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　　The explosion of piracy¹ off the coast of Somalia in recent years has exposed a weakness in the United Nations maritime² law that makes high seas piracy illegal throughout the world.
今年以来，索马里海盗活动猖獗，暴露出联合国海事法的缺陷，这造成了世界各地在公海上的海盗活动。
In the waters off Somalia's nearly 4,000-kilometer-long coast, warships³ from more than a dozen countries have formed what U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon recently described as "one of the largest anti-piracy flotillas in modern history."
索马里有将近四千公里长的海岸线。来自12个国家的战舰在这片海域组成了联合国秘书长潘基文最近所形容的“现代历史中最大规模的反海盗舰队。”
Ships from NATO, European Union member states, and others have been dispatched there in recent months to fight a sharp upsurge in the hijacking⁴ of vessels⁵ and crew for ransom⁶. The United Nations says the 111 pirate attacks that took place last year in the sea corridor linking the Suez Canal and the Indian Ocean represent an increase of nearly 200 percent over 2007.
来自北约、欧盟成员国和其它国家的军舰在最近几个月被部署到索马里海域，打击激增的海盗劫持船只和向船员索取赎金行动。联合国表示，去年在这条连接苏伊士运河和印度洋的海上通道共发生111起海盗袭击事件。这比2007年增加了将近200%。
Operating from remote fishing communities in northeastern and central Somalia, pirates have earned tens - perhaps even hundreds - of millions of dollars in ransom. They have disrupted global trade and have caused untold⁷ damage to the world's economy.
海盗在索马里偏远的东北部和中部的渔村活动，已经获取了数千万、乃至数亿美元的赎金。海盗活动扰乱了全球贸易，并且对世界经济造成了不可估量的损失。
Horn of Africa analyst⁸ at Chatham House in London, Roger Middleton, says the international community must take some of the blame for the calamity⁹.
伦敦皇家国际事务研究所非洲之角分析员罗杰.米德尔顿说，国际社会必须对索马里的海盗问题负一定责任。
"Part of the thing is that people looked at Somalia and said, 'This country is so messed up, there is no point in worrying about it. They will just fight among themselves and there will be no consequences for the rest of the world.' And actually there are consequences for the rest of the world, which we are beginning to see now," Middleton said.
他说：“一部分问题就是，人们看了索马里的情况然后说，‘这个国家太混乱，没有必要去担心它。他们只会自己打内战，他们不会威胁到世界其它国家。’实际上，他们已经威胁到了其它国家。这就是我们现在看到的。”
In 1991, Somalia descended¹⁰ into war after the fall of the regime of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. During the next decade, some European and Asian countries took advantage of the chaos¹¹ in Somalia and sent their commercial fleets to fish in Somali waters. Other European countries sent to Somalia thousands of drums of toxic¹² waste, including nuclear waste, to be dumped at sea.
1991年，在穆罕默德.西亚德.巴雷的独裁政权分裂后，索马里陷入了内战。在接下来的10年里，一些欧洲和亚洲国家借助索马里局势混乱的机会派商业船队去索马里海域捕捞。其它欧洲国家向索马里海域排放大量有毒废水，包括核废料。
Without a coast guard to monitor and prevent such illegal activities, Somali fishermen began organizing and arming themselves to confront waste dumpers and to collect fees from foreign vessels taking fish out of their waters. Middleton says what began as a legitimate¹³ fight against foreign exploitation turned into a criminal enterprise when everyone discovered its lucrative¹⁴ potential.
在没有海岸警卫队对非法活动的监督和制止下，索马里渔民自己组织并武装起来，对付排污者并向在索马里捕鱼的外国船只收取费用。米德尔顿说，当所有的人都发现这其中存在巨大的利益后，原本是正当的反对外国非法开发索马里资源的活动演变成一项犯罪事业。
"Lots of people who are pirates now are not from coastal¹⁵ villages. They are not fishermen. They are from inside, former militiamen and they are motivated entirely¹⁶ by money. The fact that illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste still goes on in Somalia is excellent PR [public relations] for the pirates. It means that when they capture a ship and they talk to a news organization and say, 'We are just defending Somali waters,' and so on, that plays very well in the communities they need to get support from along the coast," he said.
他说：“现在的很多海盗并不是来自索马里沿海的渔村。他们也不是渔民。在索马里仍然存在的非法捕鱼和排放有毒废水给海盗们提供了一个绝好的公关机会。这就意味着，当海盗截获一艘船的时候，他们就会说，‘我们只不过是在保护索马里水域’等等。这就给了向海盗提供支援的沿海村庄很好地与他们合作的理由。”
The warships patrolling the Gulf¹⁷ of Aden and the Indian Ocean are doing so under the legal framework of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and Security Council resolutions.
在亚丁湾和印度洋巡逻的战舰是遵照《联合国海洋法公约》的法律框架以及安理会的决议行事的。
Signed in 1982 by more than 150 countries, the Law of the Sea defines piracy as illegal acts committed on the high seas for private ends. It also states that all countries have a right to seize and prosecute¹⁸ those committing pirate acts on the high seas.
150多个国家1982年签署的《联合国海洋法公约》对海盗的定义是：为牟取个人私利在公海进行的非法行径。该公约还声明，所有国家都有权力抓捕并起诉在公海从事海盗行径的人。
But maritime law specialists say the convention clearly did not consider the emergence¹⁹ of failed states like Somalia, and neglected to address the question of what happens if a pirate attack takes place not on the high seas, but within a country's territorial²⁰ waters or in its neighbor's waters.
不过，海洋法专家说，《联合国海洋法公约》显然没有考虑到像索马里这类失败国家的出现，当海盗发动的袭击不是在公海，而是在某一国家的领海，或在其邻国的领海之内，又该如何处理呢？《联合国海洋法公约》显然没能给予答案。
The international law on piracy assumes that individual states would assume the responsibility of policing and patrolling their own waters and to prosecute those seized in the act of piracy. But not all states have the resources and capacity to ensure maritime security within their waters. This is now being highlighted by the on-going piracy problem in Somalia, which after 18 years is still trying to establish a functioning government.
有关海盗问题的国际法规定，每个国家都有责任在其领海警戒巡逻，并起诉在海盗攻击中被捕的人。但是，并不是所有的国家都具备确保在其领海内航海安全的资源和能力，索马里持续不断发生的海盗行径凸显了这个问题。索马里在18年之后仍在试图建立起一个能够运作的政府。
In recent months, Somalia's neighbor, Kenya, has signed memorandums of understanding with the United States, Britain, and the European Union to accept suspected pirates and to prosecute them in Kenya. But those agreements have come under fire from local and international human rights groups and lawyers, who argue that Kenya has yet to pass relevant laws regarding piracy and that its corrupt²¹ judicial²² system cannot be trusted to conduct free and fair trials.
近几个月来，索马里的邻国肯尼亚跟美国、英国和欧盟签署了一系列谅解备忘录，接受海盗嫌疑人并在肯尼亚起诉他们。但是这些备忘录遭到来自当地与国际人权组织和律师的批评，他们认为，肯尼亚还没有通过有关海盗的相关法律，而且他们不能相信肯尼亚腐败的司法体系有能力举行自由和公正的审判。
Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula has defended the government's position, saying Kenya is making an important contribution toward restoring maritime security in east Africa. But in a speech before a gathering²³ of foreign envoys²⁴ in Nairobi last December, he acknowledged the piracy problem is likely to continue unless Somalia achieves political stability.
"Partly, this menace is born out of our collective failure to resolve the problems of Somalia," he said. "It is the lawlessness of Somalia that has given the breeding ground for what is now an unprecedented²⁵ threat to trade activities, to cruise ships, to many things."
The international community agrees that a multilateral approach is needed to tackle the piracy issue. Within the United Nations, there has been serious debate about whether to create a maritime peacekeeping force for Somalia.
Somalis say they believe if the international community had cared about what was happening off the coast of Somalia in the 1990s, there would be no crisis to resolve now.