Ecoterra Press Release updates no 60, 61 and 62
As the ongoing piracy crisis off the Somali coast at the Horn of Africa region risks triggering the world’s first major military enterprise after Iraq, in five previous articles of this series, I provided with a recapitulative record of the insightful press releases of the leading NGO Ecoterra; more specifically, I republished Press Release updates no 43 to 59. In the present article, I republish Ecoterra Press Release updates no 60, 61 and 62.
60th Update 2008-11-23 22:31:12 UTC
Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !
Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.
We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!
New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868
Day 60 - 1424 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, though intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the modalities of the safe release of crew and vessel.
Since the situation around Harardheere on the coast of Somalia has been getting very tense due to the build up of different militias over the last days the VLCC SIRIUS STAR beeing held there, her captors are intending to move her further north to the Garaad area, local sources reported. But they would have to pass the area where U.S. and other naval forces have pinned down MV FAINA, which could lead to a critical situation. This is why the vessel just has moved out to sea again. A shoot-out reported between the group holding MV FAINA and an Islamist group with severe casualties on the side of the Islamic fighters today could not be confirmed.
ECOTERRA Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.
News from other abducted ships ----------
A fighter with a radical Islamic group in Somalia says it will go after the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker. Abdelghafar Musa says the pirates should not seize ships belonging to Muslim nations or loot the property of Muslims. He claims to speak on behalf of all Islamic fighters in Somalia. The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) warned yesterday that it will take action against pirates responsible for the "major crime" of seizing the supertanker, which belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd. Al-Shabaab told the pirates holding the Saudi tanker to release it or face armed conflict, Sheikh Abdulaahi Osman, a commander of the group in Harardheere, said by phone today. The captors have said that any attempt to storm the ship, either by the insurgents or Somali authorities, will be fiercely resisted. The deadline set by the captor for 30. November to receive the ransom has been countered by another deadline set by Islamic fighters of the Al-Shabaab group to release the tanker unconditionally or face an attack. The captors on board have given warning to the Islamists that they are ready to fight. Any confrontation could turn into a bloodbath in which the hostages - who include two Britons - could be killed. The Sirius Star has in the meantime been manoeuvred further out at sea and out of reach for the land-based Al-Shabaab group.
Iran's Foreign Ministry is relentlessly seeking to learn of the hijacked Iran-bound grain ship and take its safe delivery from Somali pirates. "We are following up the issue through embassies, Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council and related organs to secure release of the ship and its crewmembers as soon as possible", Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told IRNA on Saturday. "We hope the follow up will bear fruits soon and that through adopting practical and safe strategies will prevent recurrence of similar problems", Mottaki highlighted. The vessel is anchored further south off the coast of the Eyl area.
With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of around 356 crew members (of which 134 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 110 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 49 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16).
Fishing piracy ------
Connie Levett, writes today in the Australian "Sidney Morning Herald": Fishing fleets are pirates, too and alerts that while their warships patrol the Gulf of Aden to protect merchant shipping from Somali pirates, a number of those nations are directly linked to foreign fishing fleets that are plundering Somalia's fish stocks, quoting a new scientific paper on reasons behind the growth of piracy off the Horn of Africa. There are warships from India, Malaysia, Britain, the US, France, Russia, Spain and South Korea in the region shepherding merchant shipping and pursuing pirates but largely ignoring the illegal foreign fishing fleets. Somalia's 3300-kilometre coast is the longest on the African continent. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates there are "700 foreign-owned vessels fully engaged in unlicensed fishing in Somali waters". The collapse of the local fishing industry and subsequent poverty of coastal communities has been cited as one reason piracy has flourished in Somalia's lawless semi-autonomous province of Puntland. Vessels from France, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Belize and Honduras exploit Somalia's fish stocks with virtual impunity, says Dr Clive Schofield's paper, Plundered Waters: Somalia's Maritime Resource Insecurity. "It is particularly ironic that many of the nations that are presently contributing warships to the anti-piracy flotillas patrolling, or set to patrol, the waters off the Horn of Africa, are themselves directly linked to the foreign fishing vessels that are busily plundering Somalia's offshore resources", Dr Schofield, a researcher with the University of Wollongong's Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security. Without condoning acts of violence at sea, he said:
"The desperate Somalis who hijack shipping off their coast are in fact not the only 'pirates' operating in these waters". It was estimated that foreign fishing vessels were taking considerably more protein out of Somalia's waters than they were supplying to Somalia in the form of humanitarian food aid, he said. With almost a third of Somalia's 10 million people in acute need of aid, the systematic theft from its fisheries seriously affects the strife-torn country's ability to feed itself.
Other related news -----
A prominent official at the Somali Foreign Ministry has stated that the Somali Government might move officially against the pirates who hijacked the Saudi oil tanker and that this move might take the form of military action to liberate the super tanker anchored off the Somali coast.
Muhammad Jami, the Somali Foreign Ministry undersecretary and the second-in-command in it, told "Mareeg online" by telephone contact from Dubai that the timing of this move "depends on the desire of the tanker's owners", and noted that the latter are asking the Somali Government to wait and not attack the pirates. He added: "They are withholding us from acting." The local administration in the area where the Saudi tanker is anchored talked to the pirates through intermediaries and asked them to release the tanker because it belongs to a fraternal country, Saudi Arabia.
But the pirates refused and insisted on demanding a ransom. The Somali official said "the Somali Government is somewhat weak and does not have an adequate army" and pointed out in this context that Somalia had asked the Arab countries to contribute to the establishment of a naval force to operate off the Somali coasts "but they refused and even did not show an interest in the issue." He said the "the Somalis' knowledge of the region is greater than that of others." While reports referred to the possible bombardment of the Somalia port of Eyl, the Somali Foreign Ministry undersecretary said: "This will be useless if not carried out within the framework of joint forces of which Somalia is part due to its knowledge of the region." Observers are expecting the piracies to escalate in the coming stage for several reasons which Riyad Qahwaji, director of the "Near Eastern and Gulf Institute for Military Analysis" added to "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" that air patrols are also needed to monitor the pirates' movements in this region. Russia has proposed raiding the pirates' land bases such as Eyl, but the NATO alliance has said African nations must take the lead. Few in the gunmen's strongholds showed any fear.
Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa's UN envoy, has said the media frenzy over piracy off the Somali coast has distracted the world's attention from the root cause of the suffering of ordinary Somalis trapped in a chaotic nation lacking a central government for nearly two decades. "I'm pleased we are concerned about piracy, but we would hope that also the plight of the Somali people would catch everybody's attention because Somalia has been suffering now for 17 years with very little help", Kumalo told reporters at the UN. Kumalo criticised the latest report on Somalia by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon as "comprehensive" but lacking a plan "going forward to help the Somali people".
Yemen is to host next January the 2nd consultative meeting of countries bordering the Red Sea on how end the piracy phenomenon in the Gulf of Aden, the state-run www.26.sep.net reported on Sunday. Deputy Minister of Foreign Ali al-Ayashi was saying that the first regional meeting on combating the piracy which recently concluded in the Egyptian capital Cairo, had discussed economic, political and legal sides of this phenomenon. Al-Ayashi made clear that the meeting stressed the role of the African Union, the U.N. and the Arab League to combat the piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
Pakistan is ready to join Indian efforts to halt piracy off Somalia, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday. Pakistan was a small country without a big naval power, "but if I am asked to do a little bit, I can do that", Zardari said when asked via video-conferencing by a reporter at the Indian daily Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi about the cooperation.
The Russian and U.S. leaders have agreed to continue cooperation despite existing disagreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush met in the Peruvian capital on Saturday as part of a two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"Both presidents said that disagreements persisted in relations between the two countries but there was unanimous desire to deal with the solution of practical issues important for both countries and for the entire international community", Lavrov said. Lavrov also said the Russian and U.S. leaders would come out with proposals to jointly fight pirate attacks on merchant vessels off Somalia. Warships from all of the Russian Navy fleets will be involved in measures to fight piracy in the Horn of Africa region, Russia's Navy commander said on Sunday. "Regular presence in that problem region means the accomplishment of tasks both by separate warships and warship groups from all the fleets to ensure safe shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa region as a whole," Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.
Captain 1st rank Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian Navy commander, said the Neustrashimy was currently escorting five ships in the Gulf of Aden. Dygalo also said that a task force from Russia's Northern Fleet led by the Pyotr Veliky missile cruiser would visit La Guaira in Venezuela from November 25 to December 1. The Northern Fleet task force also includes the large anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Chabanenko and support ships. "On December 1, after the end of the visit, the Russian warships will hold joint exercises with the Venezuelan Navy", Dygalo said. Dygalo said the exercises would be held in the Caribbean Sea to practice joint maneuvering, inspection operations (with inspector teams landing on board the vessels), assistance to a distressed ship and operations to replenish supplies on the move.
Tehran: Iran's biggest shipping firm is working on measures to deal with the impact of international sanctions, its managing director said in comments published on Sunday. The UN Security Council and the United States have imposed sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear programme, which the West says masks a covert bid to make atomic bombs. Tehran insists its work is purely civilian in nature. "The shipping company is taking measures to confront the recent sanctions through the formation of a special working group", Hussain Dajmar, managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), said. The United States slapped sanctions on IRISL in September, accusing it of lying about its activities and helping Iran's Defence Ministry, charges Tehran denies.
Kenya's Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, while addressing a security meeting in Mombassa today, urged the Kenyan Security Forces stationed along the Kenyan/Somali-border to not allow any refugees to cross into Kenya.
61st Update 2008-11-24 20:59:43 UTC
Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !
Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.
We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!
New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868
Day 61 - 1447 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, though intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the modalities of the safe release of crew and vessel.
ECOTERRA Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.
News from other abducted ships ------
Yemen's Interior Ministry says Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Arabian Sea. A ministry statement Monday says communication with the vessel was lost last Tuesday, after it had been out to sea for a week. The ship's name is Adina and weighs about 517 metric tons. The U.S. 5th Fleet based in Bahrain could not confirm the hijacking.
The "Media-Negotiations" especially concerning the Sirius Star continue while many media are just talking to imposers:
A) The Somali pirates, who hijacked the Saudi supertanker "The Sirius Star", have lowered the ransom they demand by USD 10 M, the Bulgarian Information Agency BTA reported Monday citing an Islamist leader with connections to the hijackers. Abdurrahim Adou, a local leader at the region Haradere in Central Somalia where the supertanker is anchored, has announced the demanded ransoms was USD 15 M.
B) The pirates had originally been quoted as wanting $25 million to release the Sirius Star, which has $100 million of oil on board as well as 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines are asking for a $15 million ransom, an Islamist leader said on Monday.
Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Isse Adow, whose men are in the Haradheere area where the ship is being held offshore after its Nov. 15 capture, told Reuters that demand had been reduced. "If you retaliated, they would have shot you.... They were drug addicts. Their only purpose was money. "Middlemen have given a $15 million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now", Adow told Reuters.
C) On Friday a pirate, who called himself Mohammad Said, told Agence France-Presse via satellite phone that the supertankers' owner, Vela International, would face "disastrous" consequences if it did not pay $25m (£17m).
D) Pirates commanding the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star may have reduced the ransom payment they are demanding to $15m (£10m).within 10 days.
E) The $25- with crude oil is unchanged, a leader of the group of Somali pirates who seized the ship told Agence France-Presse Monday. "We have not changed the amount of the ransom, it remains at exactly $25 million. If we want to change it, it will have to be agreed unanimously with all the people involved", million ransom demanded for the release of a Saudi super-tanker laden said Mohamed Said. Said, the leader and spokesman of the group holding the ship, was reached by phone in the coastal village of Harardhere.
Why do the media not realize that with all the confusion up front, with the confusion of sums in US Dollars, Pound, Euro or Canadian Dollar and with all the confusion created by reports of self-styled, so called spokesmen and media-stringers they do not support straight negotiations and a quick solution for the abducted seafarers, but merely contribute to the unnecessary extension of the solution finding process in each case. Per Gullestrup, managing director of Copenhagen-based Clipper Projects, said not paying a ransom to save a crew is no option at all -- a "fallacy" because "to my knowledge, no ship has been released down there without the payment of a ransom".
VLCC SIRIUS STAR was moved by her captors around 100 nm offshore. The Polish captain, Marek Nishky, has spoken to the BBC and said that he and his 25 member crew were safe, in good shape, and had been allowed to talk to their families. He also said he was not aware of any negotiations taking place with the pirates for a ransom to be paid.
With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of around 356 crew members (of which 134 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 110 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jacking) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 49 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16).
60th Update 2008-11-23 22:31:12 UTC
Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !
Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.
We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!
New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868
Day 60 - 1424 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, though intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the modalities of the safe release of crew and vessel.
Since the situation around Harardheere on the coast of Somalia has been getting very tense due to the build up of different militias over the last days the VLCC SIRIUS STAR beeing held there, her captors are intending to move her further north to the Garaad area, local sources reported. But they would have to pass the area where U.S. and other naval forces have pinned down MV FAINA, which could lead to a critical situation. This is why the vessel just has moved out to sea again. A shoot-out reported between the group holding MV FAINA and an Islamist group with severe casualties on the side of the Islamic fighters today could not be confirmed.
ECOTERRA Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.
News from other abducted ships ----------
A fighter with a radical Islamic group in Somalia says it will go after the pirates holding a Saudi supertanker. Abdelghafar Musa says the pirates should not seize ships belonging to Muslim nations or loot the property of Muslims. He claims to speak on behalf of all Islamic fighters in Somalia. The Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) warned yesterday that it will take action against pirates responsible for the "major crime" of seizing the supertanker, which belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned shipping line, Vela International Marine Ltd. Al-Shabaab told the pirates holding the Saudi tanker to release it or face armed conflict, Sheikh Abdulaahi Osman, a commander of the group in Harardheere, said by phone today. The captors have said that any attempt to storm the ship, either by the insurgents or Somali authorities, will be fiercely resisted. The deadline set by the captor for 30. November to receive the ransom has been countered by another deadline set by Islamic fighters of the Al-Shabaab group to release the tanker unconditionally or face an attack. The captors on board have given warning to the Islamists that they are ready to fight. Any confrontation could turn into a bloodbath in which the hostages - who include two Britons - could be killed. The Sirius Star has in the meantime been manoeuvred further out at sea and out of reach for the land-based Al-Shabaab group.
Iran's Foreign Ministry is relentlessly seeking to learn of the hijacked Iran-bound grain ship and take its safe delivery from Somali pirates. "We are following up the issue through embassies, Secretariat of the Supreme National Security Council and related organs to secure release of the ship and its crewmembers as soon as possible", Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told IRNA on Saturday. "We hope the follow up will bear fruits soon and that through adopting practical and safe strategies will prevent recurrence of similar problems", Mottaki highlighted. The vessel is anchored further south off the coast of the Eyl area.
With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of around 356 crew members (of which 134 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 110 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 49 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16).
Fishing piracy ------
Connie Levett, writes today in the Australian "Sidney Morning Herald": Fishing fleets are pirates, too and alerts that while their warships patrol the Gulf of Aden to protect merchant shipping from Somali pirates, a number of those nations are directly linked to foreign fishing fleets that are plundering Somalia's fish stocks, quoting a new scientific paper on reasons behind the growth of piracy off the Horn of Africa. There are warships from India, Malaysia, Britain, the US, France, Russia, Spain and South Korea in the region shepherding merchant shipping and pursuing pirates but largely ignoring the illegal foreign fishing fleets. Somalia's 3300-kilometre coast is the longest on the African continent. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates there are "700 foreign-owned vessels fully engaged in unlicensed fishing in Somali waters". The collapse of the local fishing industry and subsequent poverty of coastal communities has been cited as one reason piracy has flourished in Somalia's lawless semi-autonomous province of Puntland. Vessels from France, Spain, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Egypt, Kenya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Belize and Honduras exploit Somalia's fish stocks with virtual impunity, says Dr Clive Schofield's paper, Plundered Waters: Somalia's Maritime Resource Insecurity. "It is particularly ironic that many of the nations that are presently contributing warships to the anti-piracy flotillas patrolling, or set to patrol, the waters off the Horn of Africa, are themselves directly linked to the foreign fishing vessels that are busily plundering Somalia's offshore resources", Dr Schofield, a researcher with the University of Wollongong's Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security. Without condoning acts of violence at sea, he said:
"The desperate Somalis who hijack shipping off their coast are in fact not the only 'pirates' operating in these waters". It was estimated that foreign fishing vessels were taking considerably more protein out of Somalia's waters than they were supplying to Somalia in the form of humanitarian food aid, he said. With almost a third of Somalia's 10 million people in acute need of aid, the systematic theft from its fisheries seriously affects the strife-torn country's ability to feed itself.
Other related news -----
A prominent official at the Somali Foreign Ministry has stated that the Somali Government might move officially against the pirates who hijacked the Saudi oil tanker and that this move might take the form of military action to liberate the super tanker anchored off the Somali coast.
Muhammad Jami, the Somali Foreign Ministry undersecretary and the second-in-command in it, told "Mareeg online" by telephone contact from Dubai that the timing of this move "depends on the desire of the tanker's owners", and noted that the latter are asking the Somali Government to wait and not attack the pirates. He added: "They are withholding us from acting." The local administration in the area where the Saudi tanker is anchored talked to the pirates through intermediaries and asked them to release the tanker because it belongs to a fraternal country, Saudi Arabia.
But the pirates refused and insisted on demanding a ransom. The Somali official said "the Somali Government is somewhat weak and does not have an adequate army" and pointed out in this context that Somalia had asked the Arab countries to contribute to the establishment of a naval force to operate off the Somali coasts "but they refused and even did not show an interest in the issue." He said the "the Somalis' knowledge of the region is greater than that of others." While reports referred to the possible bombardment of the Somalia port of Eyl, the Somali Foreign Ministry undersecretary said: "This will be useless if not carried out within the framework of joint forces of which Somalia is part due to its knowledge of the region." Observers are expecting the piracies to escalate in the coming stage for several reasons which Riyad Qahwaji, director of the "Near Eastern and Gulf Institute for Military Analysis" added to "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" that air patrols are also needed to monitor the pirates' movements in this region. Russia has proposed raiding the pirates' land bases such as Eyl, but the NATO alliance has said African nations must take the lead. Few in the gunmen's strongholds showed any fear.
Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa's UN envoy, has said the media frenzy over piracy off the Somali coast has distracted the world's attention from the root cause of the suffering of ordinary Somalis trapped in a chaotic nation lacking a central government for nearly two decades. "I'm pleased we are concerned about piracy, but we would hope that also the plight of the Somali people would catch everybody's attention because Somalia has been suffering now for 17 years with very little help", Kumalo told reporters at the UN. Kumalo criticised the latest report on Somalia by UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon as "comprehensive" but lacking a plan "going forward to help the Somali people".
Yemen is to host next January the 2nd consultative meeting of countries bordering the Red Sea on how end the piracy phenomenon in the Gulf of Aden, the state-run www.26.sep.net reported on Sunday. Deputy Minister of Foreign Ali al-Ayashi was saying that the first regional meeting on combating the piracy which recently concluded in the Egyptian capital Cairo, had discussed economic, political and legal sides of this phenomenon. Al-Ayashi made clear that the meeting stressed the role of the African Union, the U.N. and the Arab League to combat the piracy in the Gulf of Aden.
Pakistan is ready to join Indian efforts to halt piracy off Somalia, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday. Pakistan was a small country without a big naval power, "but if I am asked to do a little bit, I can do that", Zardari said when asked via video-conferencing by a reporter at the Indian daily Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi about the cooperation.
The Russian and U.S. leaders have agreed to continue cooperation despite existing disagreements, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart George W. Bush met in the Peruvian capital on Saturday as part of a two-day summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
"Both presidents said that disagreements persisted in relations between the two countries but there was unanimous desire to deal with the solution of practical issues important for both countries and for the entire international community", Lavrov said. Lavrov also said the Russian and U.S. leaders would come out with proposals to jointly fight pirate attacks on merchant vessels off Somalia. Warships from all of the Russian Navy fleets will be involved in measures to fight piracy in the Horn of Africa region, Russia's Navy commander said on Sunday. "Regular presence in that problem region means the accomplishment of tasks both by separate warships and warship groups from all the fleets to ensure safe shipping in the Gulf of Aden and the Horn of Africa region as a whole," Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky said.
Captain 1st rank Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian Navy commander, said the Neustrashimy was currently escorting five ships in the Gulf of Aden. Dygalo also said that a task force from Russia's Northern Fleet led by the Pyotr Veliky missile cruiser would visit La Guaira in Venezuela from November 25 to December 1. The Northern Fleet task force also includes the large anti-submarine warfare ship Admiral Chabanenko and support ships. "On December 1, after the end of the visit, the Russian warships will hold joint exercises with the Venezuelan Navy", Dygalo said. Dygalo said the exercises would be held in the Caribbean Sea to practice joint maneuvering, inspection operations (with inspector teams landing on board the vessels), assistance to a distressed ship and operations to replenish supplies on the move.
Tehran: Iran's biggest shipping firm is working on measures to deal with the impact of international sanctions, its managing director said in comments published on Sunday. The UN Security Council and the United States have imposed sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear programme, which the West says masks a covert bid to make atomic bombs. Tehran insists its work is purely civilian in nature. "The shipping company is taking measures to confront the recent sanctions through the formation of a special working group", Hussain Dajmar, managing director of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), said. The United States slapped sanctions on IRISL in September, accusing it of lying about its activities and helping Iran's Defence Ministry, charges Tehran denies.
Kenya's Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, while addressing a security meeting in Mombassa today, urged the Kenyan Security Forces stationed along the Kenyan/Somali-border to not allow any refugees to cross into Kenya.
61st Update 2008-11-24 20:59:43 UTC
Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !
Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.
We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!
New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868
Day 61 - 1447 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, though intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the modalities of the safe release of crew and vessel.
ECOTERRA Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.
News from other abducted ships ------
Yemen's Interior Ministry says Somali pirates have hijacked a Yemeni cargo ship in the Arabian Sea. A ministry statement Monday says communication with the vessel was lost last Tuesday, after it had been out to sea for a week. The ship's name is Adina and weighs about 517 metric tons. The U.S. 5th Fleet based in Bahrain could not confirm the hijacking.
The "Media-Negotiations" especially concerning the Sirius Star continue while many media are just talking to imposers:
A) The Somali pirates, who hijacked the Saudi supertanker "The Sirius Star", have lowered the ransom they demand by USD 10 M, the Bulgarian Information Agency BTA reported Monday citing an Islamist leader with connections to the hijackers. Abdurrahim Adou, a local leader at the region Haradere in Central Somalia where the supertanker is anchored, has announced the demanded ransoms was USD 15 M.
B) The pirates had originally been quoted as wanting $25 million to release the Sirius Star, which has $100 million of oil on board as well as 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines are asking for a $15 million ransom, an Islamist leader said on Monday.
Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Isse Adow, whose men are in the Haradheere area where the ship is being held offshore after its Nov. 15 capture, told Reuters that demand had been reduced. "If you retaliated, they would have shot you.... They were drug addicts. Their only purpose was money. "Middlemen have given a $15 million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now", Adow told Reuters.
C) On Friday a pirate, who called himself Mohammad Said, told Agence France-Presse via satellite phone that the supertankers' owner, Vela International, would face "disastrous" consequences if it did not pay $25m (£17m).
D) Pirates commanding the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star may have reduced the ransom payment they are demanding to $15m (£10m).within 10 days.
E) The $25- with crude oil is unchanged, a leader of the group of Somali pirates who seized the ship told Agence France-Presse Monday. "We have not changed the amount of the ransom, it remains at exactly $25 million. If we want to change it, it will have to be agreed unanimously with all the people involved", million ransom demanded for the release of a Saudi super-tanker laden said Mohamed Said. Said, the leader and spokesman of the group holding the ship, was reached by phone in the coastal village of Harardhere.
Why do the media not realize that with all the confusion up front, with the confusion of sums in US Dollars, Pound, Euro or Canadian Dollar and with all the confusion created by reports of self-styled, so called spokesmen and media-stringers they do not support straight negotiations and a quick solution for the abducted seafarers, but merely contribute to the unnecessary extension of the solution finding process in each case. Per Gullestrup, managing director of Copenhagen-based Clipper Projects, said not paying a ransom to save a crew is no option at all -- a "fallacy" because "to my knowledge, no ship has been released down there without the payment of a ransom".
VLCC SIRIUS STAR was moved by her captors around 100 nm offshore. The Polish captain, Marek Nishky, has spoken to the BBC and said that he and his 25 member crew were safe, in good shape, and had been allowed to talk to their families. He also said he was not aware of any negotiations taking place with the pirates for a ransom to be paid.
With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of around 356 crew members (of which 134 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 110 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jacking) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 49 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16).
