The MV FAINA Piracy Crisis Chronicle – IX
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
December 08, 2008
67th Update 2008-11-30 17:41:27 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 68 -1611 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued and local reports state that the financial agreement part has been concluded. Negotiations for the release of the Ukrainian ship, which was hijacked along the Somali coast with17 crew members are at advanced stages, a regional maritime official said on Sunday.
Both sides are working now on a finalization of the modalities concerning the safe release of crew and vessel, but neither Russia´s Embassy in Kenya nor Ukraine´s Interior Ministry wanted to confirm the information yet, though it is expected the situation to be resolved peacefully in the coming days. "It is just a matter of time and a few technicalities before the ship recovers its freedom", Sugule Ali, the spokesman for the group of pirates holding the MV Faina told AFP on telephone from the ship Sunday. Sugule was quoted saying besides the ransom, elders around Hobyo sea port, where the ship is held, pressured them to reach an agreement. Sugule said: "Within four days, we must leave the ship and we are preparing for a safe landing for our group. I hope the owners will honour the last remaining points. Our members are very tired and the crew is also very tired. We all want this matter to be resolved." Last month, US under Secretary for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer asked Ukraine and Kenya to disclose the real owners of the weapons.
Ecoterra Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a 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 ----- -
Somali pirates have agreed to release a Yemeni cargo ship, the MV Amani, without ransom, after negotiations between the hijackers, local elders and provincial officials, a minister said on Friday. "No ransom was paid, but after negotiations, the pirates will get off the ship soon. The Yemeni ship will be released in the coming hours", Ali Abdi Aware, state minister of the northern province of Puntland, told Reuters today, but so far it could not independently verified. Just a couple of days ago there was an intention to mount a joint Somali-Yemeni military operation to liberate the hijacked Yemeni ship from the pirates. Abdullahi Yusuf, president of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, visited for two days his birthplace Garowe, the capital of the Puntland province. The visit appeared to be linked to the efforts being made to release the Saudi oil tanker "The Sirius Star" and the 25-member crew who belong to various nationalities and the Ukrainian freighter, who carries a cargo of tanks and other military equipment. Somali sources told Al-Sharq al-Awsat that immediately after his arrival Yusuf held a closed meeting with his ally General Musa Nur Adde, president of the Puntland province, located in the north-east of Somalia, which has enjoyed self-rule since 1998. The sources said that the talks dealt with the escalation in acts of piracy off the Somali coast.
The deadline has run out yesterday for the payment of a 25 million dollar ransom to Somali pirates holding the Saudi super-tanker VLCC SIRIUS STAR, but local observers say there is no problem reported from the vessel. The leader of the group holding the Sirius Star said Saturday that though the ultimatum for the payment of the ransom is about to expire, they were still expecting a "favourable reply". In a phone call, the pirates´ spokesman, Mohammed Said, indicated that "negotiations were continuing" and did not discard the possibility of an extension of the November 30 deadline."Although the deadline for the payment of the $25 million ransom is close to expiry, we still hope for a positive response", he said. "The tactical movement [of the ship] will continue, but it is not aimed in any case at harming the crew of the tanker", he added. The pirates hijacked the 330-metre long Sirius Star on November 15, giving the owners until today, November 30, to pay the $25 million ransom to avert "disastrous action''. So far the Saudi Government has not been prepared to negotiate with the pirates but Prince Saud has said it would be up to the owners of the vessel to decide how to deal with piracy. It is speculated that Saudi owners will have to pay the ransom even though Saudi authorities have strongly apposed the idea of negotiating with hijackers or terrorists. "At the end of the day there is no alternative, if you don't want lives to be lost", the chairman of Lloyd's insurance said. Marek Nishky, a Polish national, spoke to Asharq Al-Awsat for the first time during a four-minute telephone conversation about the situation on board the oil tanker. He said, "I believe that there are ongoing negotiations. We do not have much information given the current circumstances…everybody is well and none of us are ill. We have enough to food and water and I hope there will be a happy ending to this story". In response to whether the hijackers had allowed the crew to speak to members of their families, Nishky said, "Yes we are allowed to speak to our families on the phone. In light of the situation, things are not bad and we have nothing to complain about", said Nishky.
He explained that the crew consisted of 25 members. The captain of the hijacked Saudi Sirius Star oil tanker has told Asharq Al-Awsat that the members of the crew are fine and are "being treated well under the present circumstances." According to the announcements of the Saudi Arabia Ambassador to Kenya, it might be released in the next two days, the Russian agency RIA reports. The Saudi supertanker will be released within the next two days, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Kenya said on Monday. Nabil Ashur said in an interview with the London-based al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper that his country was optimistic the supertanker and its crew would be released. The report was confirmed by Saudi Foreign Ministry spokesman Khalid bin Saud bin Khalid. "We have signals giving us hope for a positive outcome soon", he said. Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed said in an interview published on Monday that the supertanker will be freed soon without a ransom."It is not true that the hijackers have demanded a ransom of millions of dollars to release it", he said told the Saudi newspaper Okaz. "We are confident that efforts made by tribal leaders and government officials will result soon in releasing the ship without any ransom", he added, as the vessel remained off the coast of Somalia.
Though Thailand is in a major crisis and its air traffic has come to a standstill because thousands of protesters block the airports, the Thai foreign ministry said it was still investigating whether the Indian Navy correctly followed the rules of engagement in the case of FV EKAWAT NAVA 5, which was blown out of the water, and was reviewing reports from the Thai Embassy in New Delhi, the International Maritime Bureau and coalition forces patrolling the waters. The ministry was also seeking more information on the missing sailors, it said in a statement. One Thai crew member died when the Indian frigate INS Tabar fired on the boat in the Gulf of Aden last week, while one Cambodian crew member was rescued four days later by passing fishermen. Though 14 other sailors remain missing, they are presumed dead too, since the vessel burst into flames and was sunk. NEWSWEEK investigated forced labour also on Thai fishing vessels in Somalia and found that even companies with an industry seal of approval may not be treating workers well. Thailand's Sirichai Fisheries for example, the magazine writes, supports the UK-headquartered but also U.S.- and Asia-based Marine Stewardship Council (a WWF group, registered as company limited by guarantee and linking with fishing industries and industry lobby groups, incl. former EU commissioners, who is in the labeling business) and claims it practices environmentally friendly fishing. Wicharn Siricha-Ekawat is even on the board of trustees of the Marine Stewardship Council and listed there as the managing director of various fishery and industrial organization in Thailand, Singapore, Yemen and Mozambique. But NEWSWEEK has interviewed four past crewmen on Sirichai vessels and seen written complaints to a Cambodian human-rights group from three others. All claim to have endured treatment that fits the ILO's definition of forced labor. They say they were trafficked into Thailand on tourist visas, forced to hand over their passports and compelled to board a boat bound for Africa even though the recruiter promised them cannery jobs in Thailand.
"We thought we were finished," says Long Thorn, one of Sirichai's initial Cambodian recruits. "We didn't know how many years we were sold for. They lied to us." The experience of forced labor offers shades of misery, as the stories of Long and his neighbor Chann Ham show. They were crew-mates on a Sirichai voyage to Somalia in 2005. After the month-long journey, they were assigned to separate fishing boats, each supplied every two months by a "mother ship" from Thailand. Long repaired nets, sorted fish and cleaned catches of tuna, shark and octopus, sleeping just four hours a day during peak times. After 27 months, he was re- turned home and paid $155 per month, less than the $190 he was promised, but enough to double the size of his family home and by a slick red motor scooter.
Chann, racked by constant seasickness, tried to stow away on the mother ship but was forced back aboard his vessel by a Somali guard who, he claims, fired several live rounds between his legs. Ten months later Chann was shipped home and paid less than $500, or about $1.60 per day— enough only to buy a cow, and his father's disapproval. Absent clearly enforceable global rules, it is easy to pass the blame around. Sirichai's general manager, Wiriya Sirichai- Ekawat, admits there have been troubles with Cambodian recruits, but he blames labor brokers who were paid by Sirichai for their services in 2005 but were "not our people". Asked if the company's treatment of foreign employees amounted to slavery, he said: "We never do that". In an e-mail, the Thai company's managing director, Wicharn Sirichai-Ekawat, says Sirichai has only one policy: "To follow the law". He says Sirichai is the only Thai fishing company that does not use illegal labor. Chuop Narath, deputy director of employment and manpower in Cambodia's Ministry of Labor, says Sirichai's recruitment practices are illegal. The risks won't deter hungry young men like Cambodian Tuon Sina, a 22-year-old newlywed with an infant child to feed. Last fall he left his ancestral village for Thailand and boarded a fishing boat for Somalia. He had heard of past troubles, but he'd also seen older neighbors return rich after working abroad and wanted "to follow their example". His mother's protests went unheeded. "I tried to stop him but I could not", she says. "It's a risky adventure for money".
Sirichai seems to sail close to the wind with its fishing & recruiting, but there is so far no evidence of it being anything other than a fishing firm with some iffy business practices (fishing in high-risk areas, recruiting the poor & desperate & ignoring employment laws, fishing where it isn't licensed etc.), which are regrettably common in the fishing industry.
However, questions remain, because the huge fireball produced by INS Tabar's attack was explained by the Indian Navy as having been caused not by burning diesel but by large amounts of pirate's ammunition on the vessel. But it is unusual that attacking Somalis in small skiffs carry large amounts of ammunition, whose cargo would slow them down, endanger them if shot at and in more than one instance it was clear how little ammo the attackers actually carried, because they ran out or had to resupply. Was the Thai trawler then actually gun-running for another pirate or insurgent group, if it was ammunition, which exploded? It could very well have been filled with weapons and ammo meant for some of the mother-ships of the pirate fleet, who were about to transport the guns and ammo quietly at sea, as the port of Eyl is now under intense surveillance and scrutiny by satellites, etc. of the world's major powers and navies. It seems, whatsoever, rather unlikely that if the vessel was delivering arms and ammo it would not have been also defended against the overtaking pirates. Or was it the large amount of dynamite the Thai fishing vessel carried for their illegal fishing operations, which exploded? The type of fireball seen in the released pictures speaks against the ammunition theory and looks rather like one which is engulfing a target after being hit by a shoulder-fired missile sent to sink the ship or by puffing dynamite similar to Bollywood-movies. Some IN ships carry a Strella type of man portable, shoulder launched missile. Fact seems to be that there was still enough time for the alleged "Somali pirates" to jump into their 2 skiffs and to disappear on the nightly ocean, as the Indian Navy stated. That doesn't speak for an accidental explosion of ammunition either. Something very fishy surely was going on with this fishing vessel prior to and during the attack and in any case this demands a thorough investigation. The post-incident report promised by the Indian Navy has still not been issued. Is it being worked on or does the international community want to close that book and just forget the loss of live of 15 seafarers, just because they were "poor soles" bonded for labour?
With the latest captures and releases still at least 17 foreign vessels with a total of around 361 crew members (of which 108 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 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 17).
Other related news -------
Yemen's Coast Guards Forces in coordination with the international maritime forces in the area have successfully rescued a Saudi oil tanker from a pirate attack in the Aden Gulf, about 7 miles from the coast of Mukala city in the Hadhramout governorate, the state-run Saba news agency reported. The information centre at the Ministry of Interior mentioned that the Coast Guards had received a distress signal from the tanker that there were two pirate boats close to the ship trying to attack and hijack it. In response, the coast guards forces hurried at once to the site of the tanker and chased the pirates who escaped. They confirmed the ship was rescued before being attacked or harmed.
A Oceania luxury cruise ship from Australia flagged in the Marshall islands (U.S.) and carrying scores of western holiday-makers came under attack from pirates yesterday. One of two small skiffs got within 300 yards of the six-star Nautica and fired eight rifle shots. The ship, carrying 690 passengers and 386 crew, was passing fishing boats when the pirate vessels tried to intercept it in the Gulf of Aden, between Somalia and Yemen. Croatian Captain Jurica Brajcic began evasive manoeuvres and hit full speed of 23 knots — 27 mph. Oceania Cruises said: "The Nautica was able to outrun the two skiffs. No one aboard was harmed and no damage was sustained". The attempt failed after the vessel was reported to have increased speed and a French warship under Danish operations command came to the vessel's aid, according to Admiral Danish Fleet Headquarters (SOK). "The operation was run by the Danish military, although the warship Absalon was not involved as it was in harbour at the time", the SOK spokesperson said. The Absalon currently heads the Task Force 150, an international naval operation designed to help guard against piracy in the region. The six-star luxury cruise ship is on a 32-day cruise from Rome to Singapore. The vessel and its passengers aboard, who paid in average £ 15,000 for the voyage, are due in Oman today.
A V.SHIPS-managed vessel has been stranded in the Gulf of Aden for now more than 72 hours after terrified crew witnessed the Biscaglia hijacking and refused to sail the ship further. According to Lloyds List, V.Ships is now searching for naval or private security support to escort the ship to safety. "We have a crew right now who won´t go any further and have stopped the ship", said V.Ships chief operating officer Matthew Dunlop. "They are saying ´it´s too dangerous and we are not going anywhere´". The V-Ships crew was travelling close enough to witness the hijacking of the 27,350 dwt, 1986-built combined chemical and oil carrier Biscaglia on Friday, Mr Dunlop said. It took the pirates 10 minutes to board the tanker, which was traveling in the safety corridor with a naval presence and with security personnel onboard. Mr Dunlop would not name the vessel involved, nor give crew numbers or location, because of security concerns, but he said the ship was fully laden. He did not criticise the crew´s action but he said the industry would have to face the industrial and safety concerns arising from transits in waters where pirates have attacked. The V.Ships spokesman called for more convoys and equipment such as helicopters to be deployed to fight piracy. "But we should not have any armed guards on a merchant ship. Full stop. Not negotiable", he said.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Saudi King Abdullah on Saturday called for international efforts to protect shipping in the Gulf of Aden amid a spate of attacks by Somali pirates, the official SPA news agency reported. Sarkozy and the Saudi king underscored "the need to reinforce international efforts to preserve shipping security in the Gulf of Aden", the agency said. Their call comes a day before the expiry of a 25-million-dollar ransom which Somali pirates are demanding for VCLL Sirius Star, a Saudi super-tanker seized two weeks ago. Sarkozy paid a brief visit to the oil-rich Saudi kingdom after addressing a UN aid conference in Qatar, where he said EU assistance to poorer countries -- pledged at 61 billion dollars this year -- would not be sacrificed. "While we are all facing these growing deficits and rising unemployment, we have decided not to sacrifice the Millennium objectives but to fulfil the promises made to you regarding public aid for development," he said.
Sheikh Sharif, who is also the leader of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), vowed to offer a helping hand to the international forces. "We are guaranteeing that you will be welcome ... we will be there for you when you need our help". Sheikh Sharif on Wednesday signed a power-sharing deal with the interim government under the UN tutelage. The deal gives ARS 200 seats in the new 500-member parliament while 75 others will be set aside for civil society members, including women. A new Unity Government shall be inaugurated on 10th January.
Minister of Interior Mr. Abdillahi Ismail Ali (Irro) for the first time officially announced that AL-Shabab - the extremist organization in Somalia - is behind the suicidal bombings in Hargeisa on 29th October 2008. Mr. Abdillahi Irro speaking at Press Conference here Thursday said, "We have sufficient evidence - including documents - that the suicidal bombings were organized by top officials of Al-Shabab. These included its Chairman Ahmed Abdi Muhumed (known as Abdi Godane), its spokesman Moukhtar Abu Mansur and Ibrahim Haji Jama Me'ad (known as Ibrahim Afghanistan). The minister added that that 3 of the field leading operators have escaped and currently are believed to be in Somalia. The 3 include Abdilfatah Gutale - an engineer who assembled and put together the explosives. He left the country on October 27. The two others left the country by land 2 days after the bombings. The minister added that 16 people are in police detention. He said, "Some of these are those who rented the houses or took part in the sale of the cars used for the bombings. There are some who are suspected of being accomplices and these will be brought to a legal court soon". The Somaliland Interior Minister appealed to the people of Mogadishu saying, "We appeal to you not to give a safe haven to those who committed the suicide bombings in Hargeisa in which innocent people lost their lives". The minister added that one of the six suicide bombers was a Somaliland citizen, but declined to reveal their names. 24 people have died and 28 were wounded in the bombing targeting the presidency, the Ethiopian Mission and UNDP headquarters in Hargeisa.
Mark Valencia, a consultant and Nazery Khalid, a senior research fellow, both from the Maritime Institute of Malaysia quote a saying which goes: "When the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails". They urge policymakers and security agencies confronted with the challenge of piracy and terrorism to acknowledge the fact that while it is necessary to treat the symptoms, prevention is still better than cure. They conlude: "Unless efforts are made to restore a modicum of stability in Somalia and to get its socio-political order back on track, there is little chance that the activities of bandits at sea will cease and we won't be able to dismiss the possibility of a linkage between them and terrorist groups". The possibility of collusion between terrorists and pirates in a place like Somalia may well pose a genuine challenge to the earlier hypothesis that the two groups operate in parallel. Both groups thrive in the area thanks to a convergence of many factors including the absence of law and order and of a resolute response from the international community.
President of Djibouti Ismail Omer Guellah held bilateral talks Saturday with his Yemeni counterpart, Abdullah Ali Saleh one day after the Yemeni President held talks with Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi calling for coordination on tackling piracy. There were discussions on the future and developments of the Somali crisis. According to the Ethiopian News Agency, Zenawi accused Eritrea of helping Somali pirates and called for the international community to "do more" to tackle piracy. Upon his return from Yemen, Meles Zenawi said, "By directly and conspicuously supporting extremists in Somalia and exacerbating its woes, Eritrea is responsible for the rampant piracy in the region". "It is of utmost importance that the international community does more in tackling piracy in the Gulf of Aden", he added.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has asked the United Nations to mobilize resources to tackle global problems, including high food prices and rampant piracy along the coast of Somalia. A statement from the Presidential Press Service received here on Monday said Kibaki called on the UN to help coordinate efforts to stabilize global food prices and ensure an efficient movement of food from surplus to deficit nations. The international community must also address the instability in financial markets, high-energy costs and resultant high food prices through concerted efforts, President Kibaki said during a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in Doha, Qatar. The call came as food prices in Kenya threaten to reach crisis proportions. President Kibaki and the UN chief expressed concern at the deteriorating security situation in Somalia. The Kenyan President asked the UN to support a regional meeting set for Nairobi on December 9 to discuss piracy, noting that the problem has greatly destabilized the movement of vessels carrying essential supplies to ports along the Indian Ocean. The president also briefed Ban Ki-Moon on challenges Kenya is facing because of the influx of the refugees to Kenya due to the instability in Somalia.
Groups from the Somali opposition already reject the power-sharing agreement between the Somali interim governance and the the ARS faction.
Somalia can only dream about serious help in fighting the illegal tuna fishing, while the New Zealand air force is to track the Japanese whaling fleet in Antarctic waters this season, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp announced Sunday. The Japanese fleet sets sail in mid-November and the Sea Shepherd activists, who have vowed to stop the whaling, are sending their vessel "Steve Irwin" into the area. Mapp said the New Zealand Defence Force would not station craft in the region to monitor developments, but "regular Orion surveillance flights will provide updates". McCully said New Zealand remains firmly opposed to the Japanese whaling programme and he made that "unambiguously clear" to Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone at the recent APEC summit in Peru. "We are actively engaged in a diplomatic process including through the International Whaling Commission, to try to find a resolution to the problem", he said. Japan aims to kill 1,000 whales a year using a loophole in a 1986 global whaling moratorium that allows "lethal research" on the ocean giants. But last season they were restricted to just over half their target because of interference by anti-whaling activists, lead by the Sea-Shepard-Conservation-Society. Tokyo says whaling is part of its culture but makes no secret the meat ends up on dinner tables. But few Japanese eat whale on a regular basis and surveys show that many young people are questioning the hunt.
Thousands of people are fleeing parts of the north-east region of Mandera and neighbouring Somali border areas after Kenya beefed up its security presence to counter possible threats from Somali armed groups. "At least 1,500 families [9,000 people] have left Elwak [an area in Mandera] and its environs", Titus Mung'ou, Kenya Red Cross Society (KRCS) public relations officer, told IRIN. This had left Elwak virtually a ghost town and affected humanitarian activities, Mung'ou said. "We have to follow the people who are moving". The Kenyan Military has scaled up its patrol activities following the official closure of the border to aid deliveries. This is affecting the humanitarian situation in Somalia, where there are more than 1.3 million IDPs, according to a Mandera Crisis Situation Report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Since January, a large influx of asylum-seekers fleeing violence in Somalia to the refugee camps in Dadaab, in Kenya's northeast, has been recorded. The refugee population in Dadaab, whose three camps are holding almost three times their capacity, has risen to 224,000 from 171,000 in January. According to UN officials, the overcrowding in the camps could lead to a humanitarian crisis. By the end of this year, at least 58,000 asylum-seekers are expected to have arrived. Security has been intensified along the Kenya-Somalia border since the abduction of two nuns from Elwak two weeks ago by suspected Somali armed men, who also hijacked four vehicles. According to a senior police officer based at the provincial headquarters in Garissa, there was a possibility of military intervention. "Elders from the Kenyan side have already presented a clear message to those in Somalia ... but we have given an ultimatum that in case the militias fail to release the nuns and the vehicles, then we are ready to strike", said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Five men have been arrested in Somalia in connection with the kidnapping of a British journalist and a Spanish photographer last week. Muse Gelle Yusuf, governor of the Bari region of Puntland, said that police are still searching for the hostages. For his part, the president of the Puntland government, Mohamud Musa Hirsi, is insisting that no ransom money will be paid while Bossasso police chief, Gani Mohamed Abdi, said that the journalists are being held in the mountains south of Boosaaso. However, local sources lamented that the arbitrary arrests of family members to the missing translator Awale, who has been implicated in the abduction, only would complicate the release of the journalists and that many politicians and officials are caught up in a frenzy over the upcoming Puntland election, which seems to influence local decision makers also in their actions towards a peaceful and fast solution of this hostage crisis. French freelance journalist Gwen Le Gouil was held hostage for eight days at the end of last year while in Bossasso to do a story on the smuggling of illegal migrants across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen, a crossing in which many lose their lives. The two presently held journalists researched and wanted to report on piracy. Foreign correspondents generally stay out of Somalia, leaving reporting on the ground to local journalists. But a few do still go in, usually hiring local militiamen to protect them. The guards of Jose Cendon and Colin Freeman allegedly had been relieved the evening before the two journalists wanted to depart. Observers close to the scene are so far sure about the unharmed condition of the hostages.
68th Update 2008-12-02 16:03:18 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 69 - 1634 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued and local reports state that the financial agreement part has been concluded.
Some families of the mainly Ukrainian seafarers on board, however, feel that they are not really informed concerning the factual progress achieved. And being kept in the dark they continue to worry. Somali pirate spokesman Sugule Ali told The Associated Press by satellite phone today that a ransom agreement had been reached and that his group will release the 20 crew members within the next two days with the Ukrainian cargo ship MV FAINA, which is still loaded with tanks and heavy weapons. The pirate spokesman declined to reveal the sum of ransom.
Ecoterra Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a 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 ----------
MV CENTAURI and its crews after having been released during the night 27th/28th November 2008 have reached Mombasa today safely. "All the crew members are safe. She is awaiting clearance before she starts discharging her cargo", said Andrew Mwangura, of the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme. The ship was carrying 17,000 tonnes of salt.
MT BISCAGLIA, sea-jacked on 28th, had arrived at the Somali coast and is now anchored south of Eyl - between Eyl and Garcad.
Already eight out of ten Somali pirates have abandoned a Yemeni cargo ship after negotiations with Somali tribal leaders, but two other pirates were still on board the ship Monday, the ship's owner said. "Eight pirates have already left the ship after clan elders convinced them to do so". Attas Salim Aboud told Deutsche Presse Agentur (dpa). He said the two other pirates who were still holding the ship's crew hostage and would likely leave the vessel within the next few hours. Eight crew members - three Yemeni, three Somali and two Tanzanian - were taken hostage by the pirates. "The two pirates are from a different clan than the eight who left, and their families and tribe leaders are in contact with them to press on them to leave", he said. Attas said no ransom was paid to the pirates who left the ship separately during the past two days. The ship, Erina, was attacked as it sailed from the south-eastern Yemeni port city of Mukalla to the Indian Ocean island of Socotra on November 19. It is now anchored off the port of Eyl.
Somalia's insurgent Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys called on Tuesday for pirates to immediately release a giant Saudi oil tanker and other foreign vessels being held in Somali waters. "We are calling for the immediate release of all international vessels under the command of Somali pirates, who are undermining international peace and trade", Aweys told AFP from the Eritrean capital Asmara. Aweys, the hardline leader of a faction within the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia -- an umbrella opposition group -- said the pirates would have been stamped out if Somalia were still under the control of his Islamist group. "We are the only force that could eliminate piracy in the Somalia waters but the world rejected to give us the opportunity to rule Somalia, despite the will of the vast majority of the people of Somalia. If we are given the opportunity to fight piracy and general lawlessness we can do that comfortably. Piracy is part of lawlessness and during our months of Islamic leadership pirates were underground", he said. His Islamic Courts Union ruled most of south and central Somalia for six months in 2006 before being ousted by Ethiopian forces who intervened to prop up its neighbour's weak central government. The influential cleric, designated a terrorist by Washington because of alleged ties to Al-Qaeda, ruled out any mediation effort on the part of his organisation. Motivated by the need to fill the vacuum left by the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, Aweys founded Mogadishu's first Islamic court in the mid-1990s. "As a leader of a freedom fighter organisation, I personally can't talk to gangs and mediate the release of the ships in the Gulf of Aden", he said. He said the pirates, negotiating multi-million dollar ransoms for the Saudi tanker "Sirius Star" and a Ukraine arms ship the "FAINA" as well as a host of other foreign vessels and their crews, "are dealing with the world as if they were legitimate agencies, by talking about ransom money". "We are the only force to deal with such criminals", he added. Aweys equated the rampant piracy to the intervention of Ethiopian forces in his country. "It is so painful to see Somalia taken by Ethiopian colonial occupation and crazy pirates. Both are the same and undermine human value".
With the latest captures and releases still at least 17 foreign vessels with a total of around 361 crew members (of which 108 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 51 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 17).
Other related news -------
The Nigerian armed forces are cooperating with Somali pirates in kidnapping international ships, says a Greek Captain from a recently freed ship which was at the hands of the Somali pirates for 3 weeks. As local media report, captain Albo Simeon stated the pirates used automatic weapons to force his crew into boarding barrels of oil into the pirates' boat. The ships of the Nigerian navy who stood nearby made no attempt to prevent the hijacking of the Greek ship. The Vice Admiral of the Nigerian Navy denied the allegations of the Greek Captain saying they were incorrect and not true.
Somali pirates have turned the Gulf of Aden into a "route of terror" while an international task force is doing little more than directing traffic, according to Greek sailors who thwarted a raid on their vessel there. Nikos Tzanetakos, deputy captain of the Greek tanker Ellivita which crossed the gulf last month carrying Saudi oil to the United States, told Ta Nea newspaper his crew prevented pirates from boarding by draping the hull in electrified wire. "The military ships are only acting as traffic police in the Gulf of Aden", Tzanetakos said. "The situation there is permanently out of control and there is panic among the sailors, who have to pass through those waters". "Greece has the biggest merchant fleet in the world: authorities must protect us", Tzanetakos said. "All the Merchant Marine Ministry did was tell us how to send a mayday signal", and added: "The Gulf of Aden has become the route of terror", he said. "I was never afraid but there I realised what danger was". The Ellivita's crew surrounded its deck with wire connected to a 220-volt power supply and displayed a sign saying the vessel was protected by high voltage cables. When pirate speedboats drew alongside, that may have saved them. "It's very possible the pirates on the boats saw that, and after two or three minutes they left and we escaped the danger", Nikos Tzanetakos told the newspaper. "I won't sail on the ship again if the company decides we should go back: it's not a financial issue, I just don't want to put my life in danger".
The UN Security Council is close to passing a new resolution that authorizes a European Union fleet to fight piracy, according to German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Tuesday. The EU operation, using seven warships that mostly already patrol near the Gulf of Aden, is scheduled to form up on December 8 to protect merchant ships from pirates on the Somali coast. Answering questions from Deutsche Presse Agentur, Steinmeier said he welcomed the progress in Security Council consultations on a new resolution. Last week the United States demanded changes. Content-wise, the latest draft was largely the same as the previous draft, Steinmeier said, ensuring the EU mission, codenamed Operation Atalanta, had a basis in international law. He called for the resolution to be passed soon so that the EU and Berlin can authorize the mission. Germany has said it will contribute one warship. The term of the presently existing UN resolution against piracy is set to expire today, Tuesday, and there have been fears a dispute at the Security Council could hold up renewed efforts to stop the Somali pirates. The German government, which has been deeply divided about the legality of catching and punishing pirates, is expected to officially propose on December 10 to send a warship.
NATO foreign ministers on Tuesday tackled concerns about combating pirates off the Somali coast — where despite an six-week NATO mission attacks continue unabated, leaving the shipping industry reeling and the world community scrambling for a solution. The two-day session will also take up the possibility of eventual expansion to Ukraine and Georgia — an issue fraught with danger and tension in the wake of last summer's war between Georgia and Russia. The talks focused almost immediately on demands for NATO to act amid growing alarm over the attacks on shipping. International warships patrol the area off the Horn of Africa and have created a security corridor under a U.S.-led initiative, but attacks have not slowed. Ministers took up piracy issue at a working lunch with members of the Mediterranean Dialogue, a forum that combines NATO members with seven nations in the region, such as Israel, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, AP reported and quoted that the ministers would also take up the issue of a possible follow-up anti-piracy mission after the current task force leaves the region in mid-December.
Although there are still 108 Filipino seamen in the hands of Somali pirates, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) appealed to foreign governments, particularly European countries, not to resort to military actions in rescuing the captives. Esteban Conejos Jr., foreign affairs undersecretary for migrant workers affairs, said that between April and November this year, a total of 208 Filipino seamen onboard 17 ships were kidnapped. He stated that 100 Filipino seamen working on 10 ships have been released, while 108 onboard seven ships remain in captivity. Conejos admitted that it was indeed difficult for the international community to prevent hijacking in the waters off Somalia, but stressed that military action should not be an option as it may endanger the lives of the kidnapped seamen, most of them Filipinos. "While the department agrees with the deployment of warhips to prevent and deter hijacking incidents in the waters off Somalia, the DFA position is - and the US 6th Fleet also agrees to this - that the moment a hijacking is completed, it is dangerous to resort to military procedures", said Conejos in an interview with reporters on Tuesday. Members of the European Union (EU), particularly Britain, Spain and France, aired their concerns on the "brazen acts of piracy and armed robbery off the Somali coast" and called for the adoption of a coordinating unit to institute surveillance and protection activities.
John Cherigan writes in "Axis of terror" today: The Mumbai attack, many experts feel, is a "mujahideen" response to India´s special relationship with the U.S. and Israel. The scale and sophistication of the coordinated terror attack on Mumbai signals the resolve of "mujahideen" groups to up the ante against the Indian state. The Al Qaeda leadership, including Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, have in recent years clubbed India with the United States and Israel. Pakistan has faced the brunt of Al Qaeda-linked attacks in the past couple of years. The Al Qaeda leadership considers the government in Islamabad a quisling of Washington. Going by the opinion of experts that the Mumbai attack had the telltale marks of an Al Qaeda act, terrorism in the subcontinent is set to become even more lethal. Western intelligence agencies have been expecting a "spectacular" attack of this scale for some time. The terrorist strike in Mumbai has drawn comparisons to the attack on Bali (Indonesia) in 2002. In both cases, European and American citizens were singled out. Attacks on this scale, according to experts on the subject, are only carried out in areas where the terror groups have sufficient local resources. The Mumbai attack has been described as the biggest since the targeting of the twin towers in New York in 2001. Robert A. Pape, a well-known American expert on terrorism and the author of Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism, said after the London train bombings that the "sustained presence of heavy American combat forces in Muslim countries is likely to increase the odds of the next September 11, 2001". He said that his research had shown that what 95 per cent of all suicide bombings around the world since 1980 had in common was not religion but a clear, strategic objective: "to compel a modern democracy to withdraw military forces from a territory that the terrorists view as their homeland". During a brief conversation, a terrorist holed up in the Jewish centre talked about the alleged atrocities being committed by Indian troops in Kashmir and Israeli forces against Palestinians.
Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has expressed concern at the increased incidents of piracy off the Somali coast, saying they were now a threat to global peace. President Kikwete, who is also the African Union (AU) Chairman, said the international community should come in swiftly to save the country from further disintegration. "Piracy is not only a threat to peace and security to countries neighbouring Somalia, but to the entire world in general. "We are all worried". He said the interim Somali government was on the brink of total collapse and the AU peacekeeping force now in Somalia was inadequate. More troops are needed to be sent to Somalia while Ethiopia has plans to pull its forces out of that country later next month. "If Ethiopia goes ahead with its plans to pull out from Somalia, then a major humanitarian crisis is likely to follow", he told the Kuwait minister. He explained that there were serious misunderstandings between the interim president and his prime minister, where the president and his government are operating from Libya. "It is unfortunate many attempts to resolve the conflicts have failed", he added.
Currently, there are moves being adopted by Yemen, which should be discussed on regional and international levels. These moves should be implemented in tandem with seeking a solution to the crisis of the break up and instability of Somalia. Dr Hasan Abu-Talib, expert on Yemeni affairs, is briefing on these moves, so as to convince a number of major Arab countries bordering the Red Sea of the need for collective cooperation, with the aim of protecting navigation in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.
In the case of the two journalists abducted in Puntland some further progress to secure their release has been made with all sides working together to achieve a fast and safe solution.
Feature -------
Of Troops and Boobs
02. Dec. 2008
According to Latvian Defense Minister Vinets Veldre troops of the Latvian National Armed Forces (NAF) will not be deployed to Somalia for participation in an anti-piracy mission, for now. Veldre said that although they are not planning to send troops, Latvia is supporting the international mission financially.
We are not planning to send ground forces to Somalia, but we could consider this in the future when Latvia has built appropriate ships. At the moment we have no vessels of this class that could be useful there. We have other ships that we need for ourselves", Veldre explained. Defense Ministry representative Airis Rikveilis added that the ministry had been considering sending a soldier or a military unit to this mission, but he said Latvia has serious commitments in the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan and operations in Kosovo.
The aim of the EU anti-piracy mission is to improve security of shipping off the Somali coast and to put an end to the attacks of pirates. The EU mission Atalanta is to take over the current NATO operation in Somalia in mid-December. Armed pirates have seized more than 60 ships in the Somali waters this year, which is one of the key maritime routes to the Suez Channel, used to transport about 30 percent of the global oil output.
Meanwhile more than 130,000 inflatable breasts have been lost at sea en route to Australia. Men's magazine Ralph was planning to include the boobs as a free gift with its January issue. The cargo is worth about $200,000. A spokeswoman for Ralph said the container left docks in Beijing two weeks ago but turned up empty in Sydney this week.
The magazine has put out an alert to shipping authorities to see if they have the container, but if they don't turn up in the next 48 hours it will be too late for the next issue, she said. Ralph editor Santi Pintado urged anyone who has any information to contact the magazine.
"Unless Somali pirates have stolen them its difficult to explain where they are", Pintado shrugged and called out: "If anyone finds any washed up on a beach, please let us know".
The Maritime Safety Authority said it had no information on any lost consignment and Customs said it could not comment on the 130,000 missing boobs for privacy reasons.
So the question to the Somali pirates is: Do you hold a booby loot at ransom ?
and one chevalier request: If you have the plastic boobs, please don't use them as booby-traps for sex-starved U.S. marines having watched over MV FAINA now for too long. They also have been safeguarding you - and so, since you have already what you really wanted - just let them go home to their ladies and the easiest way you can achieve that is to just set FAINA and its crew free. Deg, deg - fadlan!