German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung: No to a floating Guantanamo, off the Somali Coast
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
December 23, 2008
If the entire Somalia was turned to an immense Guantanamo, Islamic extremism of the worst sort would spread throughout Africa with the subsequent islamization of Abyssinia, Kenya, and Tanzania.
More light on the topic is shed in the 86th Update of the Ecoterra Press Release that I publish integrally.
86th Update 2008-12-22 19:11:42 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 89 - 2117 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now nearly three months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.
Waterlux AG - the owner of the FAINA asked U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor to immediately stop the interference by an American businesswoman, who is a US citizen, in negotiations with the pirates, says an open letter from the owner transmitted to the Ukrainian press agency UNIAN by captain Pavel Dragaev, a representative of the owner. The owner of the ship said that the vessel with Ukrainian crew and cargo has been kept now for almost 90 days captive at the Somali coast. Long and sometimes arduous negotiations with the sea bandits have been ongoing all that times, while members of the ship's crew have been under severe psychological pressure, like their families back home. "Convincing arguments and justifications were presented to the pirates several weeks ago and we persuaded the criminals to accept a negotiated ransom.
The negotiations have now passed into a final phase and the uneasy work has begun to define acceptable ways and conditions for the release of the vessel and crew", noted the owner. According to the owner, at this stage the U.S. citizen interfered in the negotiations "without any notification, without orders or powers. Using the links with some leaders of Somali clans, the lady is still trying to pull the negotiations onto herself". "Offering a fantastic amount of ransom, not approved by anyone, claiming that she would have some powers from the Ukrainian authorities, as well as from the U.S. Navy, both of which Waterlux AG is unaware, the American woman has achieved only an unfortunately negative result - the real negotiation process has been again suspended, while the suffering of sailors and their families continues, and their chances to celebrate the New Year and Christmas in the warmth of a home are rapidly declining", the letter says. "We don´t want and don´t require explanations and motives of the lady's dirty deeds", said the ship-owner. Presently, the most important thing for us and all who render assistance in the release of the sailors and the vessel is to put an immediate and actual end to the interference of this lady in the talks with the pirates and to inform the latter about this decision. "This task can be achieved only with ambassador Taylor´s assistance", the ship-owner added. "We are convinced that you, as a supreme U.S official in Ukraine, won´t be indifferent to Ukrainian sailors, and a stop of the interference will lead to a rapid and successful release of hostages", the owner of the FAINA wrote.
The release of the FAINA requires a ransom of US $ 3.5 m, according to an elder of a Somali clan. A pirate phoned UNIAN on Dec.18 and said that a U.S lady, who knew the situation well, helped them. "She helps greatly, holds talks and promises to apply to Congress", he said. "The Ukrainian sailors would have been released if this woman did not interfere", Dragaev said in an interview with UNIAN on Dec. 19.
Newsweek interviewed someone using the name Shamun Indhabur, who they thought to be the leader of the pirates who took the FAINA, and the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker with $100 million worth of oil aboard. In response to a claim attributed to Islamists that the pirates are giving Somalia a bad name and criticism that they are attacking Muslim-owned ships such as the Sirius Star, Mr Indhabur said: "The Islamists have a memorandum of understanding with us. What they are saying to the media is not their real position. They just want to send a message to their Arab friends who sometimes fund them". And when asked what will happen if the Islamists return to power, he said: "The Islamists are not homogenous groups, they are heterogeneous. I can guess they'll never come back to power as in 2006, but they can fight one another and create a huge mess. If they did take power, they must restore law and order and create job opportunities for us. If they don't, then piracy will never stop".
The fall of the pirate stronghold of Hobyo into the hands of the Islamists, however, is seen by analysts as a push supporting a faster release of the two sensitive vessels held currently under siege in the area.
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 fully responsible for the surely resulting disaster.
Clearing-house:
News from other abducted ships --------
Intensive final negotiations are ongoing concerning the release of a number of ships, where the owner-negotiators have realized that dragging their feet does not help anybody. Negotiators for some vessels, however, seem to have disappeared into their Christmas-holidays.
The release of MV AFRICAN SANDERLING, sea-jacked on 15th October is long overdue, but like in other cases, where the Japanese actual owners leave it to the insurance- and risk-management companies - having to please many different stake-holders of that ship and their own interests - it can take ages. The onion-layered ownership and management doesn't make it easier to talk with the right people: Moon Rise Shipping Co. of Panama is only a cover for some South-Korean capital and the real Japanese owners of the ship, which is on the fleet list of and long-term lease to MUR Shipping, headquartered in Dubai, linked with MUR Shipping Holdings B.V. (Netherlands), which in turn is the shipping division of a joint venture company between Mittal Steel South Africa and Macsteel International Holdings B.V.
With the latest captures and releases now at least 19 foreign vessels with a total of at least 360 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 had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 132 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 19). Mystery mother vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean and not fully documented cases of vessels are not listed in the hi-jack count any more until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also 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 ------
While Canadian, Dutch and British naval vessels have returned home for the festive holidays, an EU naval mission to deter pirate attacks on aid shipments to Somalia is likely to succeed, the head of the German Navy predicted Monday. A Germany Navy frigate, the Karlsruhe, is set to leave the German base in Djibouti tomorrow on Tuesday to join Operation Atalanta. Vice-Admiral Hans-Joachim Stricker and German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung visited the crew Monday. The European Union anti-pirate flotilla may use force to recapture ships from Somali pirates, German Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung said Monday in the East African port of Djibouti. Previously Germany has said Atalanta is mainly intended to escort boats carrying aid into Somali ports so that pirates do not steal the cargo.
He said the authorization was the most robust ever issued to the federal German military abroad, and Germany had commandos with the skills needed to seize ships. He also said the Germans would not hold pirates indefinitely in the brig of the Karlsruhe, but would ensure those captured were put on trial in Africa or even in Germany in some cases. "Nobody wants a floating Guantanamo" he said, referring to the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention camp for Islamist combatants, most of whom have never been tried. The Karlsruhe had both military police and military lawyers on board, he added. If pirates were suspected of harming German interests, they would be handed over to German federal police in Djibouti and taken to the German city of Hamburg for trial. What the people in Somalia's French-ruled province of Djibouti don't realize, though, is that what the Germans and their allies are spending per year for arming and deploying themselves in the hunt against pirates would feed all 800,000 inhabitants of Djibouti as well as all Somalis in Somalia.
A group of lawmakers in Somalia say a recent vote-of-confidence declared by Speaker Adan "Madobe" Mohamed did not take place, Radio Garowe reported Sunday. About 80 MPs held discussions in Baidoa, an inland town located 250km northwest of Mogadishu, the national capital. Somalia's federal parliament has been based in Baidoa since 2006, due to prevailing insecurity in Mogadishu. "We discussed the so-called votes of Dec. 15 and Dec. 17, which never happened", said MP Ismail Ali Nur, who spoke on behalf of the dissenting lawmakers, while urging people to "watch video footage recorded from that session". He indicated that the constitution requires a parliament quorum of no less than 139 MPs present for votes, but that "only 95 MPs" showed up in parliament, while Abdullahi Yussuf held a parallel meeting with lawmakers at his residence. MP Nur said this group of dissident legislators "will not set foot inside parliament" as long as Adan Madobe is the Speaker, after accusing Speaker Madobe of "violating parliamentary bylaws".
Speaker Madobe announced to local and international media that 143 MPs approved the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein, which President Abdullahi Yusuf refused to endorse. A day earlier, Yusuf "fired" PM Nur Adde and appointed a new Prime Minister for the country, in the person of Mr. Mohamed Mohamud Guled "Gamadheere", a federal MP. The leadership dispute threw Somalia's parliament into chaos, with Speaker Madobe declaring that Nur Adde won the confidence vote on Dec. 15 and that the Djibouti Agreement was "approved" by lawmakers on Dec. 17. The Djibouti Agreement calls for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops within 120 days and the establishment of a 'Unity Government', which will create a bloated 550-seat parliament including an opposition faction and elect new leadership for Somalia by January 2009.
Two years after invading Somalia, ousting the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) government in Mogadishu and subsequently propping up the increasingly weak Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Ethiopia has reiterated its commitment to withdraw its forces in the next few days. "This week, Ethiopian troops have begun to make preparations for their withdrawal. This has not, however, prevented continuing clashes with al Shabaab forces", an Ethiopian foreign ministry statement said. Ethiopia invaded on Christmas Eve 2006 with the backing of the United States, an ally of Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. While the troops routed the Islamic Courts Union, the Ethiopians have not stopped rampant piracy or the rise of Al-Shabaab. Under a UN-sponsored agreement, an African Union (AU) force is meant to take over security responsibilities from the Ethiopians.
The current force of 3,400 troops from Uganda and Burundi is expected to increase to 8,000 and Nigeria has confirmed that it will despatch one battalion (850 troops) to Somalia in January. "The president of Nigeria has confirmed to me personally that one Nigerian battalion will be sent to Somalia in a short time", AU Commission Chairman Jean Ping told a meeting of regional foreign ministers. "He told me that the troops are equipped and ready, which makes me believe they will be sent in January". The battalion, preparing for deployment since August, numbers about 850 officers and men. Nevertheless, the Ethiopian foreign ministry conceded, "Currently, considerable confusion remains over the intentions of the AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) troop contributing countries". Efforts to enlist support for a UN-backed peacekeeping force have so far accomplished little. "In fact, there is almost no international support for sending a peacekeeping force to Somalia as the US has proposed", confirmed by none other than UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon last Wednesday.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who leads Somalia's transitional government, scaremongered that once Ethiopian troops pull out, there will be nothing in the way of al Shabaab and other Islamist militias taking over the whole country. "And when they do, they will jeopardize the security of the whole region and beyond". However, Mohammed Adow, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Nairobi, said that Yusuf's view is not supported by many Somalis, especially those living in areas under al Shabaab control. "Today, they can go about their business without any fear. One such place is Kismayo, Somalia's third-largest city. Today, it is a safe place", he reported.
The African Union's Peace and Security Council met today in Addis Ababa to discuss Somalia, while Ethiopia is hosting a series of talks on the deepening crisis in its neighbour. Foreign ministers from east Africa are meeting in the capital, Addis Ababa, to be followed by talks by the African Union's peace and security council. The emergency meetings come after Ethiopia decided to withdraw its troops from Somalia by the end of December. Local sources state that the talk have not lead to concrete results yet. "IGAD regrets the attempts by President Abdullahi Yusuf to unconstitutionally appoint a new prime minister that IGAD does not recognise and decides to impose sanctions on him and his associates immediately", it said in a statement. Kenya said last week it could impose a travel ban and asset freeze on Somali leaders deemed to be hindering the process. Both President Yusuf and Prime Minister Hussein are reported to be still in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and have met separately with US Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, Mrs. Jendayi Frazer, at the transit lounge of the Nairobi airport. IGAD said it supported Kenya's intention to take action against Yusuf and called on other member states, the African Union and the United Nations to take similar steps.
U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, a Democrat from Wisconsin, called for a new strategy to address instability, terrorism and the humanitarian crisis in Somalia and the Horn of Africa while visiting over the weekend Djibouti, which is hosting the Somalia peace process. Feingold, Chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on African Affairs, met with the President and Foreign Minister of Djibouti, the Prime Minister of the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the leadership of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia, the United Nations Special Representative for Somalia, the President of Somaliland, and members of Somalia's civil society. He also visited the U.S. base in Djibouti, home to the military's Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa. "There is both an urgent need and an opportunity for a new U.S. policy for Somalia and the Horn of Africa", Feingold said. "With the security and humanitarian crisis deepening, the expansion of the Shebab terrorist group, the announced withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from Somalia, and a fragile peace process, it is critical that the incoming Obama Administration take immediate steps to develop a new, comprehensive strategy for Somalia and the region. Disjointed policies in Somalia have often undermined one another, ultimately proving counterproductive. Moving forward, we must address direct threats at the same time that we confront the ongoing humanitarian and human rights crisis, supporting legitimate governance institutions, promote accountability and rule of law and work to undercut the appeal of violent extremism. The current situation is not just a disaster for the people of Somalia and the region. It is a direct threat to America's national security".
Feingold has led efforts in the Senate to focus on this critical region of the world. He authorized legislation, passed by Congress, requiring the administration to develop a comprehensive stabilization and reconstruction strategy for Somalia and has consistently called on the international community to commit the necessary resources and attention to stabilize Somalia and rebuild its institutions. Recently, insurgent militias in Somalia have overtaken several strategic towns as they march toward the capital city of Mogadishu. They now control the territory throughout southern and central Somalia. Feingold stated that instability in the country has enabled the recent rise in pirate attacks off the Somali coast.
China's Defence Ministry spokesman Hu Changming said over the weekend that the navy would send two destroyers, 169 Wuhan and 171 Haikou, as well as 87 Weisanhu, a large supply vessel to Somali waters to combat pirates. The ships will leave Sanya, Hainan province, on Friday, and the navy will strictly abide by relevant UN Security Council resolutions and international law, and cooperate with other convoy protection ships. This could be a springboard for a resumption of dialogue between PLA forces and US Pacific Command forces, analysts believe. The Chinese thereby are also about to end a long-standing policy against armed long-range naval missions, which the post-Mao Chinese governments had ruled out since they were opposed to international military interventions in other countries. The last time imperial Chinese fleets came to the shores of Somalia was in the 15th century, when the Ming emperor dispatched a series of expeditions under the legendary admiral Zheng He, who commanded what were then the world's largest ships and largest fleets. While that fleets' debris and buried remains of trading goods like porcelain at sites along Somalia's Indian Ocean cost still have not been excavated, studied and analysed, history repeats itself. Hopefully in full since after the seventh expedition of the Ming emperor and due to internal power struggles as well threats along the border of China, a halt was called to the 15th century naval expeditions and the Chinese navy back then basically gave up blue-water operations until today.
The Swiss Maritime Navigation Office (SMNO) supports President Pascal Couchepin's proposal to consider sending soldiers to protect Swiss ships sailing near Somalia. On Monday, the head of the Basel-based SMNO, Reto Dürler, told Swiss radio that experience had shown the presence of soldiers on board vessels was effective in preventing attacks. Dürler was responding to a statement Couchepin made on Sunday saying the government was ready to send soldiers to protect Swiss ships from pirates, but stated that the legal, financial and practical consequences had to be studied before a final decision was taken. His proposal has been attacked by some parliamentarians from the rightwing Swiss People's Party and the Greens, as well as a military expert. The expert, Albert Stahel, a professor at Zurich University, called the plan a "crackpot idea", saying the government had to consider more serious action, such as placing the Swiss fleet under the flag of a naval power in order to be protected by it. Dürler rejected this idea as unthinkable and called attention to the mandate given by the government to the 35 freighters of the Swiss fleet to ensure supplies to the country during war or times of crisis. Two ships flying Swiss flags were scheduled to brave the waters off Somalia this week, but one of them, a tanker belonging to Mega Chemicals in canton Thurgau, has opted to go around the Cape of Good Hope instead, reported Swissinfo Radio.
Maritime piracy is as big a threat as terrorism, with a potentially massive impact on the region's economy, an Indian expert declared in Bahrain yesterday. Gulf countries should join hands with India to rebuild the economy of Somalia as a long-term plan to combat piracy, said Dr Aftab Kamal Pasha, who teaches at the Gulf Studies Centre for West Asian and African Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. The area of instability will not be confined to Somalia alone, warned the New Delhi-based Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) West Asia department professor. "If there is no proper economic stability in Yemen, this could eventually affect the future trade and commerce in the GCC states", he noted. "There should be greater GCC efforts to rebuild the economy of Somalia and assist Yemen economically. If not, the incidents of piracy may spread to the Gulf". Dr Pasha was speaking at a seminar organised by the Bahrain Centre for Studies and Research (BCSR), at its premises in Awali, to tap India's expertise in combating piracy. "Piracy is now as much of a threat to the world community as it was in the days of frigates and galleons", said Dr Pasha. "Today India has close co-operation with GCC and US/ Western Navies", said Dr Pasha. "Greater co-operation is needed with GCC navies".
"Co-operation with Iran, Yemen and Pakistan is essential to combat piracy, as India and GCC states alone cannot do it", he added. "There has to be a long-term vision for co-operation as long as oil and gas remains, as the US is bound to gradually withdraw, like the British did in 1970". Today Indian relations with the GCC countries have new elements as well as a new nature, said BCSR board of trustee chairman Dr Mohammed Al Ghatam. "We were all horrified by the terrorist acts that struck peaceful citizens and tourists in Mumbai recently", he noted. In the Arab region, international co-operation is needed and the prime responsibility is on the shoulders of the big powers, said Dr Al Ghatam. "Some of these powers are responsible for the so called failed states like Afghanistan and Somalia as people live in a state of chaos, misery, insecurity and lawlessness".
Somaliland and the unexplained disappearance of young Somali-American men from the US. "Establishing the youths' whereabouts has become more urgent since the perpetrator of a suicide bomb in autonomous Somaliland in October was identified as a naturalised American from Minneapolis. Members of the 70,000 Somali community in the states fear local imams are indoctrinating young men to join Islamist radicals fighting the western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu. Many of the youths, aged about 18 and 19, were American-born", said Omar Jamal, a community leader. While US authorities are targeting the country's Somali community following the discovery of a US link in a recent suicide bombing in an analysis for The Associated Press, Anne Gearan wrote: "To address Somalia's underlying problems, the US and the rest of the world would have to spend money building or rebuilding basic services and structures and encourage charities, development organisations and the Somalis themselves to do the same".
World apex maritime watchdog, International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has called to owners of vessels attacked by pirates in Nigeria to send details of the incidents to its piracy reporting centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to enable it to get a better take on the piracy problem in West Africa. The development comes after a spate of incidents in the restive Niger Delta which led to the kidnap of a Russian, a Mexican and seven Nigerians. Although the situation around Somalia has dominated recent headlines, this brand of criminality continues to flourish elsewhere, but especially in Nigeria, said IMB. "The unfortunate part about Nigeria is that we are not getting reports from there", said Mr Cyrus Mody. "We know it's happening, but the reports are not being sent to us by masters and owners, which we would really like". Seafarers and the media usually are much better sources than the owners or managers of ships, is also the experience of East Africa's Seafarers Assistance Programme, which watches the incidences especially around the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Since sea-traffic is by far not controlled in any way like the traffic by air or over land, shipments of contraband, weapons, drugs and humans across national boundaries are mostly done today by sea. This is why many times the ship-owners even don't want any involvement of authorities or organizations in the release negotiations and this is also why the payment of ransom has started in the first place: To get a quick release without too much attention being drawn on the vessel, the cargo or the unlawful activities like smuggling, illegal fishing or dumping of toxic waste.
Special Feature -----
Press Freedom Endangered Everywhere
WTN - 22. Dec. 2008
The only radio station in an Islamist-controlled town in southern Somalia was shuttered by militants in a raid last week, according to the station´s director. About 10 armed Al Shabab militiamen, a hardline Islamist insurgent group controlling the coastal town of Kismayo since August, forced the local station of independent broadcasting network HornAfrik off the air on December 13, director Ahmed Mohamed Aden told the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The militia handed Aden an order signed by Sheikh Hassan Yaqub Ali, the information secretary of the Islamic administration in Kismayo, accusing the station of airing music and "anti-Islamist" information, he said. "The forced closure of HornAfrik in Kismayo indicates that there are no parts of Somalia where press freedom is respected", said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. "We call on the information secretary of the Islamic administration to reverse his decision and allow Kismayo´s only radio station, HornAfrik, back on the air. The free-flow of news is in the country´s best interest".
In neighbouring Kenya legislators used a quiet hour in parliament and the presence of only 25 MPs to push a new media-bill, which if enshrined would give the state extraordinary powers to muzzle the press. Many demonstrations against the bill during the last week were forcefully broken up by police using teargas and the anti-riot police, which had become infamous during the post-election violence at the beginning of the year when 1,500 people were killed. A UN brokered counterpart-government between President Kibaki and now Prime Minister Raila Odinga since then safeguarded the country from further turmoil so far, but observers see the role of the press to speak out in a country where there is no more official opposition in parliament seriously endangered by this new bill, which easily could be misused to again ban live broadcasts. All sides have urged the president to not sign the bill, which was pushed through parliament in such an undemocratic way, into force.
China has blocked access to the New York Times website, days after the Beijing government defended its right to censor online content it considers illegal. Attempts to log on to the New York Times website late Sunday failed, producing the message that comes up whenever one tries to access a banned site in China. Beijing loosened many controls on Internet content during the 2008 Olympics in compliance with an agreement with the Intl. Olympic Committee, but it has started rolling back some of those freedoms in recent weeks.
"Do not air anything that tends to make viewers to know the real caliber and honesty of powers-that-be in India"! That puts in a nutshell the set of guidelines issued on Dec 18 to news broadcasters of the country, Natteri Adigal from Mumbai writes. The tone is clear: Let´s not provoke the people to rebel against the bosses who have been lording over a population that boasts of more wretched denizens than anywhere else in the world, in terms of malnutrition, sanitation, infant mortality, destitution and plain hunger. Ironically, the guidelines have been proposed by News Broadcasting Standards Dispute Redressal Authority (NBSDRA). The News Broadcasters Association (NBA) is headed by JS Verma, who was chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and Chief Justice of India for some time.
The guidelines for ´self-regulation´ drafted by him come close on the heels of severe criticism of the way television channels covered the recent terrorist attack in Mumbai. The guidelines, claimed to be in line with "anti-terror media protocol" prevailing in the US, Russia, the UK, Canada etc., however, do include one sensible restriction, perhaps the only one. It is in connection with duping the viewer and stipulates clear mention of the exact time and date of shooting in the footages shown. His guidelines overall are reminiscent of the ´shoot the messenger´ doctrine adopted in the barbarian age. NBSDRA does not want to hear any live phone interviews with the "terrorists"; whereby "terrorist" will apparently include any small time street thug whom the authorities have a habit of implicating in major terror incidents. That is their way to ´crack´ the crime and grab awards. The authority also does not want to see any live interviews with the victims or cops whose masters can declare that ´security operation´ is going on. The media should not mention the identity, number and status of hostages, in an ongoing hostage situation. For example, it will be unethical to inform viewers that 25 Indians are currently held in hostage by pirates in Somalia. Any live interview with either a hostage or pirate, to ascertain the progress of negotiations, would be prohibited!
End of Ecoterra Press Release Update
Note
Picture: MV FAINA crew and pirates
From: http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/10/09/world/09pirates.600.jpg
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