Piracy suspects appear in Kenya courts

At a hearing in Mombasa, it was the first court appearance for 11 Somali men tracked down by French commandos and seized April 14 in a predawn raid as they ate breakfast in their skiffs in waters off Somalia. The pirate suspects had been marched off a French frigate Wednesday and handed over to authorities in Mombasa.

The French had also handed over the pirates' captured equipment: two skiffs, three grappling hooks, four rusty assault rifles, two bags of bullets and a ladder.

Magistrate Catherine Mwangi adjourned their case until a bail hearing May 27. They will remain in a Mombasa jail until then. She also demanded that officials give the men fresh clothing for their bail hearing.

Next door, seven other suspected pirates listened to witnesses testify against them. German sailors had captured the men in late March after they reportedly attacked a German naval supply ship.

Kenya is also holding another trial involving pirate suspects handed over by Britain.

In other efforts to stamp out piracy in Somalia, which has not had an effective government since 1991, donors at a conference in Brussels pledged over $250 million yesterday to improve Somalia's internal security.

Experts believe the underlying causes of piracy - unemployment, few options, and insecurity on land - drive young men into a life of seafaring crime.

Under the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, any country can try a piracy case irrespective of the pirates' nationalities or the vessel they hijacked. Most countries with navies patrolling off the coast of Somalia have ratified the convention, as has Kenya, but the US has not.

Legal specialists said the concept of an international piracy tribunal appeared to be gaining traction.

"Kenya has applied to have a center to fight against piracy here in Mombasa," government spokesman Alfred Mutua acknowledged yesterday.

Kenya has laid the groundwork for such a tribunal by striking deals with the European Union and the United States that allows it to try suspected pirates captured by navies from those countries.