Stand-Off: Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates
Thursday, December 04, 2008 11:22:32 AM

DAY 70 - 1662 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.

The final preparations for the release are under way. 70 days in captivity today!

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 released the Yemeni cargo ship MV ADINA (wrongly called also Amani or Erina), without ransom, Puntland officials stated. The Yemini-owned cargo ship, MV Amani, with its eight crew members -- three Yemeni, three Somali and two Tanzanians, was released after negotiations with the pirates holding it, State Minister of the Presidency for International Relations and Social Affairs Ali Abdi Aware, confirmed from the Somali region of Puntland. "Elders from the pirates' clan have been negotiating with them for the past days and have been successful in persuading their boys to let the Yemeni ship go without the need for a ransom payment," Aware said. "It left Eyl and is heading to Yemen. The crew is safe and no ransom was paid," Aware added.

The vessel laden with building material and machinery was sea-jacked as it travelled from the Yemeni port of Mukalla towards the Island of Socotra. The ship was moored of the Somali port of Eyl, the pirate strong-hold in Puntland, since it was abducted. The Yemeni ambassador to Somalia travelled to the region together with Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed to push for the release of the ship, which is partly owned by Somali businessmen. So far only vessels with links to Somali buinessmen were freed without ransom or by force.

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 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 16).


IN OTHER NEWS


The Greek vessel MV Centauri docked in Mombasa / Kenya on Tuesday night and was immediately surrounded by Kenyan security agents who took over investigations. On Wednesday, police, led by port detective John Nyanzwii spent two hours talking to crew members and dusting for finger prints. All 26 crew members from the Philippines appeared to be in good health. Briefing journalists after police completed investigations, Mr Nyanzwii said the captain did not disclose whether a ransom was paid.

He said the pirates had not terrorised the crew much, and would even share with them food rations. The vessel was attacked on 18th September by 14 pirates who used two boats and fired at the ship. They took turns in holding hostage the members for the entire period. It was sailing to Mombasa from Asmara in Eritrea when it was hijacked about 200 nautical miles off Somali waters, and has been held captive for 71 days. It was released last Friday, November 28. The vessel registered in Malta, has a dead weight tonnage of 19,555 tons and is carrying 15,500 metric tons of salt.

The UN Security Council unanimously passed the U.S.-drafted Resolution 1846, a renewal of the international mandate that authorizes states and regional organizations, in cooperation with the Somali government, to enter Somalia's territorial waters and use "all necessary means" to combat piracy at sea off the Somali coast.

Such "means" include the use of force, deploying naval vessels and military aircraft, seizing and disposing of boats, vessels, arms and related equipment used by pirates to commit robbery on the high seas. But so far the Somali Parliament has not ratified as single permission, though the President of the TFG, the nation's Prime Minister and several other representatives have expressed their support.

Resolution 1846 extends the mandate by 12 months and includes a proviso for nations to submit progress reports in nine months. NATO has four ships - from Britain, Greece, Italy and Turkey - on patrol off Somalia, with two protecting UN food aid convoys to the country. Urging delegates not to lose sight of the root causes behind piracy, the Chinese ambassador, Zhang Yesui said that reconciliation was necessary in order to resolve hostilities between the factions in Somalia and promote economic development.

He implored the international community recognize the appeal of Somali and African Union officials for a deployment of a U.N. peacekeeping force. Council members said they still need to work out a mechanism for prosecuting suspected pirates once they arrest them.

U.S. Deputy Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo said it is a difficult issue that must be resolved. "We have noted in our resolution the SUA convention - the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Maritime Security - that we believe allows for prosecuting pirates. It provides the jurisdiction for states party to the convention -there are almost 150 countries now that have signed on - we are urging those who are states parties to use the authorities in that convention to deal with this issue," she said.

The European Union, meanwhile, says its anti-piracy armada - dubbed Atalanta - will start operations off the Somali coast next week with six warships and three maritime patrol aircraft. EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana told the AFP that the ships will have very robust rules of engagement.

It is not yet clear if the EU mission will replace or complement a NATO task force stationed in the region since the end of October. The United Nations' Security Council gave its formal green-light to the EU mission, which is to last for one year at an extra cost of 8.3 million Euros (US$ 10.5 million) in addition to the billions in basic costs of the armada. Solana conceded Wednesday that there were still a number of legal issues that needed to be resolved. One concerns the different rules which EU member states apply on the detention of pirates.

"We need to coordinate that, but every country has a position -- and that position is that they will not allow pirates to play around," Solana said. The European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) is what amounts to the EU’s military wing, which has difficulties to get the different nations under one command. Perhaps in response to British concerns, Operation Atalanta will be commanded by a vice admiral from the Royal Navy, Philip Jones. Although the EU’s anti-piracy efforts could ultimately fail, Operation Atalanta helps put the EU in the useful habit of contributing to international order outside the structure of NATO, which is US led.

A NATO warship reportedly prevented a swarm of more than a dozen pirate boats from hijacking five merchant shipping vessels in the Gulf of Aden, the alliance said in a statement. Alerted by a distress call, the Italian destroyer put itself between the the pirate "fast boats", with all vessels using water hoses to repel the pirates. The Italian warship Luigi Durand de la Penne also used its helicopter against the pirates, dispersing their attack, a NATO official said on Tuesday.

"This is probably the biggest multiple co-ordinated attack we've seen," the official said. Between 12 and 20 pirate boats were involved. "There were so many of them, it was more important to protect the motor vessels than to go after these dispersing boats," the official said, on the sidelines of talks between NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

The Hong Kong flagged merchant ship MV Overseas Hercules used fire hoses as a countermeasure against the possible pirate attack in the Gulf of Aden on December 2, 2008. According to NATO headquarters in Naples, the Italian naval destroyer ITS Luigi Durand de la Penne arrived following a distress call and instructed the vessel to use its fire hoses to thwart an attack.

No direct attack was made on the ship and no pictures of the alleged approach were released. PR pictures released to show the use of water-canons on MV OVERSEAS HERCULES didn't show a single Somali skiff.

Egyptian cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi said Wednesday that Egypt is ready to take part in an international force under the United Nations to fight against piracy, the state MENA news agency reported. He said the government opposed "unilateral action by any power to confront piracy off Somalia's coast." Egypt, which co-hosted with Yemen a meeting for Red Sea states on piracy last month, has said anti-piracy missions must respect the sovereignty of Somalia and the territorial waters of neighboring states.

Egypt's judicial affairs minister, Mufid Shihab, said Cairo's support for anti-piracy efforts was "conditional on not including the Red Sea within the scope of cooperation," government newspaper Al-Ahram reported. Egypt has blamed political turmoil in Somalia for the phenomenon.

Passengers on the luxury cruise liner MS NAUTICA are talking about their experience with the pirate attack. Some say the attackers' boldness surprised them -- but the failed assault on the M/S Nautica on Sunday was no big deal. A man from Oregon, Clyde Thornberg, says he heard several pops from the pirates' rifles. He says the captain ordered passengers off the decks and was "pouring on the coals" to speed away from the pirates' small boats.One woman calls the incident "very minor." She says the attack lasted about five minutes.

Somali Jihadists call on American and European Muslims to Join Jihad in Somalia And Warn the West: "We're Gonna Exterminate You All, Inshallah". In a 30 minute video posted recently on Islamist websites, the Somali jihad group Shabab Al-Mujahideen called on Muslims living in the U.S. and Europe to come to Somalia and join the jihad there. The video is in Arabic, Somali and English.

A soldier serving with African Union forces in Somalia was killed in fighting with insurgents in the war-torn capital Mogadishu, a military spokesman said Wednesday. The Burundi soldier died of injuries sustained in the clash late Tuesday near his contingent's southern Mogadishu base, Burundi army spokesman Clement Cinen said.

"The fighting in the former military academy last night, where our forces are based, left one of our soldiers injured but unfortunately he died later in hospital," Cinen said.

"There were no other casualties in that fighting." Insurgents often target Ethiopian backed government forces. Burundi has a total of 1,700 soldiers in Somalia with the 3,400-strong AU force, which is expected to eventually number 8,000. Former African leaders in the AU's Panel of the Wise urged the United Nations to form a stabilisation force for Somalia after Ethiopia announced last week it would withdraw its troops by the end of the year.

The Ethiopian army invaded Somalia in late 2006 to rescue Somalia's embattled transitional government and oust the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which controlled of much of the country's central and southern regions.

The ICU had ruled much of Somalia with relative peace and prosperity until the Ethiopian involvement. Since then, ICU fighters have waged a deadly insurgency against the Ethiopian and the transitional government forces.

But Ethiopian troops’ retaliations have caused many casualties among Somali civilians. Since the Ethiopian invasion, about one million Somalis have fled their homes. An estimated 6,500 civilians have been killed. Aid workers estimate 2.6 million Somalis need assistance.

That number is expected to reach 3.5 million by the end of the year if the humanitarian situation does not improve, according to the UN. In May 2008, Amnesty International accused the Ethiopian troops in Somalia of increasingly resorting to throat-slitting executions, highlighting an "increasing incidence" of gruesome methods by Ethiopian forces that include rape and torture.

Since the ousting of the ICU, Somalia had plunged into unprecedented chaos, where warlords and pirates have returned to the scene. Many in Somalia see the departure of Ethiopian troops as a precondition to peace negotiations.

Yemen's Interior Ministry says that strong winds and high waves have washed up 24 bodies of Somali migrants including two children and a number of women on the shore. A ministry statement says the bodies surfaced Tuesday and Wednesday along the coast near the town of al-Qasha'a.

It says another 184 Somalis involved in the same incident at sea survived and managed to swim ashore. UNHCR said the boat was carrying around 115 passengers, mostly Ethiopians. "The new arrivals received first aid, food and water on the shore and were then transferred to the reception centre to receive a complete medical examination by Médecins Sans Frontières and other assistance," the agency said.

Hundreds of Africans die every year trying to reach Yemen, with many drowning or being attacked by pirates and smugglers in the dangerous waters separating Somalia and the Arabian peninsula.

The United Nations refugee agency says more than 43,500 migrants — Somali and Ethiopian refugees — have arrived in smuggling boats in Yemen this year. At least 380 people have died and some 360 are missing so far this year. In 2007, some 29,500 people made the voyage to Yemen and the overall number of dead and missing reached 1,400.

Numerous meetings between the Dishishe and Majeteen clans were held today with governmental officials of the breakaway region of Puntland to secure the release of the abducted two journalists.