VZCZCXRO2061
PP RUEHDE RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNR #2745 3441652
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 091652Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7843
INFO RUCNSOM/SOMALIA COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 3121
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFIUU/CJTF HOA
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL

UNCLAS NAIROBI 002745 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR AF/E AND A/S FRAZER 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: EWWT PGOV PREL OVIP SO
SUBJECT: SOMALIA - SCENESETTER FOR A/S KIMMITT'S PARTICIPATION IN UN 
PIRACY CONFERENCE 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Post welcomes your visit to Nairobi for the UN/Government 
of Kenya Conference on Piracy.  The conference is an opportunity to 
help shape the international community's response to Somali piracy. 
The conference conclusions may also feed Washington deliberations in 
advance of the planned New York ministerial on piracy. 
 
¶2.  (U) Over 150 delegates from morethan 50 invited countries and 
international organizations will gather for a day of technical 
talks, preceding a ministerial on day two, in which you'll 
participate.  Ambassador Michael Ranneberger and Special Envoy for 
Somalia John Yates will accompanyyou.  After opening remarks by the 
UN Special Representative of the Secretary General Ahmedou 
Ould-Abdallah, and addresses by Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki and 
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, the plenary will discuss 
international, regional, and Somali-based responses to piracy.  The 
day ends with issuance of a communiqu. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) If you agree, from among the participating delegates we 
have scheduled meetings for you with the UK's Lord Allen West, 
Minister for Home Affairs and Security, and French Special Envoy for 
Piracy Mrs. Chantal Poirot.  At Ambassador Ranneberger's suggestion 
Puntland President Mohammed Muse Hersi has also agreed to meet with 
you, should you choose. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) This year to date, Somali pirates, mostly from the 
northern semi-autonomous Puntland region, have launched 105 attacks, 
resulting in 64 successful ship hijackings.  Currently 13 ships are 
being held, including the weapons ship M/V Faina and the ultra large 
crude carrier M/V Sirius Star.  Shipping and insurance companies 
have reportedly paid between $30 and $50 million in ransoms to 
Somalia pirates this year.  Ransom money has probably made its way 
into local politicians' pockets, as well as the regions' economies. 
Ransoms are reportedly driving a new market for luxury goods in 
Puntland, and may be behind a purported rise in the price of real 
estate as far away as Mombasa, Kenya. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) As delegations gather here in Nairobi and later in New 
York, we urge Washington to build into its longer-term piracy 
strategy comprehensive economic- and politically-based land 
solutions, as well as sea-based ones.  The up-tick in piracy is the 
result of a collapse of Somalia's economic, political and security 
situation.  Sea-based solutions are necessary in the short and 
medium term.  But without a concerted effort to politically solve 
Somali piracy on land, sea-based solutions will require potentially 
expensive, dangerous, open-ended commitments by shippers and navies 
to deter pirate attacks over thousands of square miles of ocean. 
Sea-based solutions risk distracting international navies from their 
more important counter-terror and counter-proliferation missions. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) A land solution to Somali piracy would involve mustering 
increased international support for a peace keeping operation for 
Somalia, as well as finding financial support (from Arab states, for 
example) for joint TFG and moderate Islamist security forces 
projected to stand up in the first half of 2009.  Likewise, 
continued pressure on Puntland, where pirate networks are based, 
will reinforce our message of transparent government and cooperation 
on our counterterrorism and anti-piracy initiatives.  In 
Washington's piracy response planning, and in light of renewed 
international attention on Somalia, we urge blending land solutions 
to Somalia's political woes with sea solutions to piracy. 
 
RANNEBERGER