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Summary A top US official said piracy in Somalia could only be defeated with the help of world community.
Admiral Robert Willard, chief of the US Pacific Command, said navy patrols alone could not stopthe hijacking of ships if pirates bases onshore are allowed to operate without interference.The international community is spending millions of dollars a day maintaining a flotilla of warships to protect key shipping lanes off East Africa.The organisers, the funders are the central problem ,but the international community has been unable to determine how to tackle the problem onshore, Willard told a regional forum in Malaysia.Last year, pirates seized 53 vessels and captured a record 1,181 hostages, almost all of them off the Somali coast. Some 30 ships and more than 600 hostages are still in pirates handsPirates are becoming increasingly violent in retaliation to navy interference in their multimillion dollar trade.
