-piracy court."  Russia's UN envoy, Vitaly Churkin, called the courts "the first practical step in the direction of setting up an effective judicial mechanism, one capable of a credible reliable solution to the problem of bringing pirates to justice." France's envoy Gerard Araud called resolution 1976 "a considerable and concrete" step forward in the battle against piracy off the Somali coast. The council called on UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to prepare recommendations on setting up the courts within two months. Many of the measures in the resolution are based on ideas proposed by Jack Lang, the former French minister who carried out a special study for Ban on new legal means to combat piracy. Lang had suggested using the international court in Arusha, Tanzania where cases from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda have been heard. He also said there should be special courts in the northern Somali enclaves of Somaliland and Puntland. Authorities in Somaliland last month inaugurated a UN-funded prison to hold pirates but warned it would not yet accept those detained by foreign powers. Somali pirates have infested the waters of the Gulf of Aden, southwest of the Arabian Sea, making it one of the world's most dangerous waterways. According to Ecoterra International, a group which monitors maritime activity in the region, Somali pirates currently hold more than 40 vessels and about 700 seafarers. It says several others vessels, mainly small fishing boats, are missing and believed to have been captured.