Instead, Mohamed Abdi Hassan, one of the Somalis - if world - more famous chefs of pirate, appears much more business than the bandits of the sea, as he explains why he now wants to put an end to the lethal diversion of vessels.
Hassan, better known as the "Afweyne" or "Big mouth", whose men once terrorized vast tracts of Indian ocean - generating millions of dollars in ransoms of seizures of vessels - now claims to have renounced piracy.
"Young men should be trained to obtain skills and integrate into the society," said Afweyne, pulling on his briefcase an official letter by apparently naming as a"fight against piracy".
Afweyne, who said he earned his nickname as a child "because I was crying a lot", says convincing nearly a thousand young pirates to leave.
"We convince young people to renounce piracy..." I influence and have been mobilizing the community... to prevent men from the water, "he told AFP over a cup of tea in an upscale hotel in the capital of devastated by the war in Somalia Mogadishu."
Last year a United Nations report described Afweyne as "one of the most notorious and the most influential leaders" in Somalia.
Attacks by pirates have in recent years been launched 3 655 kilometres (2,277 km) from the Somali coast in the Indian ocean.
The World Bank last month calculated between 315 million $ and $385 million (242 million euros) was paid in ransom since 2005, a figure dwarfed by the estimated 18 billion $ that piracy costs the global economy each year.
But Afweyne, a soft spoken and corpulent man in his fifties with a way apparently nicely, avoids the descriptions of himself as a pirate and especially Somali 'burcad badeed' to translate, literally, the "scum sea".
"Maybe you have heard much about this ship or this ransom... but 90 percent of what you hear in Somalia is false," said, opening his arms wide and hilarious laugh any suggestion that it was dangerous.
"I do not say that I did not participate, because I was the one who initiated the fight," he said, claiming he took up piracy after his fishing business has been ruined by off the coast of Somalia foreign fleets, after the country climbed in the civil war in 1991.
"It is legitimate, because there was no Government, we were like orphans without a father," he added.
Afweyne, whose son is apparently a dreaded pirate leader, participated in the capture of 2008 of the oil belonging to the Saudi Sirius Star supertanker released for a ransom of several million dollars.
Sound or men's son were also involved in the capture of 2008 of the MV Faina, a Ukrainian transport ship carrying 33 refurbished Soviet tanks, which was released after a day of 134 hijack for a reported $ 3 million.
Afweyne would have also made a series of attacks on vessels carrying food aid to the impoverished nation.
In recent years, international China, EU naval patrols European, the United States and the Russia have protected the expedition and fought against the Pirate ships, with the rate of attacks falling 80 percent from 2011 to 2012, according to the EU Somalia anti-piracy mission EUNAVFOR.
But Afweyne says long-term change is not just about the changes at sea.
"(Patrols) have done much good, but we need efforts on land too," he said.
For training and support to allow hackers to turn their lives around money is also essential, he said.
"We need financial support to enable (ex-pirates) having to be fishermen, farmers or traders, alternate careers... whatever they choose. ''
Cynics say that Afweyne made his money and now wants to invest money in businesses. Others suggest that it is driven in part by the conviction that hackers of his clan of Sarah have tarnished the international reputation of the Somali people wider.
Last year it was supposedly given a diplomatic passport to Somalia and then President, Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, as an incentive to dismantle its network of pirate.
But what is his motivation - and however hard, it may actually be to stimulate economic growth in the regions of pirate without faith nor law - influence of Afweyne is important.
Weakness of the Government of Somalia – supported by an African Union force 17 000 men - does not control the key areas which operate the pirates, who are largely along the North Coast in the autonomous region of Puntland.
"We want the Government and the international community for us help to provide opportunities for our young men," said Hassan Abdullahi Mohammed, a senior official of the Thomas and Heeb region, a pirate key region, where several hostages remain.
While the pirates have lost ground, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) warns that the waters of Somalia remain extremely high risk.
Five boats and 77 hostages are still held by Somali pirates, according to the IMB, while some pirates have turned to terrestrial kidnappings and acts of banditry in place.
But Somali Government slowly strengthens its control on its territory, aided by the military progress against Islamist forces by the troops of the African Union and the Government, with economy and trade in growth as security slowly improves. Business in the country's ports, in particular, is booming.
At the port of Mogadishu, numbers of large ships unloading goods - and this year, the export of cattle for the first time in more than two decades - increased nearly one-fifth last year.
Other ex-pirates seem to favour the removal of Afweyne, but warn that efforts to put an end to piracy must involve concrete changes on the ground.
Ex-pirate captain Abdullahi Abdi said that he cannot promise that those he commanded, who are now unemployed on Earth, have given up attacks for good.
"I can't say that," he said. "There are hundreds of young men who want a future... and a hungry young man can do something."
Source-AFP
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