Until now, the European Union's Operation Atalanta, which targets
pirates off the coast of Somalia, has been restricted to purely maritime
operations. But that could soon change, now that the EU has agreed on a
controversial expansion of the mission.
Last Friday, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels agreed to expand
the operation to include the coastal region. According to information
obtained by SPIEGEL ONLINE, the ministers agreed that Atalanta units
should be able to target pirates and their infrastructure up to a limit
of two kilometers (1.2 miles) inland. If the expansion is approved, it
will be the first time that Western forces are allowed to target pirates
on the Somali mainland.
The expanded Atalanta mandate
is aimed mainly at the pirates' infrastructure, and the use of ground
troops has been specifically ruled out. The operations will be limited
to air strikes against targets such as storage tanks, boats and radio
facilities. Initially, the EU wanted to keep secret the limit for how
far forces could penetrate into the country, amid concerns that the
pirates could simply shift their facilities further inland.
The limit itself was the subject of prolonged debate in Brussels.
Military representatives had originally proposed a limit of four
kilometers, but this met with considerable resistance from Germany and
Spain. In the end, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle succeeded
in arguing for strict limits on the land-based operations.
Avoiding Civilian Casualties
An expansion of the mission could have significant consequences for
the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr, which is currently taking part
in the Atalanta mission with 291 soldiers and the combat support warship
Berlin, stationed off East Africa. Germany is one of the few
contributing countries that has helicopters on board its ships which
could be used to attack targets along the coast of Somalia from the air.
Military experts argue that such attacks should ideally be carried out
with cannons mounted on helicopters, to hit the targets as accurately as
possible and avoid civilian casualties. The helicopter cannons are
considered particularly accurate, and the gun operators also have the
advantage of having the target directly in front of them.
But if the German navy is to play a role in the expanded mission,
then Berlin will need to get a new mandate for the operation approved by
the German parliament, the Bundestag. The original plan was to get the
mandate approved by Chancellor Merkel's cabinet this week in a
fast-track process. Now, however, sources in Berlin say that the cabinet
will not vote on the mandate until mid-April. After that, the Bundestag
will debate the extension.
There are already signs that Germany's two main opposition parties,
the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens, will not support
expanding the mandate to allow air strikes on the mainland. That could
make things tricky for Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration.
Although the government doesn't technically need opposition support to
get the mandate through parliament, the German government traditionally
aims to achieve cross-party support for the Bundeswehr's foreign
missions, the idea being that such missions should enjoy broad support
among the German population.
But even before that debate gets started properly, German politicians
are already expressing doubts about the EU's new approach. Even if the
operation excludes the use of ground troops, if a helicopter were to
have a technical problem, or be shot down from the ground, then soldiers
might suddenly need to go ashore. Western nations still have painful
memories of a 1993 incident in Somalia -- later the subject of the book
and film "Black Hawk Down" -- when two US helicopters crashed in the
Somali capital Mogadishu and an angry mob dragged the bodies of the
pilots through the streets of the city.
A Militarization of the Problem
Critics such as SPD defense expert Rainer Arnold also oppose what
they describe as a further militarization of the piracy problem. Arnold
argues that piracy should be fought by targeting the flows of the
millions of dollars the pirates earn in ransoms for kidnapped
Westerners. In the run-up to the EU foreign ministers' decision, Arnold
had already announced that his party might oppose such a mandate in the
Bundestag.
It remains unclear, however, whether the whole SPD parliamentary
group would follow his lead in rejecting the expansion. Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, for example, the party's floor leader in parliament, was
involved in setting up the mission while German foreign minister, a
position he held from 2005 to 2009. It would be hard for him to now
reject the mission out of hand.
It's not just politicians who have misgivings about expanding the
operation, either. There are also people in Germany's law enforcement
agencies who doubt whether the planned attacks against pirates'
infrastructure will yield real successes. In a recent closed-doors
discussion, experts from Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the
Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), argued that the pirates' small bases
could hardly be distinguished from fishermen's facilities from the air.
Such air attacks, they said, carried a high risk of so-called collateral
damage -- in other words, civilian casualties.
In addition, possible air strikes would probably only cause the
pirates to move their infrastructure further inland or into villages
inhabited by innocent Somalis. Such relocation would also make it harder
for intelligence agencies to track down the pirates' hostages.
International Operations
The sea off the Somalia coast is regarded as the most dangerous in
the world. Last year alone there were around 230 pirate attacks. With
Somalia still without a functioning government, scores of young men
continue to set out to sea to hijack ships passing along the vital trade
route. The vessels and their crews are then held hostage for ransom, a
lucrative activity.
The EU launched Operation Atalanta in December 2008 in a bid to
tackle the problem. Last week, EU foreign ministers decided to extend
the operation until December 2014.
As well as EU member states, non-EU countries such as Norway, Croatia
and Ukraine have also contributed to the operation. The force has around
1,500 military personnel at its disposal. Depending on the time of
year, it typically has between four and seven surface warships and two
or three reconnaissance aircraft deployed off the coast of Somalia and
in the Indian Ocean. Military units are currently drawn from a core
group of 13 contributing countries, including France, Germany, Italy,
the Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom, among others.
In addition to Atalanta, there is a substantial international force
in the area, including the US-led, multinational group called the
Combined Maritime Forces. NATO, too, is present and ships from China,
India, Japan, Russia and other countries also patrol the waters.
Until now, the fight against Somali piracy has been mainly restricted
to targeting the boats used by pirates. In addition, Atalanta forces
track the motherships that pirates use to operate hundreds of kilometers
from the coast. The mission also provides escorts to World Food Program
vessels delivering food aid to the Somali people.