Around the Year Change 2008 – 2009 in Somalia - Horn of Africa Piracy Annals Part 7

Completing this series of articles about the Somali piracy phenomenon, I republish Ecoterra 98th Press Release Update that focuses amongst others on the Russian naval involvement in the Horn of Africa region and worldwide.

98th Update 2009-01-04 21h12:39 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 and related news.

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 102 - 2431 hours into the MV FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

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

The Somali captors of the vessel FAINA have jointly agreed to a proposal on a renewed effort to solve the problem through only one direct mediation-group, thereby clearing the way forward, which was hampered by several parties imposed in the negotiations for in most cases only selfish interests. It is seen as a last attempt by both sides to finalize and achieve the release.

Russia's military leaders approved a plan by the navy on Sunday to station warships permanently in friendly ports across the globe. Underfunded since the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union, the Russian navy has been reasserting itself over the last year by chasing Somali pirates around the coast of east Africa and steaming across the Atlantic to visit allies in South America. "The General Staff has given its position on this issue and it fully supports the position of the (Navy's) main committee", deputy chief of staff Colonel-General Anatoly Nogovitsyn told RIA Novosti news agency. A resurgent navy has become central to a strategy for Russia -- which enjoyed a decade of economic revival from 1998 -- to project itself in foreign affairs. In August a Russian diplomat said the navy was to make more use of a Syrian Mediterranean Sea port. Last month a Russian warship cruised off Cuba after visiting South America for the first time since 1991. Nogovitsyn said Russia was directly negotiating with foreign governments to station warships at bases around the world permanently, although he declined to give exact details. "Nobody can predict where problems could flare up", he said. "What we need are permanent bases, but these are very costly. They need to be considered very carefully". RIA Novosti wrote that the Russian navy was already in negotiations to build a permanent Black Sea Port in the Russia-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.

Russia-Ukraine gas row disrupts supplies to EU: Russia and Ukraine looked no closer to compromise on Sunday over a gas row that has disrupted supplies to at least four European Union countries as they face freezing winter temperatures. Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have reported drops in supplies after Russian state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom cut off Ukraine on New Year's Day in a row over payment of pending bills and prizes for new deliveries. Russia and Ukraine's gas companies traded allegations throughout Saturday, indicating the prospect of a swift resolution to the row could be remote.

Gazprom said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev had approved its move to take Ukraine's state-run gas company, Naftogaz, to the arbitration court in Stockholm over the gas transit to Europe.

Ecoterra Intl. repeats its call to solve the MV 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 or those, who believe they would be capable to try an attempt of a military solution, must be held fully responsible for the surely resulting disaster. The saga and secrecy surrounding MV FAINA must not - like in the MS ESTONIA case, which is the worst naval disaster in Europe since WWII - become the shroud for its 20 seafarers.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted or newly attacked ships --------

Games Crazy People Play: Kidnapping, Pirating, and War - Naval War-games to protect Fish-piracy and to cover the real agenda !

Today morning (08h40 LT) a cargo vessel was attacked in the Gulf of Aden by one white 10m long skiff doing about 18 knots (~ 33 km/h), with 6 people on board. 3 people were standing holding machine guns, others were sitting. The people had covered their faces and were wearing dark clothes. 3 attempts were made to board the vessel from the port side. The attackers opened fire 2 times. Evasive maneuvers were carried out and their attempts failed. The small boat kept following the vessel at a distance of about 400 - 600 m. Coalition forces were contacted at the first point of sighting the small boat. Within 15 minutes a coalition warship sent a helicopter to assist the ship. On seeing the helicopter, the skiff moved away. No injuries to the crew or damages to the ship occurred.

A French warship Sunday foiled attempts by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden to seize two cargo vessels and intercepted 19 people, the French president's office said. "Three days after a French vessel thwarted an attack on a Panamanian cargo ship" the frigate Jean de Vienne conducted a "decisive action" against "two new attacks" it said in a statement. "The Jean de Vienne, patrolling southwest of the Yemeni port of Al Mukallah, moved into action after receiving two separate distress calls, one from a Croatian cargo ship, the Donat, and another from a Panamanian cargo ship, the Vulturnus, a Defense Ministry statement said. The 19 Somali pirates who tried to seize the two boats were intercepted", it added, saying they carried weapons, ammunition and material for boarding ships. "They will be transferred to the Somali authorities", the office of President Nicolas Sarkozy added. The French defence ministry said pirates attempted to attack a Croatian freighter and a Panamanian cargo ship and that French forces seized 11 assault rifles, two rockets and two rocket launchers, and more than 1,000 liters of oil.

A dramatic call for help was received today from the Nigerian tugboat YENEGOA OCEAN, which has been abducted by pirates and apparently is more or less abandoned by its owner with its 10 men crew since now over 5 months. Their satellite phone had been damaged and can only receive but they could get the message out today by other means. The Nigerian embassy in Nairobi has been informed.

The captain of the Malaysian tugboat MASINDRA 7 and his crew were able to repair the second engine of the vessel, but now are desperately waiting that the owner of the tug comes to terms. Allegedly the owner has been trying to neglect his responsibility and confused the authorities, because the attached barge belongs to another company. The crew has run out of any fresh-water on board but was supplied with small quantities from the shore.

Egypt's Foreign Ministry said it was closely following up the ordeal of a ship seized by pirates off Somali coasts. The pirates hijacked the Blue Star cargo ship with a crew of 28 Egyptians last week. The ship carried 6,000 tons of fertilizers as it was headed eastward. Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs Ambassador Ahmed Rizq said that the Ministry has set up an operation room to follow up the hijacking of the Egyptian ship.

"We are in permanent contact with the parties concerned to ensure the safety of the Egyptian sailors on board", Rizq told reporters. He said the Ministry has not contacted the hijackers, but added that he had information whereby all its crew members are safe and sound.

With the latest captures and releases now at least 18 foreign vessels with a total of at least 368 crew members (of which 92 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 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held). For 2009 the account stands at 11 attacks with 2 sea-jackings. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count 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.

Directly related news ----- -

The illegally fishing FV ASSOS has - as reported earlier - an engine failure and was drifting near the Somali coast. The fish poacher is flying Cambodian flag but is owned and operated by the Greek company GRECO Ltd. The fish-pirate vessel has meanwhile been taken into tow by FV GRECO 4 / PANAMA FLAG, which is likewise illegally in Somali waters, and is being dragged under naval guard to Aden in Yemen, which develops now into the second largest harbouring place for illegal fishing operations targeting the Somali waters after Mombassa in Kenya.

Two journalists kidnapped in Puntland / Somalia have been freed by their captors today after almost six weeks' captivity. Colin Freeman, 39, a correspondent for the Sunday Telegraph together with freelance Spanish photographer, José Cendón, 34, had been abducted on 26th November as they left their hotel in Bossasso in the semi-autonomous northern province of Puntland on their way back to the airport. "The two journalists are free after their ordeals", stated Abdullahi Said Samatar being in charge of internal security. Spanish Foreign Minister, Miguel Angel Moratinos, confirmed the release saying that he had spoken with Cendón by phone and given the news to his family. Muse Gelle Yusuf, a governor in the region, said they had been released and were in a hotel in Bossasso. Staff at the hotel in Bossasso, Puntland's economic capital, said the two were in a room and are "looking to be in good condition". The journalists were working on a piracy story said Muse Gelle Yusuf, a governor in Puntland. The journalist and photographer team, filing reports for the Daily Telegraph and preparing a report for AFP news agency, were abducted along with two Somali counterparts who had been posing as local journalists and first had been assisting them. There was no news of their whereabouts of the two Somalis.

Regional governor Musa Gueleh Yusuf said at the end of November that police suspected involvement by these two Somalis. The U.K. and Spain had set up a crisis cell to assist police in negotiations, which began with local elders within days of their disappearance, but could not immediately figure out who was behind the abduction of the two foreign journalists since there was no specific group which came forward to claim the responsibility, though one of the clans has been suspected to shield the abductors. While there was no claim of responsibility for the abductions, Puntland's deputy minister for seaports Abdulkebir Musa said then that the journalists were being held in a territory controlled by a sub-clan with close links to pirates. Freeman and Cendon were held captive in the mountains southwest of Bossasso and were moved from cave to cave so their abductors could hide from the authorities, as well as rival gangs. Both men said they were treated well by their captors and are in good mental and physical health. "We survived on rice, goat meat and Rothmans", Freeman told the Telegraph. "I gave up smoking in 1992 and somehow decided now would be a good time to start up again. Mr. Cendon said he and his colleague had helped each other through their time in captivity. We tried to cheer each other up all the time", he said.

"The journalists' release came after two diplomats - one from Spain and the other from Britain - negotiated Saturday with the kidnappers", a police spokesman revealed, adding that an unknown amount of ransom was paid. The Spanish Foreign Ministry confirmed the Spanish-Venezuelan Cendon and Scottish Freeman were in good health. A spokesman for the Telegraph Media Group said: "This is wonderful news and we are delighted that the two journalists will soon be reunited with their families, friends and colleagues. On behalf of their families, we would like to thank all those involved in assisting in the release". Reporters without Borders (RWB) as well as Ecoterra Intl. and the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) have welcomed the release of the two journalists working for the Daily Telegraph Newspaper. "While we welcome the release of Colin Freeman and Jose Cendon, it is intolerable that journalists are kidnapped for their legitimate work in order to get ransom", said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General. On Sunday, both journalists flew out of Somalia to Nairobi, Kenya.

The Spanish photographer and the British correspondent are the latest in a string of journalists and aid workers to have been attacked or abducted in the war-torn country. Lawless Somalia - whose president resigned last week - is ranked as the world's second-deadliest country for journalists throughout 2007 by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. In August 2008, two freelance journalists, an Australian and a Canadian, were kidnapped near the capital Mogadishu and are still being held. Alberta freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout was kidnapped along with Australian freelance photographer Nigel Brennan as they traveled to a refugee camp in Elasha, which is about 18 kilometers southwest of Mogadishu. In December 2007, French cameraman Gwen Le Gouil was kidnapped and held for eight days by a local militia. Three further kidnapping cases, each concerning a group of abducted aid workers, and the case of an abducted researcher are also still waiting for a solution.

GROM, the Polish forces special task unit, will not be taking part in operations against pirates off the coast of Somalia. The Ministry of Defense has denied media speculations after the Rzeczpospolita newspaper alleged the elite anti-terrorist unit might be used in actions there alongside EU allies. Ministry spokesman Robert Rochwicz told Polish Radio the MOD has no plans of sending Polish units to counteract pirate activity in that region. He recalled a statement to the same effect made by Defense Minister Bogdan Klich made a few weeks ago during a meeting of NATO MOD heads devoted to the subject.