Might 2011 be the year in which we see some real action over the plague of Somali pirates, with the International Maritime Organisation providing a platform for the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon this month to launch new initiatives? Seafarers who bear the brunt of the pirates' increased aggression will hope for the best, but probably won't hold their breath. Presumably beginning the year as they hope to go on, the pirates' tally of 750 seafarers held hostage, with their anchorages on the Somali coast crowded with 33 ships, was not a brilliant end to January, nor a good start to the prospects of a safe passage across the Indian Ocean.
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