"Army spokesman Nick Van Haver confirms that the ship is still kept under embargo and that the UN is looking for a diplomatic solution."

"The UN is looking for a diplomatic solution." Is there any more darkly comical combination of words in the English language?

""The UN is looking for a diplomatic solution." Is there any more darkly comical combination of words in the English language"

If there is, I think the humor of it would kill me to hear it.

After enormous oil reserves were discovered in Equatorial Guinea in the past years, under the rule of its dictator, the tiny country has made new friends and is aiming to new objectives...

There are UN words as dark, perhaps darker.

"The binding decision of the Council is to remain seized of the matter."

Yes. When looking for missing capital, war plunder and grand folly, one need look no further than the Belgians.

Did they check with the alien ship that was hovering over?

Well, one silver lining is that someone can now write a credible sequel to Stripes. But who would play the Bill Murray part?

Joe,

James Dunnigan is on this case:

When Governments Turn to Piracy

February 12, 2006: Sometimes, governments carry out acts of piracy. A case occurred last month when a Ukrainian ship, carrying fifteen Belgian Pandur wheeled armored vehicles, on loan to UN peacekeeping troops from Benin, stopped at a port in Equatorial Guinea. There, on January 3rd, officers from the Equatorial Guinean navy boarded the ship, arrested the four Beninese soldiers guarding the vehicles (and other military equipment). Shortly there after, the stuff the Beninese soldiers were guarding was removed from the ship. The Ukrainian ship was actually carrying a hundred vehicles for the UN, all painted white, with UN markings. The UN is trying to get Equatorial Guinea to explain what is going on, and get the vehicles and equipment back. The Ukrainian ship and its 23 man crew is still being held. Belgium had loaned all that gear to the UN, and insists that the UN get it back.

This sort of thing is not unusual for Equatorial Guinea. Last year, Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, was forced to pay Equatorial Guinea a $500,000 fine to get out of the country. Thatcher had earlier been arrested and charged with attempting to overthrow the government. There's certainly a need for that. Equatorial Guinea has been ruled, since 1979, by dictator Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (who inherited the job from his uncle, via a coup.) Obiang has grown increasingly paranoid and unstable of late. That's because oil was discovered in the 1990s, and that produced more money than has ever been seen before in the tiny country of only 600,000 people. Obiang has stolen most of the $700 million in annual oil income, handing out enough of it to cronies to keep himself in power. But, in a situation like that, who can you really trust? So when a ship comes by, with a hundred UN peacekeeper vehicles on deck (worth some $20 million), what do you do? After all, the army of Equatorial Guinea consists of only three battalions, and the stuff on the ship would equip one of those battalions with better gear then they have now.

In any event, it's not uncommon for government officials to collaborate with pirates. In the last decade, it's happened in China and Southeast Asia, and elsewhere as well. The dictator of Equatorial Guinea is carrying on an ancient tradition, that still lives on today. UN leader Kofi Annan has been in touch with Obiang, and has admitted that this has not produced any results. Obiang has the stuff, and the UN has admitted they are short of peacekeeping troops in Africa. There's going to be a temptation to just look the other way, warn ships to be careful when entering the area, and move on. The situation in Equatorial Guinea is likely to resolve itself, as Obiang appears to be losing control, and members of his armed forces apparently want to get their hands on the oil money bank accounts. The United States has long protested the corruption in Equatorial Guinea, actually closing its embassy from 1995 to 2003 because of the atrocities committed by the government. The United States has dealt with this sort of thing before, as the U.S. Marine Corps hymn points out ("..to the shores of Tripoli.") But Equatorial Guinea is a miniature version of Iraq, and who needs another dysfunctional country to repair.

I agree, Trent (#8) except for this:

but Equatorial Guinea is a miniature version of Iraq, and who needs another dysfunctional country to repair?

??

Equatorial Guinea is a corrupted autocracy and a very good business for someone. Geographically it has more to do with Grenada - the most important part of its territory is an island - than with Iraq.

On the other hand, with so much cash and oil Teddy Obiang can buy many supporters, such as Saddam did.

Sadly, too often tyranies are underpinned by oil.

Did Belgium ever think to ask UPS or Fedex? I know it would never occur to the UN.

"When looking for missing capital, war plunder and grand folly, one need look no further than the Belgians."

Not to mention cowardly appeasement.

It's not piracy if a government does it, it's an act of war.

I don't think it's really piracy (and thus subject to execution in any nation that happens to capture the pirates) if it occurs in a port rather than on the high seas, either, but I'm not certain about that. This seems to be in EG's territorial waters, which would give them jurisdiction.

Too bad Belgium apparently doesn't have the military power to deal with this as acts of war have historically been dealth with.