Piracy post-tsunami

Piracy post-tsunami

Welcome though it would be, the marked decline in criminal
activity in the piracy-plagued Malacca Straits after the tsunami
cannot be attributed to altruistic factors alone.

They (pirates) are lying low because global attention is
currently focused on the region as never before, and
international relief and rescue operations have brought a vast
number of vessels to the area. It is clearly unsafe for pirates
to play their dirty games. But such conditions will be limited to
the short term, and as normality returns, so will pirates. Make
no mistake about it.

It is often forgotten in New Delhi that the Andaman & Nicobar
islands are closer to Indonesia than the Indian mainland and, for
example, unrest in Aceh has implications. It was tsunami-
generated grief that proved that the Indian ocean, links not
separates, should help to deal with pirates in a similar unified
response.
-- The Statesman, Calcutta