The MV FAINA Piracy Crisis Chronicle – VI
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).
Other related news
George Galloway writes today in the Scottish Daily Record: The real culprits revealed. Piracy is back, apparently. When did it ever go away? Lord Bingham, until recently the country's top law lord, last week accused the British and American governments of behaving like "vigilantes" in their illegal attack upon Iraq. What's that but piracy? The reason Somalia - where the hijackers of oil tankers and the rest are based, is a lawless land of brigandry - is because the same British and American governments overthrew the government there and installed a foreign, Ethiopian, puppet-regime which we taxpayers have funded ever since. I am reminded of St Augustine in his book City Of God in which he recounts the tale of an encounter between Alexander the Great and a pirate captain on the high seas. Ordering the pirate to halt, Alexander demands: "How dare you terrorise these waters as a thief?" The pirate captain replies: "How dare You terrorise the whole world? You with your great armies and navies, can call Yourself an Emperor, and can call other men as you please". Now isn't that the very world we have today?
Maritime groups on Monday called on the United Nations to mount an international naval blockade to halt the surge of piracy off Somalia. At a regional conference on maritime safety, they also called for clear rules of engagement that would allow foreign navies to intercept and prosecute pirates who are operating with impunity in the Gulf of Aden. "Maybe we should have the UN coordinating naval action off Somalia. It could impose a blockade along the Somali coast", said Peter Swift of the London-based International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (INTERTANKO).
"We have asked (the UN) for a long time for naval support for merchant shipping to protect the seafarers and world trade", he said, adding they had requested naval help and aerial patrols. Yohei Sasakawa, chairman of the Tokyo-based Nippon Foundation which lobbies for safer shipping, also called for an escalation of the response to pirates whose attacks have dramatically increased in recent months. "The United Nations should take action. It should deploy a sea-based UN-backed peacekeeping mission to ensure security. Pirates will then think twice before attacking", he said. Shipping officials from around the world called for a military blockade Monday along the coast of Somalia to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea. The association, whose members own 2,900 tankers or 75 percent of the world's fleet, opposes attempts to arm merchant ships because it could escalate the violence and put crew members at risk, he said. "The other option is perhaps putting a blockade around Somalia and introducing the idea of intercepting vessels leaving Somalia rather than to try to protect the whole of the Gulf of Aden", said Swift.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, however, was swift to respond and he said Monday that the alliance is not considering any naval blockade as a way to combat piracy off Somalia, after maritime groups urged international action. "Blocking ports is not contemplated by NATO", he told reporters, adding that such action has not been endorsed by the UN Security Council. "This is, at the moment, not in the cards".
A visiting German navy general said Monday that his country would like to cooperate with China in containing pirates and other non-traditional threats. "I think navies of Germany and China should work together to fight against pirates", German Navy Inspector General Wolfgang Nolting told Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie. Liang said, "We should pay more attention to the non-traditional security threats. But the two gave no details on how the two navies would cooperate in this field".
Taiwanese shipowner Nobu Su will divert his fleet of tankers around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid Somalian pirates. The owner and operator of shipping subsidiary Great Elephant, which has a fleet of 20 very large crude carriers, said all tankers will now avoid the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
Eight suspected Somali pirates charged for acts of piracy and illegal possession of weapons were on Monday denied bail by a Mombassa court following fears that they may abscond justice, local media reported here on Monday. According to the reports, the eight who were handed to the Kenyan authorities last week by the British Royal Navy, were denied bail by the magistrate, Catherine Mwangi who in her ruling said that the
residences of the eight are unknown and may escape justice. Ms. Mwangi said the case will be heard between 11th and 12th December. The pirates were arrested in a foiled hijack attempt over two weeks ago in high seas after an exchange of gunfire off Somalia with the British Royal Navy.
62nd Update 2008-11-25 23:22:15 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 62 - 1473 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.
Somali pirates holding the Ukrainian ship with a cargo of combat tanks and other weaponry said on Tuesday they had lowered their ransom demand to US$3 million. ''We are demanding three million dollars to release the MV FAINA'', said Sugule Ali, the spokesman of the group of pirates that hijacked the ship on September 25, according to AFP. ''We are running out of time, waiting for an outcome to these protracted negotiations. The owners should immediately take this opportunity to recover their property'', said Ali, reached by phone on the MV FAINA. Other contacts, however, disclaimed these statements.
According to a military press source the pirates who captured the Saudi oil tanker Sirius Star have broken off negotiations with the ship's owners, apparently insisting they want to talk with a wealthy Virginia woman with close ties to the US military and intelligence communities. Michele Lynn Ballarin runs a small Virginia-based company, that designs and makes body armor and provides executive protection to wealthy individuals. She has a long history of involvement in Somalia, including allegations by a respected publication -- Africa Confidential -- that she was helping plan military operations there in 2006. Ballarin said she is not only negotiating with the pirates holding that Saudi tanker, she is also in touch with the MV FAINA, the Ukrainian ship loaded with grenade launchers, ammunition and 33 Russian-made T-72 tanks. The FAINA's captain helped the pirates drop a sign over the ship's side with the word "Amira" written on it, which refers to the Arabic nickname for a female leader that Ballarin earned from the pirates. The crew of the Sirius draped a similar sign over the side of their ship. Ballarin's goal is even bigger than helping end the takeover of the two ships. She wants to negotiate an end to piracy off the Somali coast altogether. "My goal is to unwind all 17 ships and all 450 people they've been holding", she said. Ballarin claimed the Islamist group Al-Shabaab had captured, tortured and killed a young male relative of one of the pirates in the last few days. This came after Al Shabab announced it opposed the taking of ships owned by Muslims and promised to behead those who did. Al Shabab "made it dead clear that they will take any ransom that is collected; they will take away their money and kill them", Ballarin said. To help encourage Somalis to patrol their own waters and discourage locals from turning piracy Ballarin has a plan to recruit 500 men and women to serve as a Somali coast guard operating out of Berbera, Somaliland's major port. To fund it, she's talking with international aid agencies and encouraging members of the various governments running Somalia to tax the country's vibrant currency exchanges and some of its companies. Ballarin notes that she is trying to market a solution for failed states through Black Star. "If I had to pick a cause, I would have to say this is one that deserves all the attention it can get", Ballarin said. "Sometimes we are propelled down a path to do something for the right reasons and we just continue".
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.
Captain Dave Muli, search and rescue manager with the Kenya Maritime Authority stated that in the event of an oil spill "it will be big and spread over a wide area as far east of the Gulf, west coast of India and the east coast of Africa". Kenya has only very limited oil-spill-containment capabilities as was seen when a damaged Indian single hull tanker with a consignment for an Israeli petrol firm caused great damage to the coastal mangrove and intertidal areas south-west of Mombassa Island. The big oil-spill over 10 km was not contained and local communities have not been compensated until today. The Kenya Merchant Shipping Act is a copy of the British Merchant Shipping Act of 1894. While the British have revised their legislation a hundred times, the Kenyan act stands as it was, which is completely outdated and not addressing today's reality. All the new provisions of MARPOL (the IMO convention on Maritime Pollution) have not been implemented in Kenya.
News from other abducted ships -------
A ship sunk by the Indian navy as a pirate vessel actually was a trawler out of Thailand, the boat's owner said Tuesday. The Indian navy sank it off Somalia's coast last week after wrongly assuming it was a pirate "mother ship". Sixteen sailors were aboard FV EKAWAT NAVA 5 when it was sunk by the Indian navy -- one crew member was found alive after six days adrift in the Gulf of Aden, one was confirmed dead and the rest are missing, CNN reported. India's navy reported last week the INS Tabar fought with a pirate "mother vessel" in the gulf Nov. 18, setting the ship afire leaving it to sink. However, Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, owner of the vessel, said the ship was a trawler he owned and it was being hijacked by pirates when it came under naval attack, CNN said. Wicharn said he learned the fate of his vessel from a Cambodian crew member who survived the gunfire and drifted in the ocean for six days before he was plucked to safety by a passing ship. The sailor was recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said. Wicharn said his ship made a distress call on November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The company had then reported that one of its fishing vessels went missing in the Gulf of Aden on November 18, the day the Indian Navy destroyed a pirate vessel. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then. Indian authorities said that their ship took action against the vessel because it threatened to attack the Tabar. But according to the owner, the sole survivor stated: "The sunken ship which the Indian navy claimed was a 'mother ship' of pirates was not the 'mother ship' at all", he said. "The pirates wanted to take our ship to Somalia". The Indian Navy's celebrated attack may not have gotten any pirates at all: The two fast skiffs escaped into the dark. Except for the one survivor in hospital in Yemen and one confirmed dead sailor, the fate of the other 14 members of the crew is unknown. The Indian Navy and Indian authorities have denied claims that its warship, INS Tabar, sunk a Thai trawler mistaking it to be a pirate mothership. This issue could become be a huge embarrassment for the Indian Navy. There are reports that the Indian Navy could have made a big mistake. At naval headquarters in New Delhi the optimism generated by the Tabar's action is also tempered by a concern over how the Indian Navy will fit into the increasingly complex naval grid in the Gulf of Aden. The presence of so many warships from all over the world will invariably lead to "snooping" - efforts to assess the potential of battleships and record radar and communication signatures of different navies, the Indians fear.
Officials from Yemen said the abducted Yemeni cargo-vessel MV ADINA (not "Amani") was traveling from Mukalla port to the southern island of Socotra and had been due to dock there on November 20 with 507 tonnes of steel. Yemeni security sources said the authorities were in touch with the pirates, who were demanding a $2 million ransom. The police chief of Yemen's Hadramout province, Ahmed Mohammad al-Hamedi, said the ship is owned by a Yemeni company but is carrying a foreign flag, which he would not specify. Adina is carrying seven crew, including three Somalis, two Yemenis and two Panamanians. Contact with the pirates has been established, Mr Star of Mukalla-based Abu Talal Shipping Agency added. According to Lloyd's List he said that the owner was a Yemeni with a British passport.
A British hostage on an oil tanker captured by Somali pirates has spoken of his ordeal. Peter French is one of two Britons on board the Sirius Star, the Saudi supertanker seized off the Horn of Africa ten days ago with $100 million (£65m) worth of oil and 25 crew members on board, including Mr French, from County Durham, and James Grady, from Renfrewshire. In a telephone call to ITV News, Mr French said morale was high on the ship. It was unclear whether the call was being supervised by his captors. He said: "The pirates (are) no problem whatsoever. We have had no mistreatment or anything. Hopefully we are gonna get some more phone calls to our families soon. Our families don't have too much to worry about at the moment. "All in all, we are not too badly off". Mr French added: "The boys (the pirates) are quite happy. We are talking to them all the time, reassuring them. Apart from the inconvenience of being locked up, our life is not too bad". In an interview with the BBC, the captor's spokesman said the pirates had spoken to intermediaries of the vessel's owners, but they were not trustworthy. Somali clan elder Abdisalan Khalif Ahmed told the BBC the ship moved Sunday to about 28 miles (45 kilometers) from its earlier location, putting it about 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast of the coastal village of Harardhere. Thereafter the captors moved the ship further north. The latest move puts them only 20 miles (32km) from the MV Faina, a hijacked Ukrainian cargo ship carrying tanks, where US naval forces observe the scene but also a higher concentration of similar piracy gangs is given.
The owner company of the Turkish ship, which was hijacked off the Yemen coast two weeks ago, said it is close to a deal with the pirates, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday. "We have talked to the pirates a couple of times so far. They said they captured the ship, and they asked for ransom", Kubilay Marangoz, lawyer of YDC Maritime company, was quoted as saying. "Later, they told us the amount of the ransom and we began bargaining. At this point, we are close to a deal with the pirates", Marangoz said. He said all crew members on board were in good condition and they have all spoken to their families in Turkey. "We want to get back our ship without any unfortunate incidents. We prefer an agreement instead of an armed intervention", he added. The Turkish tanker "Karagol" with 14 crew members on board was hijacked on Nov. 12. off the coast of Yemen while transporting 4,500 tons of chemicals from Israel to Mumbai in India, said the report. The Karagol was the second Turkish-owned vessel to be seized in the Gulf of Aden after the M/V Yasa Neslihan was captured on Oct. 29.
Philippine officials in Bahrain have accused the UN of not doing enough to help secure the release of sailors held hostage by Somali pirates. They fear it could be several months before 37 Filipinos, taken prisoner when their ships were hijacked off the coast of Africa, are released and say the men are reportedly falling ill. The GDN reported last week that the Philippine Embassy in Bahrain was liaising with the US Navy, which is part of a multinational force that patrols the Arabian Sea where the hijackings took place. Eighteen Filipino sailors onboard the Japanese chemical tanker Chemstar Venus have not been seen since the vessel was hijacked on November 16. However, Philippine Embassy consul-general Jose Burgos is concerned about the welfare of the men. "The last message we received from Manila informed us that all 31 men are running out of provisions and are getting sick", Mr Burgos told the GDN. "We have sought the assistance of the Fifth Fleet to verify this. The UN should do more. They can get more co-operation from countries who would like to help solve this problem".
With the latest captures and releases still at least 17 foreign vessels with a total of around 363 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 50 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 17).
Other related news ---------
Legal experts are raising questions on whether Kenya has a legal jurisdiction to try pirates arrested in another country’s territorial waters. The debate has come up as the country embarks on the process of determining two cases involving pirates arrested in Somali waters and handed over to Kenyan authorities. The first case involved 11 pirates who were captured in January 2006 by the USS Winston Churchill, and have since been sentenced to seven years imprisonment, though their lawyer challenged the outcome. And earlier this month, eight suspected Somali pirates were arrested by British naval officers near the Yemeni coast and handed over to the Kenyan police. They have been charged.
The United States' top military official for Africa said Tuesday there was no evidence of ties between Al-Qaeda and Somali pirates hijacking foreign ships in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. "I do not have any evidence that pirates have links with Al-Qaeda", U.S. Army Gen. William "Kip" Ward said and added: "The chaos on the high seas is a reflection of the country's political chaos". Ward, who heads the US Africa Command (Africom), told reporters during a visit to Nairobi. "Piracy is linked to many other things, and is a reflection of a situation that continues to deteriorate onshore," Ward said, referring to fighting and lawlessness in Somalia. The United States of America have been hunting down Al-Qaeda-linked suspects in Somalia for several years and simultaneous suicide bombings last month the northern Somali regions have heightened fears of Al-Qaeda involvement in the region. The Commander of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), General William Ward on Tuesday said that the organization will work closely with African regional brigade bodies as well as partner states by boosting capacity building to stem the rising cases of piracy in the Somali waters. Addressing a news conference in Nairobi in his first visit to Kenya, Ward said that AFRICOM will assist in monitoring the coastline, and train soldiers in partner states to battle piracy. He regretted that the Horn of Africa region faces the threat of terrorism, illegal fishing, human and drug trafficking saying that it will require the collective responsibilities of regional governments to combat the vices. "AFRICOM will build security capacity and infrastructure through regional cooperation, improved maritime security and safety, and professional military education programs", he said. AFRICOM partner states in the Horn of Africa include, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Seychelles, Comoros, Mauritius and Madagascar.
More and more Americans seem to flock to Somalia to fight on the side of Islamist insurgents. Several Shabaab videos show fighters with American accents and many of them seem to be white. Others show Arabs fighting. But this is the first time a large movement of the children of Somali immigrants to the United States are returning home to fight against the Ethiopian/U.S. backed non-functioning "government". They’re known in the Somali community simply at "The Missing". Many Somali men, between the ages of 17 and 22 have left for example the Twin Cities in the last few months, without a single word to their families. The families and community leaders believe the men have gone back to fight in a bloody civil war, where Islamist groups play an increasingly important role.
According to Dr. J. Peter Pham, professor of justice studies and political science at James Madison University in Virginia, Somalia's conflict with Ethiopia destroyed much of Shabaab’s original leadership. What has replaced it is a group of cavalier fundamentalists with a desire to create a "Taliban-like" government in the country, similar to what existed in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks. As a first Daniel Maldonado was convicted of receiving training from the Al-Shabaab, listed since Feb. 29, 2008 by the U.S. as a terrorist organization of Somalia, and was sentenced in July 2007 to 10 years in federal prison.
U.S. Gen. John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander, said the alliance's mandate is solely to escort World Food Program ships to Somalia and to conduct anti-piracy patrols. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who has four warships off the coast of Somalia, said that a blockade of ports was "not contemplated by NATO". U.S. Gen. John Craddock, NATO's supreme allied commander, said Monday: "That's far beyond what I've been tasked to do". Lt. Nathan Christensen, 5th Fleet spokesman, declined to comment on the idea of a blockade. Also French Foreign Ministry spokesman Eric Chevallier said Tuesday the idea is "not possible". He says the volume of traffic in the area is too great and the legal issues too complicated for a blockade. France currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency.
Germany may contribute up to 1,400 military personnel to a European Union security mission to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia, German government sources said Tuesday. The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine said the defence ministry had given the green light for the troops and sailors to take part in Operation Atalanta, due to be launched around December 8. Government sources confirmed the figure, but said the cabinet was not expected to take a formal decision on German participation until December 3 or 10. The newspaper said 500 naval personnel would crew a frigate patrolling the Horn of Africa and the remainder would be commandos providing security on German-owned merchant vessels in the region, the report said. Defence experts said the figure of 500 included replacement crew for the frigate, which usually has a complement of around 200. The naval vessel Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (MeckPomm in short) set sail from Djibouti on Nov. 22. to second Germany's frigate Karlsruhe, which is on an anti-piracy mission for NATO in the Red Sea. On Sunday, the frigate ‘Meck-Pomm’ sent its onboard helicopter to help two cargo vessels. The freighters had been attacked by pirates in speedboats. The Karlsruhe is also not allowed to arrest pirates. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the German navy has been patrolling off the Horn of Africa as part of the US-led anti-terror mission Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF). And, starting in December, Germany will likely be taking part in the European Union's anti-piracy Atalanta. The so-called EUNAVOR operation will be made up of seven ships, three of them frigates and one a supply vessel. It will also be supported by surveillance aircraft.
Spain's defense minister says the country will contribute a frigate with a crew of 200 to EU anti-piracy patrols off Somalia. Carme Chacon says the ship will leave for the Indian Ocean in January and its captain will command the EU mission starting in April. The EU patrols are scheduled to start in December. Chacon told a parliamentary committee Tuesday that Spain will later contribute an oil refueling vessel or supply ship, with a crew of 114. Spain currently has a navy surveillance plane based in Djibouti to help ward off pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia. In late September a Spanish tuna trawler escaped an arrest attempt off Somalia. An illegally fishing Spanish vessel in the same area was held for six days by her captors in April last year.
The current United Nations mandate for anti-piracy operations in the region expires on December 2. Bombing the Somali pirate stronghold Eyl, which has been discussed, would require a resolution from the Security Council, UN Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould Abdallah, said.
Observers are worried that utter chaos is heading towards the Gulf of Aden. Warships from OEF, NATO and the EU will be in the region. As will Russian, Indian and Spanish military vessels, which have begun to escort their countries' cargo ships. It also seems likely that some crews have begun carrying weapons. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, however, told a meeting of the European Union in Brussels that EU ships patrolling the area would have "robust" rules of engagement and would use force to deter pirates if necessary.
Russia is planning to send more warships to the Somali coast, along with some commandos and a particularly Russian style of counter-piracy operations. In other words, the Russians plan to go old school on the Somali pirates, and use force to rescue ships currently held, and act ruthlessly against real or suspected pirates it encounters at sea. The Russian would bring along commandoes from Spetsgruppa Vympel. These are hostage rescue experts, formed two decades ago as a spin-off from the original Russian army Spetsnaz commandos. This came about when various organizations in the Soviet government decided that they could use a few Spetsnaz type troops for their own special needs. Thus in the 1970s and 80s there appeared Spetsnaz clones called Spetsgruppa. The most use of these was Spetsgruppa Alfa (Special Group A), which was established in 1974 to do the same peacetime work as the U.S. Delta Force or British SAS. In other words; anti-terrorist assignments or special raids. It was Spetsgruppa Alfa that was sent to Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1980 to make sure the troublesome Afghan president Amin and his family were eliminated from the scene (killed.) Survivors (members of the presidential palace staff) of the Spetsgruppa Alfa assault reported that the Spetsnaz troopers systematically hunted down and killed their targets with a minimum of fuss. Very professional. The surviving Afghans were suitably impressed. Spetsgruppa Alfa now belongs to the FSB (successor to the KGB) and number about 300 men (and a few women.) At the same time Spetsgruppa Alfa was established, another section of the KGB organized Spetsgruppa Vympel. This group was trained to perform wartime assassination and kidnapping jobs for the KGB. The FSB also inherited Spetsgruppa Vympel, which is a little smaller than Spetsgruppa Alpha and is used mainly for hostage rescue.
Yemen's Commander of the Southern Military Zone Mahdi Maqwqlah discussed on Tuesday with the captains of two Russian military ships, currently visiting Yemen, the Yemeni-Russian military cooperation in the field of fighting piracy in Aden Gulf. Maqwalah praised growing relations between the two friendly militaries and the support Russia provides to Yemen.
A Somali Clerics Council has called on Islamic states to use military force to bring an end to the escalating piracy in the Gulf of Aden. "We welcome every Muslim state that can send warships and troops to fight the pirates", a Press TV correspondent quoted the council as saying in a statement on Tuesday. The clerics condemned piracy at an emergency meeting at the Abu Hureira mosque in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, saying piracy 'has no place in Islam.' The council lead by prominent cleric Sheik Nur Barood Gurhan added that it is prepared to assist Muslim countries and the international community to combat 'the devils' in the lawless waters off Somalia. There has always been the option of a military operation to capture the seaside towns and villages the pirates operate from. But this would include sinking hundreds of fishing boats and speedboats. Hundreds of civilians would be killed or injured. Unless the coastal areas were permanently militarily occupied (or until local Somalis could maintain law and order), the pirates would soon be back in business.
The solution to the crisis caused by a recent spate of pirate attacks in ships in the Gulf of Aden will not be found with more armoured ships on the high seas, but rather through development on land, according to African and Turkish officials. Officials from the African Union and the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency, or TİKA, are holding a conference. The Turkish Asian Center for Strategic Studies’ fourth annual Turkey-Africa Congress is on the African Union’s, or AU, handling of the situation of Somalia and the pirates. Turkey shares the African Union’s views that the piracy problem is really a development issue. The problem, Vice-Chairman of TİKA Mustafa Şahin told the Daily News, was the lack of any functional system, and: "Fixing Somalia isn’t something one country can do, its something the whole world has to work together on, but each of these is just one step in the right direction".
The United Nations is supporting a new effort in Somalia to end impunity and establish rule of law in a move to bring peace to the war-ravaged country. The United Nations sponsored a two-day workshop, attended by officials from Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the Islamic Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, which aims at ending impunity, the United Nations reported. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, U.N. special representative for Somalia, called on Somali leaders at the workshop to establish a commission of inquiry and an international court to bring criminals to justice. Officials say the ongoing flare-ups in violence and the increased threat from pirates off the Somali coast are largely the result of an impasse over implementing a peace deal and from impunity. "Impunity has been addressed in many post-conflict countries such as Burundi, Cambodia, Liberia and Sierra Leone," Ould-Abdallah said in a statement. "Time has come to address impunity and crimes committed by Somalis since the beginning of the civil war. I urge all parties, and the international community, to support the cooperation between Somalis to bring an end to impunity".
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