PUNTLAND MARITIME POLICE FORCE

Alleged abuse of anti-piracy trainees by Sterling Corporate Services.

The company Sterling Corporate Services which was responsible for training the anti-piracy force Puntland Maritime Force was accused of beating and killing participants of training sessions.

Key words: piracy, poor training, termination of contract

Background

Between 1969 and 1991, Somalia was ruled by a socialist military dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, who seized power in a coup d’état. After years of corruption and economic mismanagement, when Barre’s regime came to an end Somalia was plunged into a prolonged and devastating civil war that had repercussions throughout East Africa. Within this turmoil, different regions of Somalia sought greater independence from Mogadishu: Somaliland declared itself an independent state in the northwest and Puntland claimed autonomy in the northeast.

This region became increasingly lawless, which was exacerbated by the dissolution of the Somali Navy. This vacuum of authority facilitated the intrusion of illegal foreign fishing and waste dumping in Somali territorial waters. This and other factors ultimately led to the emergence of piracy as a widespread problem.

Between approximately 2005 and 2012, Puntland was a thriving hub of piracy operations around the Gulf of Aden. To combat it, the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF) was established in 2011. Sterling Corporate Services, a Dubai-based company, was contracted to create and train this force. The company was accused of violating the arms embargo imposed on Somalia.

Initially, a private military company called Saracen International was contracted by the Puntland government to train the PMPF. The PMPF project was funded by the UAE, as the country’s business operations were threatened by Somali pirates. It was later rebranded and a new company, Sterling Corporate Services, was set up in Dubai to oversee the training of the anti-piracy operation. Erik Prince, former head of Blackwater Worldwide, and Michael Shanklin, former CIA station chief in Mogadishu, were also involved in this project. According to a confidential AU report, Erik Prince was “at the top of the Saracen management chain and provided the seed money for the Saracen contract.”Michael Shanklin was an advisor to the then Somali government and helped mediate negotiations between Saracen, the Somali government and the UAE.

The Incidents

International organizations expressed concern about the techniques and approach employed by Sterling Corporate Services in training and working with Somali anti-piracy trainees. They were accused of beating and even killing Somali trainees during training sessions. The UN Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG) found that one of the trainees had been “hogtied with his arms and feet tied behind his back and beaten.” Although the UNO group claimed that the trainee died from the injuries, Sterling Corporate Services denied the allegation. In one of the incidents, one of the South African trainers was shot and killed by a Somali trainee. According to Sterling, this was an isolated incident and the accused trainee was arrested.

In 2012, SEMG stated that Saracen International had neither sought nor obtained authorization from the international body to operate as a private military contractor in Somalia. Saracen’s continued military training and deployment was in defiance of the overall UN arms embargo. That same year, the UN Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries stated that Sterling/Saracen’s operations went beyond training. A Saracen chartered flight, which was grounded by Somaliland authorities, was found to be carrying an unauthorized shipment of combat uniforms, military straps and other materials.

The International Code of Conduct

The International Code of Conduct requires that personnel of member and affiliated companies take all reasonable measures to avoid the use of force, and if force is used, it must be proportionate to the threat and appropriate to the situation. (Standards for the Use of Force: paragraph 29, Use of Force: paragraphs 30-32).

Resources on the Use of Force

The Code requires rigorous screening and vetting of personnel, assessment of their performance and functions (paragraphs 45-49), and training of personnel on the Code and relevant international law, including human rights and international criminal law (paragraph 55).

Resoures on working conditions

The Code also requires the reporting of any incident involving its personnel involving the use of weapons, criminal acts, injury to persons, etc. (paragraph 63). It also requires the establishment of a grievance, whistleblowing and related procedures to deal with complaints lodged by staff or third parties in relation to the company’s failure to comply with the principles mentioned in the Code (paragraph 66-67).

Compliance with the requirements of the Code of Conduct can help private security companies and their clients to ensure that private security personnel are qualified, trained, supported, informed and accountable.

Impact

In September 2012, Sterling Corporate Services lost the contract to train Puntland’s paramilitary maritime police force to fight piracy, amid criticism from the UN’s Somalia and Eritrea Monitoring Group (SEMG). There were concerns that Sterling Corporate Services was leaving an unpaid but well-armed security force in Puntland, and that this could lead to further destabilization of the area. Bancroft Global Development, a U.S.-based private military security contractor, was asked to assess whether these officers could be assimilated into Somalia’s other security forces, which had both U.S. and African Union approval. Bancroft trained Ugandan and Burundian soldiers for counterinsurgency missions in Somalia under the African Union flag. He stated that he would not take over Sterling’s counter-piracy mission.

Discussion

What are the implications of leaving behind an unpaid force trained in the use of weapons in an already unstable region?

Related Incidents

Sources

This case has been prepared by Shilpa Suresh, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.

Disclaimer

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