Perspective: Months of Monday

GULF OF ADEN — It’s Monday again. Sailors will tell you that every day at sea is a Monday, right up to the day before you get to port. Then it’s Friday.

Finding a solution for the future of trade

GULF OF ADEN -- The member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are negotiating to extend and expand the highly successful counter-piracy mission in the waters off Somalia.

There are also talks underway to clarify once and for all the legal framework for counter-piracy missions so that more suspected pirates can be brought to justice.

Portuguese Rear-Admiral Jose Domingos Pereira da Cunha, the senior officer in charge of Standing NATO Marine Group One, said Friday it is essential for NATO warships to continue patrolling the pirate-infested waters to ensure that citizens around the world are not punished by increasing prices for the goods shipped through this critically important trade corridor.

It is hoped a new and larger NATO task force could be in place by July 1, a spokesman for the rear-admiral said. The majority of ships in Standing Marine Group One is expected to complete their current deployment at the end of June.

Counter-piracy mission to be extended

ON BOARD HMCS WINNIPEG — The member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are negotiating to extend and expand the highly successful counter-piracy mission in the Gulf of Aden, the senior officer in charge of Standing NATO Marine Group One said today.

There are also talks underway to clarify once and for all the legal framework for counter-piracy missions so that more suspected pirates can be brought to justice.

Portuguese Rear-Admiral Jose Domingos Pereira da Cunha said it is essential for NATO warships to continue patrolling the pirate-infested waters of the Gulf of Aden to ensure that citizens around the world are not punished by increasing prices for the goods shipped through this critically important trade corridor.

It is hoped a new and larger NATO task force could be in place by July 1, a spokesman for the rear-admiral said. The majority of ships in Standing Marine Group One are expected to complete their current deployment at the end of June.

Practicalities of pirate prosecution raises questions

ON BOARD HMCS WINNIPEG in the GULF OF ADEN — With his frantic tone, the captain of the Maria K. left no doubt that he was facing a world of trouble.

Without warning, a light-blue skiff with nine pirates fired several rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) launcher at the Maria K. The captain attempted evasive maneuvers but like most of the slow, awkward merchant vessels that travel the trade route through the Gulf of Aden, they were sitting ducks.

And then, at the last moment, the pirates disengaged and headed toward another container ship, the Maersk Virginia. Perhaps because the pirates got up close to the Maria K. and found she had troublesome counter measures, or perhaps because the Maersk Virginia held the promise of more robust loot, the chase was on with new quarry.

The radio on the bridge of HMCS Winnipeg vibrated with the rapid-fire transmissions going back and forth between the two merchant ships and several warships in the area. Although this incident was outside the Winnipeg's patrol box, Commander Craig Baines immediately steered his frigate towards the coordinates of the Maersk Virginia, and sent word to ready Winnipeg's Sea King helicopter, for immediate dispatch.

Kenya courted to prosecute pirates

ON BOARD HMCS WINNIPEG in the GULF OF ADEN -- Canada is actively seeking an agreement with Kenya to prosecute suspected Somali pirates arrested by Canadian warships, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Thursday.

Following a tour of HMCS Winnipeg, Canada's contribution to a NATO anti-piracy task force in the Gulf of Aden, MacKay said negotiations are underway between a number of interested nations and Kenya to accept pirates arrested in the act of attacking commercial vessels.

"We're working through diplomatic channels with countries here in the region, most notably Kenya, as other countries have been able to do, to establish a means or a process to prosecute those who are involved in piracy here," MacKay told reporters.

"There are precedents in place that allow for countries like Canada to strike an agreement, an accord or memorandum that would allow for the arrest and then turning over of suspected pirates and evidence necessary to prosecute."

Dan Lett reports from HMCS Winnipeg

Free Press reporter Dan Lett files a report from the HMCS Winnipeg.

Defence minister tours HMCS Winnipeg

ON BOARD HMCS WINNIPEG in the GULF OF ADEN — Canada is actively seeking an agreement with Kenya to prosecute suspected Somali pirates arrested by Canadian warships, Defense Minister Peter MacKay said Thursday.

Canadians engaged in age-old battle

SALALAH, OMAN -- Think of HMCS Winnipeg as the thin grey line.

Looming over the dock in this port city, the haze of 40-degree temperatures and dust of the surrounding desert giving the ship a discernible glow, Winnipeg is all spit and polish and sharp edges.

The Canadian frigate is nearly one and a half football fields long, and weighs nearly 5,000 tonnes. And in its current mission patrolling the expansive waters of the Gulf of Aden, Winnipeg and a handful of NATO warships are all that separate the commercial vessels containing trillions of dollars in cargo from the grips of a new generation of pirates.

The pirates are fast, fearless and -- given that they originate from the mayhem that is Somalia -- they are unrestrained by law. They have swapped their sails for small skiffs and 300-horsepower outboard engines, and cannons for rocket-propelled grenade launchers.