MV FAINA Piracy Crisis and the Re-colonization of the Horn of Africa – Gulf of Aden Region

The entire project of extensive re-colonization of the Horn of Africa – Gulf of Aden Region becomes evident through the latest reports.

What is less easily understood is the project´s interconnectedness with the ongoing Iraq and "Kurdistan" ventures, the impending war against Iran, and the forthcoming dissolution of Saudi Arabia.

On all this, I will expand in further articles; here I republish the comprehensive and insightful press release update issued by Ecoterra just yesterday. It makes state of the colonial return in the aforementioned area, something that only the piracy "phenomenon" managed to trigger.

For many people who have the sight, the question is to be phrased as follows:

Will they leave after the military hit or will they stay forever in an area which seems ready to become in a few years a substitute to Saudi Arabia and its energy resources?

79th Update 2008-12-15 21:39:57 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 82 - 1951 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two-and-a-half months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

The owner of the ill-fated vessel as well as several Ukrainian officials are in Kenya to solve the last problems.

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.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships --------

It was re-confirmed that MT Action, released on 12th December has Greek ownership. So far the owner or Greek officials have not clarified neither the presumed suicide of the Georgian chief-engineer nor of two further alleged deaths of crew onboard of the ill-fated vessel.

With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of at least 330 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 124 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 55 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16). Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures.

Other related news --------

Today, on 15th December the parliament of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia in Baidoa has voted in overwhelming support for Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein and thereby not only snubbed President Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed who had tried to dismiss the PM, but also endorsed with a huge majority the present policy of the Prime Minister, who seeks a government of reconciliation by opening parliamentary seats to factions of the Djibouti peace agreement as well as to civil society. Meanwhile hard line Islamist group al-Shabab held a news conference in Mogadishu vowing never to talk to the government or accept any political power-sharing.

For a last stint this year the Middle-East-Quartet - in its present composition with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, seconded by French Foreign Minister presiding in the EU Bernard Kouchner and EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, as well as the Quartet´s special envoy, former British premier Tony Blair.- will cuddle together today . U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said piracy will also be a hot topic as Somali pirates hold at least 16 ships, including an arms-laden Ukrainian cargo vessel and a Saudi supertanker carrying two million barrels of crude oil. The United States has circulated a draft resolution allowing to chase offenders even on Somali soil, but it is expected that the 15-member UN Security Council will not concede

A Chinese vice foreign minister will travel to New York to attend a meeting on Somali pirates, a Foreign Ministry spokesman announced on Monday. "The United Nations Security Council will hold a ministerial meeting on Somali pirates on December 16, which Chinese Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei will attend", spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement.

The European Union's anti-pirate operation "Atalanta" would have a "robust" mission-mandate, EU's Javier Solana had stated already earlier. So now, EU ships operating off the coast of Somalia have not only been given the green light to ward off or even capture pirates, they apparently also are permitted to sink their ships. But the exact combat rules governing the EU mission - backed by a United Nations mandate - have been kept secret. The work of human rights organizations, who have a right to know what the military wings of their governments actually do, has been made nearly impossible, an observer stated. It is like with the rendition or prison ships the U.S. navy maintains - atrocities can hardly be documented.

The international community ignored warnings on the growing problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia three years ago, was claimed by Yemen Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Muthna Hasan, who said government officials voiced concerns about the issue already in 2005, but their observations were overlooked, allowing it to develop into a much deeper crisis. "At the second Manama Dialogue in 2005, the Yemeni Interior Minister warned about the rise in piracy", he said. Mr Hasan said part of the problem was that the international community had not paid sufficient attention to the deteriorating situation in Somalia. "The situation in Somalia is still unstable because of conflict between the various factions and because the international community has not given this enough interest", he said. "This has led to chaos and the total breakdown of the government and laid the ground for a rise in piracy, which threatens navigation at sea. We are afraid that Somalia will become a magnet for terrorists and radicals of all types. We fear that these groups will congregate in that country and threaten regional and international peace as we have seen recently with the rise of piracy".

However, a Yemen state-media source claims that the American and European movement in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Arab Sea points to an international plan implemented under the slogan of "Combating Piracy" and leads later to a British dominance of the sea trade routes through the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait, which is one of the most strategic straits linking Asia, Africa and Europe. Navigation costs through Bab Al-Mandab are lower than other straits and over 20,000 commercial ships go through it every year as 30 percent of world´s oil also passes by it. Midhat Talat, a military expert, according to the Yemen Post warns that western parties acquire rights in the area as a result of interest misused legislations at the expense of Arabs' sovereignty. He warns of the western military existence in the area under the pretext of fighting piracy which may lead to use the regional waters for western and Israeli interests and then to exercise pressure against countries in the region. Pirate acts affects Yemen very much, particularly after the Oil Ministry announced an international tender for drilling oil at off-shore fields which was won by a group of companies that includes British and US firms.

With President Ali Abdullah Saleh announcing the launch of the Liquefied Natural Gas Station in Belhaf, which will start operating at the beginning of 2009 as a quick solution to the declined inland-oil production, fears increase as Yemen lacks sufficient tools to conduct anti-piracy patrols along its coasts which stretch more than 2000 kilometers. The French Total Company is the main partner in the LNG project with a share of 39.6 percent, while the US Hunt Oil Company holds a share of 17.2 percent. Owing to the partnership, the French and US will gather at the Bab El-Mandab strait to protect their interests as companies are which set these countries policies. In October 2003, the International Policy Magazine released a report which noted that the US uses Djibouti as a base for the biggest and most modern intelligence centre in the Middle East and the Indian Ocean along with almost 3,000 US troops deployed in Djibouti and Somalia. The US naval vessel Mount-Whitney stationed in Djibouti with about 1,300 US troops aboard is considered the most advanced intelligence centre in the world, equipped with advanced communication and spy devices along with integrated laboratories to analyse images taken by US satellites. While the ready plans for the Egyptian-Saudi bridge over the Red Sea seem to be shelved, Saudi Arabia decided to build the 21st Century Project of the Al-Noor City which is designated to link Yemen with Djibouti through a 28.5- km bridge.

The British newspaper The Independent found out that the main contractors belong to L3, the giant US Telecommunication Company, a company that provides engineering and security consultancies at worldwide hotpots. The Somali piracy therefore is just a cover-up to permit increased security-related spending for the security of the Bab-al-Mandeb strait and economic interests in Europe, to make a killing for mainly British insurance firms and Dubai-based Somali business men and to indirectly finance certain Somali warlords, analysts from Yemen and Djibouti state. Officials on both sides of the crucial strait between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, are kept happy with increasing personal wealth while the majority of their backward citizens live in abhorrent poverty. Rich grounds for all kind of indoctrination and uproar. From a sleeping French Foreign Legion outpost the territory of Djibouti, i.e. the land of the Somali clans of the Issa and the Afar, has developed into a sultanate of the Europeans and Americans, while Aden is in bed with the East and the West, the Russians, the Americans, the Arabs as well as the Europeans in dangerous orgies playing with the security- and oil-dollars and gambling for military technology from Russia and elsewhere.

Her Majesty's Canadian Ship (HMCS) Ville de Québec is back in Halifax after returning from a six-month-mission along the coasts of Somalia hunting for pirates. Most of her crew are French-speaking Canadians, many of whom come from Quebec. HMCS Ville de Québec is a HALIFAX-class Canadian frigate, designed in Canada and built in Lévis. Modern and well-equipped, these long-range and versatile warships are the workhorses of the Canadian fleet and are designed with multi-role capabilities to act independently or as part of a larger force.

The Europe-based International Maritime Employers' Committee, which represents over 100 companies, operates more than 5,500 ships, and employs more than 145,000 seafarers worldwide, said the decision of ship owners and seafarers alike for a bigger high-risk zone was due to "the attacks that have occurred outside the previously agreed zone, including the 'Sirius Star' which had been hijacked off the coast of Kenya". In his letter to all IMEC members dated December 2, secretary general David Dearsley said, "Wage bonus and other benefits" -- P100 percent bonus in wage and double death and disability compensation -- for those who pass by the area for the duration of the passage have remained. In October, the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration came out with a board resolution specifying that Filipino seafarers who passed by the specified zone would get double pay and could even refuse to board the ship at the last port if they so wish.

The new high-risk zone for all seafarers was expanded "to the Yemeni coast in the north and to the existing warlike operations area in the south also encompassing the Island of Suqutra -- the eastern and western boundaries of the area have been adjusted to meet the mouth of the Maritime Security Patrol Area on each side", according to the document. "The western border of the high-risk zone, therefore, runs from the coastline at the border of Djibouti and Somalia to position 12 15 North, 45 East; from 12 35 North, 45 East to Mayyun Island in the Bab El Mandeb Straits", it said. "The eastern border runs from Rhiy di-Irisal on Suqutra Island to position 14 35 North, 53 East; from 14 45 North, 53 East to the coastline at the border between Yemen and Oman", Dearsley said. Michael Estaniel, IMEC board member, said the POEA ruling was not affected because the area adopted by the ship owners and seafarers was bigger than the one specified by POEA. "The new area will remain in place until Jan. 21, 2009 unless circumstances materially change", he added.

Piracy is one of the biggest fears of British merchant seamen, a survey revealed. A third are very concerned for their safety while a fifth said they had been on vessels that had been attacked by gunmen. The poll for maritime union Nautilus also found a third of members wanted armed guards on board ships. It comes as two Britons face their fifth week in captivity on the tanker Sirius Star, seized by Somali pirates.

End of Ecoterra Press release Update

Note

Picture: Horn of Africa and Israel – A Map

From: http://www.gpscity.com/g/gps/l/m/maw002r.gif