As Neustrashimy sails in the Gulf of Aden, MV FAINA Crisis Remains Unresolved
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
October 27, 2008
The correct timing for proper action is now; the Somali pirates have to decide by whose side they stand, Somalia´s or its enemies´. This is the time for them, and their invisible guidance, to demonstrate that their devotion to moral values is greater than their search for material recompense. This is the time for the Somali pirates to show that the Human Life is for them more valuable than any tank and any weaponry in the world.
I publish here two fresh updates of the Ecoterra press release.
Day 33 - 767 h into the MV FAINA Crisis – Update Summary
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.
33rd Update 2008-10-27 13:50:12 UTC
New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergenecy Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868
Cut out the clutter - focus on facts !
Increased efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now one month 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.
ITAR-TASS colported today that the Somali pirates who seized the hip and took the crew hostage have threatened to kill the hostages and set the ship on fire if no ransom is paid within 24 hours, referring to a Somali radio station on Monday and said the hostages have been suffering from food shortages. Family members in Ukraine reacted with fear. This information, whatsoever, spread by Russian and some Ukrainian media could not be confirmed and it is believed that it is an echo of an old story some times back.
However, a spokesman for the Somali captors holding the arms-laden ship says the vessel's operator wants to negotiate only for the release of the MV FAINA and its crew, and not its cargo. "Sugule Ali" says the head of Tomex Team sent the pirates a fax saying the Kenyan government has declined to pay any ransom.
Kenya has claimed the 33 tanks and other heavy weapons on the ship. Ali says the pirates received the letter Friday. According to Canadian Press, he said Monday that Tomex Team's Viktor Murenko stated in his letter that the pirates are at, "liberty to destroy or throw the weapons to the sea if they deemed that fit." Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula says Tomex Team is responsible for the cargo until it is delivered. He says Kenya will not pay any ransom. Though the remaining difference in the negotiations for the ransom is getting smaller, the auction for the weapons on board seems to be on. While Somalia is under a weapons-embargo and the US-navy has promised to avert any off-loading of weapons from MV FAINA, numerous business people seem to be interested to help with the ransom by purchasing part of the dangerous cargo.
"They want to silence me, it is obvious," said Andrew Mwangura, the Kenya chapter chairman of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.
Mwangura stated authorities in the region were turning a blind eye to illegal fishing, toxic dumping, drug- and gun-running, illegal charcoal shipments, and human trafficking in Somali waters that were all indirectly fuelling lawlessness and piracy. "All these businesses inter-link. A foreign ship pays a warlord to be allowed to fish illegally off Somalia, and that money then funds at the end also piracy," he said. Mwangura met with the Ukrainian member of parliament Nyna Karpachyova, who is also the human rights ombudswoman, last week and promised to continue to do his best to achieve humane treatment and fast release of the captured seafarers in Somalia.
"The Russian warship is scheduled to leave Aden tomorrow and head to the Gulf of Aden to carry out missions to ensure the safety of Russian shipping in the region", Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said. The Russian warship Neustrashimy is patrolling the Gulf of Aden and is scheduled to safeguard Russian ships until 24th November. However, at Russian ship owners' request, it may remain there longer. The Neustrashimy's armament includes SS-N-25 Switchblade anti-ship missiles, a Vodopad anti-submarine torpedo missile system, SA-N-9 Gauntlet SAM, a 100-mm artillery system and launchers for depth charges. The frigate also carries a Ka-27 ASW helicopter. Its tonnage is over 4,000 tonnes. The sailing range is 3,000 miles. The crew numbers 210 people. Besides this, a unit of marines and an anti-sabotage group are aboard. The Russian frigate is to also join an international naval group which has surrounded the MV FAINA, according to Russian media.
Mr. Awad Ahmed Ashareh, the chairman of Somalia´s Parliamentary Committee for Information, Culture, Public Awareness and Heritage, said his country has already allowed Russia and the United States to use its waters to confront pirates who hijacked the MV FAINA, but he noted that the move has yet to be approved by the Somali parliament.
Other news -----
Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and scores of Somali MPs will attend a summit hosted by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), a regional body comprising seven African states. The summit will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Top officials in Somalia´s interim government are in Nairobi for a regional meeting to discuss piracy along the coast and a potential ceasefire between opposing forces in the war-torn country. According to IGAD spokesman Brazille Musumba, "peace and security in Somalia are at the top of the agenda". Precise topics of discussion will be decided on Tuesday morning during a meeting of ministers. Piracy will be high on the agenda at the IGAD summit. Reports from Sudan have indicated its top officials, including President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, will skip the conference in protest of Kenya´s alleged involvement in the supply of arms to southern Sudan.
According to the Sudan Tribune, the Kenyan ambassador to Sudan once again dismissed Khartoum accusations that his government was involved in weapons delivery to southern Sudan. Ambassador Robert Mutua Ngesu told reporters today that the hijacked weapons by the Somali pirates are belonging to the Kenyan army. He further said that these allegations could harm bilateral ties. Sudan alleged that Kenya is involved in weapons delivery to Southern Sudan government via the Ukrainian ship seized off the Somali coast. The foreign ministry summoned the ambassador of Kenya to Sudan on October 13 regarding arms shipments to southern Sudan.
The President of the semi-autonomous region of Puntland Muhammad Muse (aka General Adde) has announced that his administration will launch a massive operations to fight pirates hijacking commercial and humanitarian ships off Puntland coast. The president accused the international community of being reluctant in dealing with increased piracy off Puntland coast, urging them to take effective measure to prevent pirates from operating in the coast of the region. Speaking to the press in the port town of Bosaso, the president said Puntland coast-guards previously freed a commercial vessel belonging to some traders in Bari region, adding that two pirates were shot dead and six others were arrested in the operation, while other sources stated that it was a businessman's militia in two counter-attacks killing 4 and arresting 4 of the gang of 8, which had boarded the Indian Dhow for unknown reasons and had not made a ransom demand.
NATO ships have begun anti-piracy operations off Somalia, the alliance said on Monday. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said a NATO ship was escorting a U.N. World Food Programme vessel due to dock in Mogadishu on Tuesday. Another had escorted a ship talking supplies to Burundian peacekeepers in the country. "The operation is moving well," de Hoop Scheffer told a news briefing.
Captors of the MT STOLT VALOR, whose negotiations have been bogged down, refused to allow medical supplies on board.
The eight Korean crew members of the MV BRIGHT RUBY arrived at Gimhae International Airport from Hong Kong on Sunday evening. The sailors expressed gratitude to their family members and the government for endeavours leading to their release. The government of Korea started on Monday a five-day trip of a survey team to the Somalia region to determine whether to send a naval vessel to the Horn of Africa. The team comprises of eleven military and government officials and will be led by Brigadier General Choi Soo-yong from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Day 33 - 771 h into the MV FAINA Crisis – Update Summary
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.
34th Update 2008-10-27 17:45:27 UTC
New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergenecy Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868
Increased efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now one month 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.
Viktor Murenko, the head of ship operator Tomex Team, saying Kenya had declined to pay any ransom for the cargo it claims, stated in a faxed letter to the pirates that they are at "liberty to destroy or throw the weapons to the sea if they deemed that would fit." In Russia, a spokesman for ship owner Vadim Alperin said to separate ship and cargo, as suggested by TOMEX TEAM Inc., was physically impossible as there was no way to unload or destroy the cargo with U.S. forces surrounding the ship. "The ship owner doesn't care about the cargo, he has already cursed it in all ways possible," commented Mikhail Voitenko. But he also said "Physically it's impossible." to separate the cargo from the ship.
Pirate spokesman "Sugule Ali" said the pirates passed on a copy of Tomex Team's letter to the U.S. Navy, and that the FAINA's captain, Viktor Nikolsky, confirmed the signature on the letter belongs to his boss. U.S Navy spokesman Lt. Nathan Christensen in Bahrain would not say whether he had received a copy of the letter.
"The Khartoum government must rapidly address the worsening situation or face the prospect of a devastating new conflict," Fouad Hikmat, Horn of Africa project director the International Crisis Group (ICG), said. Southern Kordofan lies in the critical border area between the North and South and is occupied by Arab (mainly Misseriya and Hawazma) and African (mainly Nuba) groups that are deeply polarised along political and ethnic lines. "There is animosity over resources, representation and interests," Hikmat said. "Local communities are frustrated with the NCP [National Congress Party] and the SPLM [Sudan People's Liberation Movement] government." He was speaking at the launch of a report, Sudan's Southern Kordofan: The Next Darfur?
Other news -----
"Sending warships can only have a limited effect ... one of the best ways of combating piracy would be to stop the decline of Puntland," said Stig Jarle Hansen, a Somalia expert now collaborating with the Denmark-based Risk Intelligence group. Hansen, actually a senior researcher with the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research, argues that not only is there no evidence of ties between pirates and Somalia's Islamist Shebab organisation, which has been fighting the country's government, but the Islamists were more effective than most in combating piracy.
EU's Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana, prematurely, welcomed on 27th October a ceasefire agreement put together over the weekend by the Somali government and parts of the Islamist opposition. 'This agreement is an important step forward,' Solana said in a statement issued by his office in Brussels. 'Only an inclusive political process will bring durable peace to Somalia, and I call on all Somalis to rally behind the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia and the Alliance for the Re-liberation (ARS) of Somalia and their endeavour to achieve this,' the statement said.
A powerful Somali Islamist group, however, which boycotted the U.N.- brokered peace talks, said on Monday it would not respect a ceasefire reached over the weekend until all Ethiopian troops backing the government had left the country.
The accord was rejected by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an Islamist leader regarded by the U.S. as a terrorist linked to al-Qaeda, who pledged to continue to fight until all Ethiopian soldiers have withdrawn from Somalia. The hardline Islamist Shabaab faction, which launches attacks on government positions almost every day, said the agreement signed between the government and the more moderate but exiled ARS Islamist group was only a ploy to splinter the opposition.
Ethiopian soldiers will begin a phased withdrawal from neighbouring Somalia next month following the signing of a cease-fire agreement between the Somali transitional government and a faction of the main opposition. Ethiopian troops will start pulling out of the capital, Mogadishu, and the central town of Beledweyne on Nov. 21, according to a copy of yesterday's agreement e-mailed by United Nations Envoy Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah's office today. They will be replaced by peacekeepers from the African Union and militias loyal to Somalia's government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation, or ARS, of Somalia. U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia in December 2006, ousting an Islamist government and installing the UN- supported government. Fighting between pro-government forces and Islamic insurgents has driven one million people from their homes. Somalia's most powerful opposition group, the al-Shabaab militia, is not party to yesterday's agreement. The cease-fire will take effect Nov. 5. The government and the ARS will form a 10,000-strong police force to maintain peace in Mogadishu and surrounding areas. The two groups have asked the UN to pay for the police force. The African Union welcomed the agreement. ``This step accelerates the peace process,'' Major Barigye Bahuko, a spokesman for the AU's peacekeeping force in Somalia, told reporters in the capital, Mogadishu. The June agreement called for a UN stabilization force to replace Ethiopian troops in Somalia, even though the UN Security Council has shown little willingness to send troops to the beleaguered Horn of Africa nation.
Ethiopia had previously said it would await the arrival of 8,000 AU peacekeepers before withdrawing. Almost two years after the accord, only 3,400 AU troops have arrived. ``We will fight Ethiopian soldiers until we chase the last one left in our territory,'' Dahir Aweys said in an interview. with Shabelle Radio today. "This decision was intended to mislead the Somali people".
Note
Picture: Russian frigate Neustrashimy
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