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Aggressive military action to curb piracy off the coast of Somalia can contain the scourge, but it will only be wiped out when a stable and strong government takes control of the lawless east African nation, a top naval officer based in Bahrain says.
Senior US and European officials have echoed the call for efforts to move beyond naval action.
"The solution to piracy is a stable Somalia. As long as there is no rule of law, we can only try to mitigate the problem but not eliminate it," said Capt Chris Chambers, director of the 23-nation Combined Maritime Forces based in Bahrain that is in charge of an international anti-piracy naval force.
Delegates at an international conference on piracy in Kuala Lumpur said a lasting solution must involve eliminating the root causes and empowering Somali people to make piracy a less attractive option. Embroiled in a series of civil wars, Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991.
