Sunday, December 07, 2008

Pirates update

Drama on the high seas!
DAY 72 - FAINA crisis:
Saturday, December 06, 2008 04:25:44 PM


DAY 72 - 1708 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.

Kiev is concerned about an alleged intervention of a US based group, which tried to mediate independently with the captors of MV FAINA and seem to to have the interfered with the critical finalization of the delicate deal concerning the release of the vessel.

Mikhail Boytenko, editor of the Sovfracht maritime bulletin, said that according to various sources, including one in Kenya, "A vessel is approaching the Faina to pay the ransom." "The U.S. military has moved away from the Faina, to create a corridor for the ransom to be delivered, and to guarantee the pirates safe exit from the ship," he said.

"I cannot confirm or deny this information," he added. "Late yesterday evening I spoke to the ship's owner, and he said that talks had been concluded, but that certain details on the delivery of the ransom payment had to be cleared up." No details on who was paying the ransom, or the sum involved, were given, according the Russian agency RIA. Direct contacts could also not confirm this information.

Russian Navy spokesman Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said on Friday, the Northern Fleet's Neustrashimy (Fearless) frigate is currently escorting the Malbec, flying a Marshall Islands flag, with 21 Russians among the crew, along with the Dutch Kent Locomotion, the Singaporean Maersk, and the Liberian-flagged ELB Jarmani. The warship therefore seems to not stand in the way of a safe release of the Faina.

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.

CLEARINGHOUSE: NEWS FROM OTHER ABDUCTED SHIPS

The captors of FV TIAN YU 8 don't find the right court. Those who captured the Kiribati flagged but Chinese operated fishing vessel first, which had been seized for illegally fishing in Somali waters and allegedly carrying illegal ivory had vowed to present the case, vessel and crew to a court of law in Somalia.

But it is reported that they themselves find it difficult to approach a local governance and jurisdiction in Somalia. Since the Islamic Court in Kismaayo would most likely also put the captors on trial for piracy, they have anchored the ship and according to the owner started negotiations for a release-sum directly. It has not been revealed yet to which fishing fleet the longliner belongs, but a Japanese link is presumed, since a Japanese fishing overseer is held among the otherwise Chinese, Taiwanese and Vietnamese crew members.

Negotiations for the safe release of crew and cargo of the vessel, MT BISCAGLIA, have begun a week after it was hijacked in Gulf of Aden. The manager of the vessel, Singapore-based Ishima, a ship management company, has appointed a professional negotiator to talk with the Somali captors, the National Union of Seafarers of India (NUSI) General Secretary Abdulgani Y Serang stated. The Liberian registered cargo ship was sea-jacked on November 28 and has 31 crew including 25 Indians. Its last port of call was Dumai in Indonesia.

The ship was on its way to Europe via Suez Canal. An Indian naval vessel in Gulf of Aden was refuelling as scheduled at the time of hijacking of this cargo vessel. The ship has now been anchored in Eyl, a town in Somalia, he said. This is the third ship with Indian crew that has been seized in the Gulf of Aden in recent weeks. Apart from 25 Indians, the ship had three Bangladeshis and three security guards as crew.

The two British and one Irish security men abandoned ship upon attack by jumping over board and were taken by helicopter to a naval vessel. Another ship Delight with seven Indian crew has been sea-jacked recently, while the Stolt Valor with 25 Indians on board has been released.

Katharine Houreld reported for AP from Mombasa: For more than two months, Somali pirates and their hostages aboard a Greek cargo ship, the MV CENTAURI. "And when they found out we were Filipino, they said, 'Filipino and Somali — friends!'" said crew member Alvin Genonangan with a laugh.

Together we played cards, caught fish under the blazing sun, and swapped tales of home. By the time all 25 hostages were released unharmed last week, the pirates even made one of the captives a startling offer: Would he like to join them? "Of course I said no. I was praying every day to be free," said crewman Edmundo Capatar, 32, the day after the ship docked in the Kenyan port of Mombasa.

"But I learned a little Somali. I talked a little to some of them. One said his whole family died in the war, that is why he became a pirate," Capatar said. The pirates did not let the crew telephone their families but treated them well, the sailors said, arranging deliveries of live goats to the ship for food, sharing their meals with the hostages, and encouraging them to work, fish and bake bread as a way of keeping busy. The pirates provided the flour, a luxury in impoverished Somalia, where nearly half the population is dependent on aid. Most of the pirates were young, averaging around 25, Tanada said.

They guarded the ship in shifts, with never fewer than 14 armed men on board, to be rotated every four or five days. The pirates slept on mats on the bridge and the deck, and the crew was not allowed above deck after dark. But as the hostages got to know their guards, the crew discovered that the Somalis played a card game similar to a Filipino game. They established the rules with hand signals. Genonangan said he beat the pirates sometimes — but not too often.

With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of around 354 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 115 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 16).

Several other vessels with unclear fate, who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on the watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail.

FIRST VICTIM OF WAR IS THE TRUTH

Smells fishy: A Danish warship rescued a group of suspected pirates in the Gulf of Aden on Thursday after receiving a distress signal from the ship, which was floundering in heavy seas, the Danish Navy said. The Naval Operational Command said the Absalon was bound by international law to help the men and that Danish sailors had uncovered a number of weapons onboard the vessel similar to those often used in pirate attacks on merchant ships. "Due to the weather, it was not possible to take the troubled ship in tow and it was destroyed in the interest of shipping safety," the Navy said in a statement. The men were later handed over to authorities in Yemen.

Immediately serious questions sprung up, like: Will the Danish now destroy every fishermen's vessel in distress or because they carry weapons for self-defence with the same right the Danish do? Who oversees the Danish Navy action, who counter-checks? To balance the reporting it must be said that every Somali fisherman carries at least an AK47 rifle for self-defence to do his legitimate artisanal fishing in the waters of Somalia, because there is no government who could guarantee his safety by other means and the waters near Yemen are even more dangerous.

The Danish Ministry of Defence first didn't like to comment on the incident in the Gulf of Aden, we were told, but a contact to the Her Danish Majesty's Ship ABSALON was established. The Operations Officer on Absalon reveiled that the sunken vessel was a 7m small, white fibreglass boat with a single 60HP outboard engine, one of the typical Somali fishing boats, which were even produced as development aid by Sweden in Mogadishu. The vessel was observed by the naval ship as from 14h26 UTC on 04th December 2008 at position 13:20.1 N / 048:12.9 E.

It is very clear that the 7 men in the boat - all of presumed Somali origin - were not observed in any act or even attempted approach or attack against any other vessel, which would make them suspicious to or which would have constituted an act of piracy. They actually - and that was established by the Somali interpreter on board the Absalon - had been floating since 8 days on the waters because their outboard engine had failed and couldn't be repaired.

The Lt. Commander further explained that after the 7 Somalis were taken on board some first aid had to be provided and the whole case is seen as "sailors in distress" to whom help had to be extended. The Somalis however were found in the possession of not only 5 Kalashnikov rifles incl.

104 rounds but also were holding 4 RPGs (rocket propelled granades) incl. two launchers. The RPGs actually really made them suspicious of being up to no good, though for some Somalis today to carry an RPG launcher is just like one carries any other weapon in the struggle for survival. While the RPGs were destroyed together with the vessel, the 5 AKs were confiscated by the Danish, was stated by the naval officer. Critics might want to state, however, that it was not necessary to destroy the vessel in a filmed shooting exercise, which then was aired on Danish and international TV.

The comparatively tiny boat would certainly not have affected shipping safety and even in the most troubled waters it could have been an interesting exercise for the mariners to also rescue and lift the vessel on board of the Absalon with all its manpower and technical equipment available. The seven Somalis were in the meantime handed over to the Yemen coastguard near Mukallah. Their further fate could not yet be established.

"We had a situation where these guys were shipwrecked persons," Lieutenant Commander Jesper Lynge, a Danish Navy spokesman, told the Tribune. "But we haven't caught them in an act of piracy, and what their main purpose was — your guess is as good as mine." The commander of the HDMS ABSALON has reported the incident to his national command as well to the Combined Task Force overseer with the 5th US fleet in Bahrain, but the official post-incident report is not yet available.

All we are repeatedly asking for is that there must be an independent centre established, where these incident reports have to be filed and its full accountability, responsibility and transparency must be guaranteed and held superior, if the international navies want to maintain any credibility that they do this on behalf of the international community and the Somali governance. If nobody oversees such action room for intentional or unintentional atrocities is provided and such certainly will not contribute to any pacification of the Gulf of Aden.

Arbitrary findings of self-styled kangaroo-courts on the bridges of war-vessels who decide to extradite people from the waters of one nation into the jurisdiction of another state make a mockery of international human rights and international law. In this respect the actual rescue operation, for which the Danish must be applauded, could easily backfire, if the rescued Somalis didn't want to be extradited to Yemen, a country with an awful human rights record, since then handing-over turns into abduction and rendition.

The Danish certainly didn't have the right to hand them to Yemen against their will, but it could, however, not yet be established what the seven Somalis' will was and what happened to them today.

Investigations are ongoing if they are held in cells or if they will be repatriated to Somalia, where certainly an angry boat-owner will think next time twice before lending a boat to such youngsters - the oldest member of the group is 27.

The Danish Navy must be held fully responsible, if it commits atrocities in the once rich tuna-fishing grounds of Somalia. Danmark, whose breakaway Islands of the Faroe commit every year the most bloody slaughter of pilot whales in the world, itself is infamous for its trawlers illegally fishing in the Artic as well as in the Southern Ocean.

Denmark also is involved in the illegal trade in fish e.g. in the Southern Ocean, Greepeace established and implicates Denmark - among others - as home to pirate fishers. Denmark is known also for raiding other nations fishing grounds directly. Danish fishing vessels even dared to illegally fish in British waters, but there at least the Danish got arrested.

The German Navy allegedly warded off a suspected piracy attack on a German cruise ship in the Gulf of Aden, according to a report on Spiegel online Thursday. Two "suspect" speedboats travelling towards the German ocean liner MS Astor in the Gulf of Oman were fired on by machine guns on the frigate Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, according to the report presented to the German parliament this week. The Navy's Mecklenburg-Vorpommern frigate chased off two suspicious speed boats with warning shots last Friday, a spokesman for the mission commando in Postsdam confirmed.

A spokesman for Transocean Tours in Bremen, which is operating the cruise ship, said the 492 guests and crew on board the MS Astor had not noticed the incident. The cruise ship also had not asked for help. The suspicious boats disappeared quickly into Yemen's territorial waters, the report said. Transocean said the speed boats had approached about 3 sea miles distant, and the frigate intercepted them before they got to the cruise ship. The cruise ship was bound for Dubai, where it arrived on Tuesday. Hope remains that the Somali fishermen do not become now free-for-all shooting practice targets for bored and frustrated navies, who can do little once swift real pirate attacks have taken over a ship.

FISHING

Seychelles police launched an investigation on Friday into the deaths of five men killed in an ammonia leak on a French fishing vessel. France has the second largest tuna fleet in the region after Spain. The fishermen risk heavily-armed Somali pirates to trawl some of the world's best tuna stocks in the Gulf of Aden. "The deaths occurred at 3.30 pm (1130 GMT) on Wednesday on board Le Titan at Victoria port and were the result of an ammonia leakage," police spokesman Jean Toussaint told Reuters. "Post mortems will be carried out today."

Frenchman Jacques Sellin, 55, the vessel's chief mechanic, was among the dead. The other victims were a Seychellois and three Indians. Officials said the ship was owned by a Reunion-based company, SAPMER. Ammonia is used on fishing vessels to freeze the tuna out at sea. Tuna is a key source of foreign exchange for the Seychelles' heavily indebted economy. Canned tuna accounts for 46 percent of total exports, with more than 30,000 tonnes sold last year.

OTHER RELATED NEWS

There have been a total 84 reported pirate incidents in just the last three months, according to their account UNOSAT says. Half of them occurred in or around the shipping "corridor" sent up by the international community to protect commercial vessels. And that corridor didn't seem to do much to deter the pirates; their rate of successful attacks dipped only slightly (37 percent, versus 42 percent) inside the protected area. What the corridor did do was concentrate the pirate strikes. "The mean distance between reported attacks has fallen from 30.5km... to 24.6km after," UNOSAT says.

Using images taken from the Quickbird commercial imaging satellite, the group is plotting out exactly where ships are being captured, and where they are being held.(ECOTERRA Intl. - www.ecoterra-international.org)

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Islamic militias gear up to take down pirates

Go get 'em boys, yeehhaa!! Sounds like operation "hijack oil tanker" has resulted in some blowback and there is now going to be a brutal showdown.


Sheikh Ahmed, a spokesman for the Shebab group in the coastal region of Harardhere, told the AFP news agency: "If the pirates want peace, they had better release the tanker."

The Sirius Star, a tanker carrying around $100m worth of crude oil and owned by Saudi Aramco, was hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean on November 15.

Pirates have since anchored it off their base in Harardhere and have demanded a ransom of $25m be paid by November 30.

The Shebab (meaning "youth") armed group controls much of southern and central Somalia, and has positioned fighters in and around Harardhere in recent days.

Islamist leaders have stressed that piracy is a capital offence in Islam and officially condemned the surge in acts of piracy in Somalia's waters.

Sirius Star

Pirates on board the Sirius Star

A member of the pirate group holding the Sirius Star retorted that his own men were not afraid of the Shebab's threats.

Mohamed Said said: "We are the Shebab of the sea and we can't be scared by the Shebab of the land. If anybody attempts to attack, that would be suicide."

Mr Said reiterated that his group is demanding $25m to release the vessel, which is carrying the equivalent of almost a quarter of top producer Saudi Arabia's daily output.

Speaking to AFP by telephone he said: "I am not on the tanker at the moment because I am co-ordinating what is happening on the ground.

"There is a small Shebab vanguard on the ground but we also have a strong presence."

The pirate added: "Every Somali has great respect for the holy kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have nothing against them but unfortunately what happened was just business for us and I hope the Saudis will understand."

Some residents in Harardhere have argued that the Shebab are divided over the issue of piracy and that some of the Islamist fighters have moved into the region only to claim a share of the ransom.

Authorities have played down the idea of attacking the ship on the grounds that it would be too dangerous and would probably result in the deaths of some or all of the hostage crew.