Ecoterra Intl. – SMC Monitor Part XVI – The Somali Pirates are a Colonial Fabrication
More and more people allover the world denounce the Colonial Western contribution to the formation and rise of the Somali piracy epiphenomenon. The robbery of the Somali natural resources appears as the top reason or the foremost pretext for the Somali piracy. One way or another, the West will have to denounce the perfidious practices pursued against Somalia over the last two decades. An escalation of the already grave and lengthy crisis would only have unnecessary and heavy collateral damages.
The recent developments off the Somali coast are highlighted in the 16th Ecoterra Monitor report that I herewith reproduce integrally.
Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor). Part XVI
Ecoterra International – Updates, Statements & Clearinghouse Citations
A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who sit between all chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or overseas, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities or the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding.
2009-04-14 23h59:48 UTC
EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia[at]ecoterra.net
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: SMS to +254-738-497979 or call +254-733-633-733
"The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream !"
Cpt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit - killed by attack of French commandos - 10. April 2009
none of the various, local or foreign pirate outfits we like to add -
Clearing-house
News from sea-jackings, abductions or newly attacked ships --------
Alert / Wanted for Murder: Crew of MT AGIA BARBARA
The Greek owned small tanker with a gross tonnage of 926 was in Mogadishu harbour last Saturday when it was sent out of the harbour to an outside anchorage because nearby shelling and bombings would have created a disaster if the tanker would have been hit. Three Somali Policemen were escorting the vessel to the mooring to provide security for the vessel. According to a report from a Somali Government official the three policemen were overpowered by the Somali crew of the tanker, bound and thrown overboard. One policeman was found dead, one is missing and one survived and is a witness to the crime.
Sailors of other vessels in Mogadishu harbour confirmed the incident. The vessel thereafter absconded and its present position is unknown. The satellite phone remains switched off. The vessel with the IMO number 7616004 and call sign HO4050 was built in 1976 and flies a Panama flag. Registered ship owner and manager is MEADOWLARK SHPG & TRADING CO. of Piraeus in Greece. The Somali Government asked all authorities and naval commands in the region to arrest the vessel and its crew. It is, however, feared that the crew might stage a hi-jacking enacted by only one part of the crew and take the vessel to a remote coast in Somalia or sail her to other coasts where they also could sell the cargo.
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said its coast guard exchanged gunfire Monday with 14 Somali pirates who had hijacked a 23-foot Yemeni fishing vessel. Its forces freed 13 Yemeni hostages and detained two pirates, while the rest fled on a boat, the embassy said.
MV IRENE E.M. was hi-jacked this morning (01h30 local time) by armed sea-bandits at position N 12.52.992 / E 048.15.503 (i.e. not far off Bossasso) on her way from Jordan to India. The St. Vincent and The Grenadines flagged 21,947 gross tonnage bulker was built in 1980 and is owner managed by CHIAN SPIRIT Maritime Enterprises of Piraeus, Greece, but has as registered owner VENETICO MARINE SA of Liberia. All 22 Filipino crew aboard the Greek-owned bulk carrier that was hijacked by Somali pirates today on Tuesday are unharmed, a regional maritime group said. The East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme said MV Irene E.M. was seized before dawn by gunmen from Somalia in their latest attack on commercial shipping in the vital waterways. A vessel of the same owner, the 1982 built 64.800 dwt Panamax bulker MV ANNA was attacked yesterday (Monday) by one boat with 6 pirates around 110 miles north of Bossasso (at nearly the same location) but escaped heading westwards.
MV SEAHORSE: Reportedly Lebanese-owned cargo ship attacked and captured Tuesday by pirates in three or four speedboats. It was reported that the vessel flies the flag of Togo, but there is none of the many registered "Seahorses" flying that flag. Many media showed the picture of a stone carrier called MV Seahorse, but the captain of that vessel confirmed to us that he was sailing peacefully in the Mediterranean sea.
NATO's MARITIME CENTRE seems not to realize that their flimsy reporting in such cases sends thousand around the world into unwarranted shock because they believe their loved-ones are on the vessel reported as hi-jacked, if they only given a name and no details of the vessel through the media.
F/Y TANIT: The French Navy brought yesterday afternoon the bodies of two meanwhile identified pirates from the ill-fated sailing yacht to Bossasso in Puntland. They were today buried in Bossasso and a large crowd attended the funeral. Later today obsequies were held by their families in Gardo. The fate of the 14 men gang is not yet clarified. A day after the fatal ending of the Tanit crisis with two pirates killed and three arrested - so the official report - a small blue fishing boat, which the pirates had allegedly used for the attack, arrived in Kulub (south of Hafun) with two dead men and one dying men. The three reportedly had no gunshot wounds, but had been separated from the pirated yacht shortly after the yacht was commandeered towards the coast and got lost on the sea without sufficient water on board. Somalis demand that the video footage taken during the assault clarifies if the third men who reportedly went overboard during the assault was hit by a bullet or if he could have ended in the water without being injured and if so why he was not rescued by the French. The families need to know his fate. The remaining five might have been the ones which arrived already a day before the first assault with the Yemeni fishing vessel the pirates had used as mother-ship at Hafun. Further investigations are ongoing. France's defence minister on Sunday appealed to French nationals to stay away from the Indian Ocean off Somalia. "I ask our compatriots to renounce the idea of adventuring in this ocean, as vast as it may be", said Herve Morin.
Like for the case of F/Y TANIT also concerning the a sad, certainly not a glorious adventure-like execution of three 17-19 year old mislead pirate-boys from the MV ALABAMA case a full and impartial investigation is called for. It's creepy to see so many Americans are exulting over the fact that the United States Navy-Seals managed to shoot three teenagers at 20 m distance and like sitting ducks. If it is true that after nightfall the lifeboat, in which they were holding the captain hostage, had been pulled by a thin steel-cable - secretly fixed by a diver at the time when the mock attack was launched or at any other time - towards the lights-off warship, where the snipers with their night-vision scopes on precision guns were waiting and the youngsters just had popped their heads up wondering what produced the changing sound of waves (being resounded by the navy vessel), which they suddenly could hear - then the US-American Navy did stage-manage the situation and intentionally created the condition (imminent danger for the life of the hostage) for the on-scene Navy commander (Lieutenant Commander David Fowler) aboard the USS Bainbridge to give the order to fire because the hostage's life was suddenly in danger. If they had not towed them in, the Somali elders would still have had a chance to safe all lives the next day - but that many feel was not what was wanted.
pics: similar to later pot-shot position: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/13/article-1169485-046D34FE000005DC-10_468x286_popup.jpg earlier scene when the lifeboat had not yet run out of fuel:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/13/article-1169485-046D3502000005DC-358_468x286_popup.jpg
USS Bainchild is expected in Mombassa tomorrow and will most likely deliver the injured Somali, who surrendered long before the killing of his fellow-pirates, into the cells of Kenya for the trial of his case.
Pirates have vowed to retaliate for the killing of 5 Somalis by naval forces over the last days - a threat which the top US military officer has said he is taking seriously. "It may lead to changes in the way the pirates operate", said Giles Noakes, head of security at Copenhagen- based Bimco, the world’s largest shipping organization. "Our advice remains that if you don’t need to transit the zone, don’t. And if you do need to, alert the navies in the area, or stay well east of the Seychelles".
The Liberty Sun's American crew was safe after pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at the vessel, its owner, Liberty Maritime Corp. said in a statement Tuesday night. There were no injuries but the ship sustained unspecified damage, the Lake Success, N.Y.-based company said. The brazen midday attack on the Liberty Sun off the African coast is further evidence that Somali pirates were not impressed by the naval showdown of thee French and the Americans. The brigands are grabbing more ships and hostages to show they would not be intimidated by President Barack Obama's pledge to confront the high-seas bandits, according to a pirate based in the Somali coastal town of Harardhere. "Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land", Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone. "Our guns do not fire water. I am sure we will avenge". A rocket penetrated the bulkhead of the vessel. Exactly this escalation has been predicted by many analysts, but it seems that it is wanted by the naval forces in order to prepare the world-citizens for another D-day in Somalia.
Status of abducted vessels:
T/B YENEGOA OCEAN - 11 Nigerians still held partly on the tugboat and partly on land nearby. Government not willing to help. Agreement was reached but owner not acting. Longest pending case: 8 and a half month !!!
M/V JAIKUR I - The Indian government helped out with tickets for 14 Indian crew to be flown out from Mogadishu to Nairobi and yesterday all Indian nationals of the crew could be repatriated to their homeland. The Indians were released by a direct order of the Somali Prime Minister facilitated by the first Deputy Prime Minister upon our intervention, though the dispute concerning the insurance case concerning the cargo is still unresolved. The governmental order also instructs the port authority to release the remaining one Iraqi, one Filipino and three Pakistani of the original crew, since a replacement crew is in position to hold out until the dispute is finalized. The Philippine embassy is helping with the repatriation of the Filipino seafarer. A statement from the Indian Director General of Shipping released today, which spoke of the release of all crew, stands to be corrected.
MT STOLT-STRENGTH - abducted since 10th November 2008. The 23 Filipino crew have little hope and no more trust in the Philippines ship-owner/manager and expressed this to the owner-manager in Manila. No negotiations ongoing. The families hare appealing now to the Japanese beneficiary owner NISSHIN SHIPPING and its president H. Kurokawa to facilitate mediation for the messed-up negotiations. However, since the pirates had taken now other pirates from a different clan on board and the mastermind has incurred huge bills in Eyl as well as in Harardheere the situation is not easy to solve. This is another sad example that these sea-jacking cases develop into more and more complex and difficult situations as longer the owner waits to solve it or neglects early solutions.
T/B MASINDRA 7 with barge ADM 1 - tension among pirates still high since 3 unsuccessful and ill-advised attempts by the Malaysian owner to fool and force the pirates failed miserably - a situation which allowed a rival gang linked to brokers in Djibouti to take over, which makes any finalization and secure release difficult. 11 Indonesian crew in very poor condition, food and water very scarce. Chief engineer slightly sick.
MT SEA PRINCESS II - Somali businessmen and owner prepared agreed ransom. Final agreement expected tonight with release to follow suit. 15 crew of which 8 are Indian ok, but food scarce.
MV SALDANHA - Negotiations ongoing, 22 crew ok, but food stock declined.
S/Y SERENITY - The fast catamaran is attached to the hijacked Taiwanese FV WIN FAR 161 and kept between Harardheere and Hobyo. 3 men crew with Seychelles nationality are held on land.
M/V TITAN - Negotiations ongoing, vessel is moored 5 nm from Dhanaane, 24 crew ok
MT NIPAYIA - Negotiations ongoing, vessel moored 6 nm from Garacad, 19 crew ok
MS INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER - Except for one, all crew members taken off the boat. 6 sailors of Seychelles nationality kept as hostages on land.
MV HANSA STAVANGER - Negotiations reportedly held by three Somalis with British passports in Harardheere and Mogadishu failed. Shortly thereafter at around 15h00 local time a naval vessel was observed showing off its strength and staging mock attacks in front of the container carrier. This caused that the pirates took 20 of the 24 crew from the ship and hold them now as hostages on land. Only 4 essential crew remaining on the vessel. Armed militia went to the vessel to reinforce the strength of the captors, because an attack is expected tonight.
FV AL-GHAITH - captured on 4th April with seven Yemeni crew released after two Egyptian fishing vessels were captured with this vessel. On its way back to Yemen.
FV WIN FAR 161 - The Taiwanese fishing vessel, which had been involved in the attack on MV ALABAMA is said to be moored now 7 nm from Garacad (together with the Catamaran S/Y SERENITY). The crew of 30 (17 Filipinos, six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese) is still together and on board.
FV GREKO 2 and FV GREKO 4 - released from Bossasso, where they had been detained for illegal fishing against a payment deal between Puntland President Farole and GRECO Ltd.
MV MALASPINA CASTLE - Moored 7 nm from Eyl with her crew of 24 unharmed sailors on board. Negotiations not yet started in earnest.
FV SHUGAA ALMADHI - Egyptian FV vessel now said to have been arrested for illegal fishing on 9th April and detained at Ga'an (east of Lasqoray) together with a second Greek fishing vessel, which is likewise said to be detained for illegal fishing. Final number of total crew (34 or 35) for both vessels could not yet be established clearly. The Egyptian boats were taken in the gulf off Somalia's northern coast. Said Mursi, Egypt's ambassador to Somalia who is based in Kenya, said the trawlers probably did not have licenses to fish Somali waters. "From my experience, I think that they were illegally fishing", he told The Associated Press. Commercial fishing boats have been illegally harvesting Somalia's rich and varied sea life, including sought-after yellow fin tuna, since the country collapsed into lawlessness in the 1990s. The United Nations estimates the illegal fishing costs the Horn of Africa nation $300 million annually. All foreign fishing licenses have been declared nil and void by the new TFG of Somalia (Government of National Unity) and no new licenses are issued until the new fisheries law is in place.
T/B BUCANEER with 2 Barges - Held in Ga'an (28 miles from Lasqoray) All 16 crew (10 Italians, 1 Croatian, 5 Romanians) are off the vessel and were taken to the nearby mountains because an Italian warship was trailing the tug with its barges. The Italian frigate Maestrale, which is in the area as part of the European Union’s Atalanta anti-piracy mission, followed the vessel, confirmed the Italian Defence ministry. Or was that an escort for illicit material? The Italian-flagged and UAE operated tugboat owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors from Italy is now said to have been detained for attempted dumping of toxic waste.
International organizations and the UN have been invited to inspect the content of the two barges. The validity of the claim could not yet be established since the company didn't respond yet on questions to declare the content. The vessel was apparently captured just 40 miles off the Somali coast, which - if correct - would be far outside the shipping corridor.
With the latest captures and releases now still at least 16 (17 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore, 18 with JAIKUR I whose last 4 crew members are still held in Mogadishu harbour) foreign vessels with a total of not less than 248 crew members accounted for (of which 99 are confirmed to be 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 (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 54 averted or abandoned attacks and 16 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire on the side of the naval forces. 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.
Piracy related news
Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday. The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness before the vast number of dolphins. photo/text: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/content_11184581.htm - Treegugger commented: Either way, as smart as those dolphins are, they're the ones that really need protection. Consider for instance the fate of China's famous baiji -- the first dolphin to go extinct at the hands of humans.
Are the Somali captors pirates or a militia coast guard? asks Bruce Thompson in the American Thinker blog. He says there: "One vessel, MV Irene E. M. was merely transiting the Gulf of Aden, an innocent passage protected by custom and international law (e.g. the UN Law of the Sea Treaty). Innocent passage may only be denied under strict restraints", and assumes the captors to be pirates. But what he did not take into consideration is the Somali Maritime Law of 1972, whereby Somalia declared already back then a Somali Territorial Sea of 200 nm (i.e. 200mn territorial waters, not just 12). The basic idea as model was picked up by other coastal states but the United Nations Common Law of thee Sea (UNCLOS) agreed only a 200 nm EEZ for signatory states which is not seen as territorial waters. However, Thomson continues: "Two vessels are Egyptian fishing boats inside Somalia’s 200 mile exclusive fishing zone, protected by the same law of the sea. Both Egypt and Somalia are signatories, Egypt # 9 and Somalia # 40. Under the treaty, the captors are a civil coast guard defending Somalia's fishing rights and the Egyptians are poachers". He concludes that the U.S. of America should finance and train coastguards in Somalia.
Well, Ecoterra Intl. had asked for such help already in 1994 and requested Admiral Howe the retired US naval officer, who served back then as UN Special Envoy - to facilitate such aid - but to no avail. Millions have been spent in the meantime in naval war games but nothing to assist Somalia to protect the Somali seas from all the evil, including foreign fishing fleets, toxic and nuclear waste dumping and last but not least Somali and Yemeni sea-bandits. We better declare all the Somali waters a marine National Park and charge all the Navies and foreign vessels hefty entrance fees, from which the Somali authorities and communities along the coast could finance sea-rangers !
You are being lied to about pirates writes Johann Hari in the San Francisco Bay View
Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the U.S. to China - is sailing into Somali waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somali ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth.
But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell - and some justice on their side.
Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age of piracy" - from 1650 to 1730 - the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage thief that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: Pirates were often rescued from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can’t?
In his book "Villains of All Nations", the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence to find out. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then - plucked from the docks of London’s East End, young and hungry - you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off for a second, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the cat o’ nine tails. If you slacked consistently, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.
Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied against their tyrannical captains - and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the 18th century".
They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly - and subversively - that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy". This is why they were popular, despite being unproductive thieves.
The words of one pirate from that lost age - a young British man called William Scott - should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live".
In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its 9 million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.
Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no cleanup, no compensation and no prevention."
At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia’s unprotected seas.
The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters".
This is the context in which the men we are calling "pirates" have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somali fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coast Guard of Somalia - and it’s not hard to see why.
In a surreal telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was "to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters … We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas". William Scott would understand those words.
No, this doesn’t make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters - especially those who have held up World Food Program supplies. But the "pirates" have the overwhelming support of the local population for a reason. The independent Somali news site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters".
During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America’s founding fathers paid pirates to protect America’s territorial waters, because they had no navy or coast guard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?
Did we expect starving Somali to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn’t act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil". If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gunboats to root out Somalia’s criminals.
The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarized by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of the sea". The pirate smiled and responded: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor".
Once again, our great imperial fleets sail in today - but who is the robber?
The Other Side of the 'Somali Pirate' Story
by Adjetey Osekre
During the past few weeks, intense focus on the operations of Somali pirates has garnered a lot of media attention. Observers haven't held back their opinions about the unfairness of the exploitation of vessels carrying unarmed crews by the so called, "Somali pirates". While critics continue to encourage attacks on the perpetrators of such "crimes" at sea, it is equally important to increase pressure on governments and organizations that are responsible for ensuring the rules of the Basel Convention which "lays down rules to control, trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal", leading to the cessation of fishing activities in an area that has significantly become a hub for pirates.
Piracy should not be condoned in any "way, shape, of form". However, Somalis whose waters have been exploited over the past years by international fishing corporations should not only see a joint coordination by Western governments to curb piracy on Somali waters, but a strong condemnation by the same governments against corporations and governments which have been using Somali and other developing countries as dump sites for nuclear and toxic wastes from the west.
The exposure of poor developing countries to varying forms of environmental injustice should be addressed. In the past, fishing companies explored Somali waters without permission, capitalizing on the absence of a Somali navy guard and thereby claiming the jobs of local fishermen who did not only feed communities through fishing but relied on fishing as their main source of employment.
Last March, the State Department of the US was said to have protested an incident which involved five Chinese vessels which were said to have "maneuvered dangerously close to a US Navy ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, approaching within 25 feet of the unarmed surveillance ship". In Somalia the absence of a navy because of the unstable political situation in the country, thanks to western influence and imperialist agenda in Somalia and neighboring countries, exposes the coastal borders of the country to grave dangers.
Piracy is a huge threat to global trade. It's great to see leading world powers unite to confront the issue. However, we must agree to disagree that Somali's are not supposed to carry the blame for the outcome of the eco-imperialism that developing countries have been trying to resist.
The exploitation of a nation's weakness and use of its corrupt leaders makes both the exploiter and exploited, corrupt. Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, was quoted in Der Spiegel back in 2006 warning about a new "toxic waste colonialism". His warning included recent incidents which included: plastic remnants collected under Germany's Green Dot household recycling program being dumped into the Egyptian desert. Benin for instance, received "advance cash payment of $1.6 million and 30 years of development aid" for taking in "hazardous waste, including radioactive waste".
So called "valuable goods", carried by cargoes on high seas headed towards developing countries include "large amounts of discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic junk, as well as old cars and refrigerators are sent to Africa -- all filled with hazardous substances, some of which are highly toxic, including oil, fire retardants, dioxins and PCBs".
It is great for western countries to look out for their interests in the face of pirate threats. However, it is significant for them to observe the strong tenets of the "control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes". To ask poor developing countries to carry excessive toxic and waste materials from western corporations that view developing countries as a dump-site is uncivil. Western governments should not seek the interests of their corporations over human lives in developing countries.
So when Newt Gingrich says that, "President Obama is making a major mistake in not forcefully outlining the rules of civilization for dealing with pirates. We look weak", Gingrich must keep in mind that exposing poorer countries to toxic wastes and depriving them of their jobs isn't civil. Besides, Somali fishermen will also look weak when they return home from fishing in toxic-filled waters without any money or meals to provide for their families.
Adjetey Osekre is assistant managing editor of The Daily Voice.
GMAnews TV reported from the Philippines
The high-seas rescue of American ship captain Richard Philips might have momentarily brought the world’s attention back to Somalia, but it did little to bring to the fore the plight of the remaining 98 Filipino seafarers held captive there by pirates.
Nelson Ramirez, president of Manila-based seafarer’s group United Filipino Seafarers said the international community seems to turn a blind eye to the larger population of Filipino crew members kidnapped by Somali pirates since November last year.
"The entire incident is sensationalized because an American was held hostage", Ramirez told GMANews.TV in an interview. "[But] when the number of Filipinos abducted by pirates swelled to 100, there was no reaction".
As this developed, reality television show, Spike TV, announced that it will follow US naval units hunting for pirates in the Gulf of Aden to bring "an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the US Navy operation to end this deadly threat of piracy".
The International Maritime Bureau said there were 260 crewmembers on 14 hijacked ships being held off the coast of Somalia as of Tuesday. Six of these hijacked vessels have a total of 98 Filipino seafarers involved.
The number of Filipino seafarers being held hostage in Somalia have constantly yo-yoed — from 44 at the start of the year to 108 last month — as pirates continuously hijack ships passing through the Gulf of Aden, slowly releasing vessels only after ship owners willingly pay multi-million dollar ransom.
Various US media entities gave a blow by blow account on the hijacking incident involving Capt. Philips, particularly the daring rescue that involved snipers shooting three of the four Somali pirates who have kidnapped the American ship officer. (For related story click here: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/156746/Kidnapped-US-captain-freed-snipers-kill-3-Somali-pirates)
No other than President Barack Obama praised the risky Sunday rescue and even vowed to work with other nations "to halt the rise of piracy". But Somali pirates threatened to kill the remaining hostages should other countries attack them to free their nationals.
Noting the danger faced by the hostages, Ramirez urged the Philippine government to use the newfound attention of the Western media and steer it toward the plight of Filipino seafarers.
"It is high-time for the government to strengthen its representation in the UN to bring to the fore that many Filipino seafarers are being held against their will in Somalia", Ramirez said.
While the Philippine government is "relieved" to learn about the rescue of Capt. Philips, it remains mum on the issue of the reported ‘hypocrisy’ of the US in being concerned about the piracy in Somalia only because an American was abducted, while almost 100 Filipinos have been kidnapped since November 2008.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ed Malaya told GMANews.TV that they are constantly working with their partners in securing the safe release and repatriation of the 98 Filipinos held by Somali pirates.
Malaya noted that despite the pirates’ threats, they have not received any report of Filipinos deliberately hurt by the sea bandits.
While the hostage drama involving the American captain concluded in just four days, Ramirez said, at least one Filipino captain remains to be freed since he was kidnapped last Nov. 10.
The UFS president identified the Filipino ship officer as Capt. Abelardo Pacheco of the Panamanian-owned MT STOLT STRENGTH who has been kidnapped along with 22 other Filipinos for 155 days.
Pacheco was a former examiner of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), Ramirez added.
The delay in the release of Filipino seafarers seems to be a norm under the current policies of the Philippine government, according to Milton Unso, president of the Mariners Association for Regional and International Networking Organization (Marino).
"Our government has no teeth. It has no capacity to extract the Filipino seamen; it only resorts to diplomatic means", Unso said.
Spouses of Filipino seafarers onboard the MT STOLT have broken their silence on Tuesday afternoon and demanded that the Philippine government step up its action to help free their husbands.
"Can’t they just free our husbands?" one of the wives told reporters, referring to the Somali pirates.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has always maintained that it does not directly talk with kidnappers as the government keeps a ‘no-ransom policy’ in these situations.
Instead, the DFA contacts the ship’s owners and the seafarers manning agency to facilitate the safe release of the Filipinos. Despite report of ransom money being exchange for the release of the crew and the vessel, the DFA maintains that it has no knowledge of this.
Unso said that they want to ask the government what it can do to resolve the kidnappings of Filipino seafarers in the Horn of Africa.
Since Filipinos compose one-third of the world’s shipping manpower, they are the most prone to piracy attacks. But Unso said seafarers already have the option to refuse passing through pirate-prone areas like the Gulf of Aden to avoid being kidnapped.
"But they still do because they are paid more. That’s suicide", Unso said.
Last year, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) issued Resolution No. 4, which doubles the hazard pay of seafarers crossing "high-risk waters". Aside from this, seafarers are also given the option to step down at the nearest port before crossing the troubled Gulf.
At first, the DFA eyed a confusing deployment ban on Somali waters. "I suggest that we look into the contracts of the seafarers so that they won’t be allowed to board ships that will pass through dangerous areas", Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said last August.
Then the government backpedaled on the proposal when the maritime industry questioned the rule. They argue that seafarers cannot simply leave the boat once it crosses waters that the Philippine government has banned for travel.
In case seafarers are abducted, Esteban Conejos Jr., DFA undersecretary for migrant workers’ affairs, said Filipino crew members could always deal with the situation through language adaptability.
"We have even given our seafarers certain basic language courses in Somalia like how to say ‘no,’ ‘yes,’ ‘eat,’ and ‘water,’" Conejos said.
Some ship owners too, who are often forced to shell out millions of dollars in ransom, have initiated steps to curb the expensive hijackings of their ships.
One-third of the world’s shipping manpower requirement or an estimated 350,000 seafarers are supplied by Filipinos.
An seafarers' advocacy group urged the Philippine government on Monday to speed up negotiations for the release of 92 Filipino seafarers held hostage by Somali pirates.
The International Seafarers’ Action Center (ISAC) Philippines Foundation Inc. said the seafarers' plight has placed their families in agony.
"Can you imagine the agony of their families here? The government should exert more effort to speed up the release and repatriation of those poor seafarers, who were just pushed by poverty to try their luck at the high seas", ISAC president and maritime labor lawyer Edwin de la Cruz said in an article on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines website.
He said that while the international community is all eyes on the dramatic release of MAERSK-ALABAMA ship captain Richard Phillips, the number of Filipinos being held hostage by rebel groups in lawless Horn of Africa, is hard to ignore.
On the other hand, he assailed the ship owners who frequently endanger the lives of their crew by letting their ships sail on the dangerous waters, that part of Africa.
"They only want profit. They often disregard the safety of their crew.
What is more saddening, they don’t even want to lift even a single finger whenever their ships got into trouble", he said.
De la Cruz also called on groups advancing the rights and welfare of seafarers to pressure government, especially the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), to act with immediacy.
"To the religious, governmental, and non-governmental institutions, with concerns over migrants, let us be united to make the negotiations faster. The longer they remain captives, the more danger that they face", he said.
How sick some brains get in the search for egocentric "solutions" can be seen in what Economist Peter Leeson writes at NRO's:The Corner: "Obama says we need to fight back against piracy. But maybe piracy doesn't require a military solution--it requires a business solution". He then postulates that "piracy is a result of the "tragedy of the commons"--nobody owns the oceans, so nobody has incentive to police them." And he proposes as [his] lesson's solution: "Sell the waters, and let the new owners pay for security forces". And he continues:
"Rather than trying its hand at Somali state building, the international community should try auctioning off Somali’s coastal waters. According to some Somali pirates, greedy foreign corporations are exploiting valuable resources in these waters, which is allegedly why they’ve resorted to piracy (the large ransoms earned from pirating are a happy but unexpected byproduct of pursuing social justice, I suppose). If this is right, Somalia’s coastal waters should be able to fetch a handsome price. The international community can use the proceeds of the auction for humanitarian assistance in Somalia, or put it in a trust for Somalia’s future government, if one ever emerges. The "high seas" should be similarly sold. It’s not so important where the proceeds go. The important thing is that the un-owned becomes owned. One problem: the people who blame "greedy foreign corporations" for Somalia's woes are not likely to be too excited about the idea of auctioning off Somalia's waters to those "greedy corporations"", he concludes.
We leave it to our readers to visit the author in the mental hospital his megalomaniac government certainly provides for him or to comment on: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/risky-business/2009/04/14/a-market-solution-to-piracy.html, since first that proposal is not new and had been partly implemented by a mafia-like construct created and enforced by Hart Security of London, whose aftershocks still can be felt in Puntland where jobless Hart-security-guards filled the vacancies of pirate outfits and secondly in the totally destructive fishing-for-protection adventure of the European Union in Mauritania.
Over the Easter-weekend, courts in Puntland, the main hub for piracy in the Gulf of Aden, sentenced 10 people to 20 years in jail each for piracy in one trial, and 15 pirates to three years each in a second.
No Real Peace in Sight
US congressman meets with Somali president in Mogadishu. Donald Payne held a press conference in the capital after the meeting he had with the president and the prime minister. "We came Mogadishu to meet the president, the prime minister, other ministers and to see the progress made by the new Somali government", said U.S. congressman Donald Payne. Payne flew into the war-torn capital early Monday in what was believed to be the first such trip by a U.S. elected official in years. The news service said Payne was expected to meet the country's foreign minister to discuss piracy among other topics. It's not clear why the longtime Newark congressman made the trip so shortly after the rescue of Richard Phillips -- which prompted howls of revenge among the pirate leaders.
Reuters then reported first that insurgents fired mortars near a plane scheduled "to whisk Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) out of Mogadishu this morning" -- hours after Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates who held a US merchant captain. "One mortar landed at the airport when Payne's plane was due to fly and five others after he left and no one was hurt", Abukar Hassan, a police officer at Mogadishu airport, told Reuters. Payne's office at first didn't immediately return calls for comment. Then his press secretary, Kerry McKenney, stated that the New Jersey Representative was safe today after mortar shells were fired towards a plane in which he was leaving an airport in Somalia. "Our office has received reports that mortars were fired towards the plane the congressman was in", McKenney said in a telephone interview. "Everyone is safe. I don’t know that the plane is in the air yet. We’re waiting to hear whether they’ve left Mogadishu. We haven’t spoken to him yet". The interesting reality: Neither the congressmen nor the reporters, who accompanied him on this trip, realized anything until they received phone-calls from worried friends and family after landing safely in Nairobi and direct eye-witness-reports from Mogadishu stated that there was not even any attack near or at the airport at all.
Impacting News from the Global Village
What passed as a low key ceremony at the Foreign Affairs ministry, when Kenya and Somalia signed an agreement on maritime boundaries has caused national uproar in Somalia, writes the Kenyan Business Weekly. The Somalia government, already under pressure from insurgency attacks, is being accused of giving Somalia sea resource to Kenya for free. Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula and his Planning colleague in Somalia Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to cooperate on a review of maritime boundaries. But Somalia Islamists, the opposition, media and the general public are reading differently into the new MOU. The debate centres around claims that the administration of the Transitional Federal Government had been duped to cede some land to Kenya, the newspaper writes. But in the same time it does not explain to Kenyans (nor Somalis) that this was done as a prerequisite to follow the demands of the International Seabed Authority in relation to the extension of the 350 nm zone. The MOU in its form is also not really binding and expresses clearly that the final delineation of the national boundary between the two countries is still outstanding.
Press Contact:
ECOP-marine
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+254-714-747090
www.ecop.info
ECOTERRA Intl.
Nairobi Node
+254-733-633-733
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme
SAP Media Officers
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Note
Picture: Mogadishu harbour
From: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/images/ESC/small/ISS014/ISS014-E-17112.JPG
The recent developments off the Somali coast are highlighted in the 16th Ecoterra Monitor report that I herewith reproduce integrally.
Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor). Part XVI
Ecoterra International – Updates, Statements & Clearinghouse Citations
A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who sit between all chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or overseas, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities or the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding.
2009-04-14 23h59:48 UTC
EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hotline: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) - email: somalia[at]ecoterra.net
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: SMS to +254-738-497979 or call +254-733-633-733
"The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream !"
Cpt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit - killed by attack of French commandos - 10. April 2009
none of the various, local or foreign pirate outfits we like to add -
Clearing-house
News from sea-jackings, abductions or newly attacked ships --------
Alert / Wanted for Murder: Crew of MT AGIA BARBARA
The Greek owned small tanker with a gross tonnage of 926 was in Mogadishu harbour last Saturday when it was sent out of the harbour to an outside anchorage because nearby shelling and bombings would have created a disaster if the tanker would have been hit. Three Somali Policemen were escorting the vessel to the mooring to provide security for the vessel. According to a report from a Somali Government official the three policemen were overpowered by the Somali crew of the tanker, bound and thrown overboard. One policeman was found dead, one is missing and one survived and is a witness to the crime.
Sailors of other vessels in Mogadishu harbour confirmed the incident. The vessel thereafter absconded and its present position is unknown. The satellite phone remains switched off. The vessel with the IMO number 7616004 and call sign HO4050 was built in 1976 and flies a Panama flag. Registered ship owner and manager is MEADOWLARK SHPG & TRADING CO. of Piraeus in Greece. The Somali Government asked all authorities and naval commands in the region to arrest the vessel and its crew. It is, however, feared that the crew might stage a hi-jacking enacted by only one part of the crew and take the vessel to a remote coast in Somalia or sail her to other coasts where they also could sell the cargo.
The Yemeni Embassy in Washington said its coast guard exchanged gunfire Monday with 14 Somali pirates who had hijacked a 23-foot Yemeni fishing vessel. Its forces freed 13 Yemeni hostages and detained two pirates, while the rest fled on a boat, the embassy said.
MV IRENE E.M. was hi-jacked this morning (01h30 local time) by armed sea-bandits at position N 12.52.992 / E 048.15.503 (i.e. not far off Bossasso) on her way from Jordan to India. The St. Vincent and The Grenadines flagged 21,947 gross tonnage bulker was built in 1980 and is owner managed by CHIAN SPIRIT Maritime Enterprises of Piraeus, Greece, but has as registered owner VENETICO MARINE SA of Liberia. All 22 Filipino crew aboard the Greek-owned bulk carrier that was hijacked by Somali pirates today on Tuesday are unharmed, a regional maritime group said. The East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme said MV Irene E.M. was seized before dawn by gunmen from Somalia in their latest attack on commercial shipping in the vital waterways. A vessel of the same owner, the 1982 built 64.800 dwt Panamax bulker MV ANNA was attacked yesterday (Monday) by one boat with 6 pirates around 110 miles north of Bossasso (at nearly the same location) but escaped heading westwards.
MV SEAHORSE: Reportedly Lebanese-owned cargo ship attacked and captured Tuesday by pirates in three or four speedboats. It was reported that the vessel flies the flag of Togo, but there is none of the many registered "Seahorses" flying that flag. Many media showed the picture of a stone carrier called MV Seahorse, but the captain of that vessel confirmed to us that he was sailing peacefully in the Mediterranean sea.
NATO's MARITIME CENTRE seems not to realize that their flimsy reporting in such cases sends thousand around the world into unwarranted shock because they believe their loved-ones are on the vessel reported as hi-jacked, if they only given a name and no details of the vessel through the media.
F/Y TANIT: The French Navy brought yesterday afternoon the bodies of two meanwhile identified pirates from the ill-fated sailing yacht to Bossasso in Puntland. They were today buried in Bossasso and a large crowd attended the funeral. Later today obsequies were held by their families in Gardo. The fate of the 14 men gang is not yet clarified. A day after the fatal ending of the Tanit crisis with two pirates killed and three arrested - so the official report - a small blue fishing boat, which the pirates had allegedly used for the attack, arrived in Kulub (south of Hafun) with two dead men and one dying men. The three reportedly had no gunshot wounds, but had been separated from the pirated yacht shortly after the yacht was commandeered towards the coast and got lost on the sea without sufficient water on board. Somalis demand that the video footage taken during the assault clarifies if the third men who reportedly went overboard during the assault was hit by a bullet or if he could have ended in the water without being injured and if so why he was not rescued by the French. The families need to know his fate. The remaining five might have been the ones which arrived already a day before the first assault with the Yemeni fishing vessel the pirates had used as mother-ship at Hafun. Further investigations are ongoing. France's defence minister on Sunday appealed to French nationals to stay away from the Indian Ocean off Somalia. "I ask our compatriots to renounce the idea of adventuring in this ocean, as vast as it may be", said Herve Morin.
Like for the case of F/Y TANIT also concerning the a sad, certainly not a glorious adventure-like execution of three 17-19 year old mislead pirate-boys from the MV ALABAMA case a full and impartial investigation is called for. It's creepy to see so many Americans are exulting over the fact that the United States Navy-Seals managed to shoot three teenagers at 20 m distance and like sitting ducks. If it is true that after nightfall the lifeboat, in which they were holding the captain hostage, had been pulled by a thin steel-cable - secretly fixed by a diver at the time when the mock attack was launched or at any other time - towards the lights-off warship, where the snipers with their night-vision scopes on precision guns were waiting and the youngsters just had popped their heads up wondering what produced the changing sound of waves (being resounded by the navy vessel), which they suddenly could hear - then the US-American Navy did stage-manage the situation and intentionally created the condition (imminent danger for the life of the hostage) for the on-scene Navy commander (Lieutenant Commander David Fowler) aboard the USS Bainbridge to give the order to fire because the hostage's life was suddenly in danger. If they had not towed them in, the Somali elders would still have had a chance to safe all lives the next day - but that many feel was not what was wanted.
pics: similar to later pot-shot position: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/13/article-1169485-046D34FE000005DC-10_468x286_popup.jpg earlier scene when the lifeboat had not yet run out of fuel:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/04/13/article-1169485-046D3502000005DC-358_468x286_popup.jpg
USS Bainchild is expected in Mombassa tomorrow and will most likely deliver the injured Somali, who surrendered long before the killing of his fellow-pirates, into the cells of Kenya for the trial of his case.
Pirates have vowed to retaliate for the killing of 5 Somalis by naval forces over the last days - a threat which the top US military officer has said he is taking seriously. "It may lead to changes in the way the pirates operate", said Giles Noakes, head of security at Copenhagen- based Bimco, the world’s largest shipping organization. "Our advice remains that if you don’t need to transit the zone, don’t. And if you do need to, alert the navies in the area, or stay well east of the Seychelles".
The Liberty Sun's American crew was safe after pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at the vessel, its owner, Liberty Maritime Corp. said in a statement Tuesday night. There were no injuries but the ship sustained unspecified damage, the Lake Success, N.Y.-based company said. The brazen midday attack on the Liberty Sun off the African coast is further evidence that Somali pirates were not impressed by the naval showdown of thee French and the Americans. The brigands are grabbing more ships and hostages to show they would not be intimidated by President Barack Obama's pledge to confront the high-seas bandits, according to a pirate based in the Somali coastal town of Harardhere. "Our latest hijackings are meant to show that no one can deter us from protecting our waters from the enemy because we believe in dying for our land", Omar Dahir Idle told The Associated Press by telephone. "Our guns do not fire water. I am sure we will avenge". A rocket penetrated the bulkhead of the vessel. Exactly this escalation has been predicted by many analysts, but it seems that it is wanted by the naval forces in order to prepare the world-citizens for another D-day in Somalia.
Status of abducted vessels:
T/B YENEGOA OCEAN - 11 Nigerians still held partly on the tugboat and partly on land nearby. Government not willing to help. Agreement was reached but owner not acting. Longest pending case: 8 and a half month !!!
M/V JAIKUR I - The Indian government helped out with tickets for 14 Indian crew to be flown out from Mogadishu to Nairobi and yesterday all Indian nationals of the crew could be repatriated to their homeland. The Indians were released by a direct order of the Somali Prime Minister facilitated by the first Deputy Prime Minister upon our intervention, though the dispute concerning the insurance case concerning the cargo is still unresolved. The governmental order also instructs the port authority to release the remaining one Iraqi, one Filipino and three Pakistani of the original crew, since a replacement crew is in position to hold out until the dispute is finalized. The Philippine embassy is helping with the repatriation of the Filipino seafarer. A statement from the Indian Director General of Shipping released today, which spoke of the release of all crew, stands to be corrected.
MT STOLT-STRENGTH - abducted since 10th November 2008. The 23 Filipino crew have little hope and no more trust in the Philippines ship-owner/manager and expressed this to the owner-manager in Manila. No negotiations ongoing. The families hare appealing now to the Japanese beneficiary owner NISSHIN SHIPPING and its president H. Kurokawa to facilitate mediation for the messed-up negotiations. However, since the pirates had taken now other pirates from a different clan on board and the mastermind has incurred huge bills in Eyl as well as in Harardheere the situation is not easy to solve. This is another sad example that these sea-jacking cases develop into more and more complex and difficult situations as longer the owner waits to solve it or neglects early solutions.
T/B MASINDRA 7 with barge ADM 1 - tension among pirates still high since 3 unsuccessful and ill-advised attempts by the Malaysian owner to fool and force the pirates failed miserably - a situation which allowed a rival gang linked to brokers in Djibouti to take over, which makes any finalization and secure release difficult. 11 Indonesian crew in very poor condition, food and water very scarce. Chief engineer slightly sick.
MT SEA PRINCESS II - Somali businessmen and owner prepared agreed ransom. Final agreement expected tonight with release to follow suit. 15 crew of which 8 are Indian ok, but food scarce.
MV SALDANHA - Negotiations ongoing, 22 crew ok, but food stock declined.
S/Y SERENITY - The fast catamaran is attached to the hijacked Taiwanese FV WIN FAR 161 and kept between Harardheere and Hobyo. 3 men crew with Seychelles nationality are held on land.
M/V TITAN - Negotiations ongoing, vessel is moored 5 nm from Dhanaane, 24 crew ok
MT NIPAYIA - Negotiations ongoing, vessel moored 6 nm from Garacad, 19 crew ok
MS INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER - Except for one, all crew members taken off the boat. 6 sailors of Seychelles nationality kept as hostages on land.
MV HANSA STAVANGER - Negotiations reportedly held by three Somalis with British passports in Harardheere and Mogadishu failed. Shortly thereafter at around 15h00 local time a naval vessel was observed showing off its strength and staging mock attacks in front of the container carrier. This caused that the pirates took 20 of the 24 crew from the ship and hold them now as hostages on land. Only 4 essential crew remaining on the vessel. Armed militia went to the vessel to reinforce the strength of the captors, because an attack is expected tonight.
FV AL-GHAITH - captured on 4th April with seven Yemeni crew released after two Egyptian fishing vessels were captured with this vessel. On its way back to Yemen.
FV WIN FAR 161 - The Taiwanese fishing vessel, which had been involved in the attack on MV ALABAMA is said to be moored now 7 nm from Garacad (together with the Catamaran S/Y SERENITY). The crew of 30 (17 Filipinos, six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese) is still together and on board.
FV GREKO 2 and FV GREKO 4 - released from Bossasso, where they had been detained for illegal fishing against a payment deal between Puntland President Farole and GRECO Ltd.
MV MALASPINA CASTLE - Moored 7 nm from Eyl with her crew of 24 unharmed sailors on board. Negotiations not yet started in earnest.
FV SHUGAA ALMADHI - Egyptian FV vessel now said to have been arrested for illegal fishing on 9th April and detained at Ga'an (east of Lasqoray) together with a second Greek fishing vessel, which is likewise said to be detained for illegal fishing. Final number of total crew (34 or 35) for both vessels could not yet be established clearly. The Egyptian boats were taken in the gulf off Somalia's northern coast. Said Mursi, Egypt's ambassador to Somalia who is based in Kenya, said the trawlers probably did not have licenses to fish Somali waters. "From my experience, I think that they were illegally fishing", he told The Associated Press. Commercial fishing boats have been illegally harvesting Somalia's rich and varied sea life, including sought-after yellow fin tuna, since the country collapsed into lawlessness in the 1990s. The United Nations estimates the illegal fishing costs the Horn of Africa nation $300 million annually. All foreign fishing licenses have been declared nil and void by the new TFG of Somalia (Government of National Unity) and no new licenses are issued until the new fisheries law is in place.
T/B BUCANEER with 2 Barges - Held in Ga'an (28 miles from Lasqoray) All 16 crew (10 Italians, 1 Croatian, 5 Romanians) are off the vessel and were taken to the nearby mountains because an Italian warship was trailing the tug with its barges. The Italian frigate Maestrale, which is in the area as part of the European Union’s Atalanta anti-piracy mission, followed the vessel, confirmed the Italian Defence ministry. Or was that an escort for illicit material? The Italian-flagged and UAE operated tugboat owned by Micoperi Marine Contractors from Italy is now said to have been detained for attempted dumping of toxic waste.
International organizations and the UN have been invited to inspect the content of the two barges. The validity of the claim could not yet be established since the company didn't respond yet on questions to declare the content. The vessel was apparently captured just 40 miles off the Somali coast, which - if correct - would be far outside the shipping corridor.
With the latest captures and releases now still at least 16 (17 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore, 18 with JAIKUR I whose last 4 crew members are still held in Mogadishu harbour) foreign vessels with a total of not less than 248 crew members accounted for (of which 99 are confirmed to be 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 (for Somalia, incl. presently held ones) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by a naval force. For 2009 the account stands at 54 averted or abandoned attacks and 16 sea-jackings on the Somali/Yemeni pirate side as well as one wrongful attack by friendly fire on the side of the naval forces. 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.
Piracy related news
Thousands of dolphins blocked the suspected Somali pirate ships when they were trying to attack Chinese merchant ships passing the Gulf of Aden, the China Radio International reported on Monday. The Chinese merchant ships escorted by a China's fleet sailed on the Gulf of Aden when they met some suspected pirate ships. Thousands of dolphins suddenly leaped out of water between pirates and merchants when the pirate ships headed for the China's. The suspected pirates ships stopped and then turned away. The pirates could only lament their littleness before the vast number of dolphins. photo/text: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/14/content_11184581.htm - Treegugger commented: Either way, as smart as those dolphins are, they're the ones that really need protection. Consider for instance the fate of China's famous baiji -- the first dolphin to go extinct at the hands of humans.
Are the Somali captors pirates or a militia coast guard? asks Bruce Thompson in the American Thinker blog. He says there: "One vessel, MV Irene E. M. was merely transiting the Gulf of Aden, an innocent passage protected by custom and international law (e.g. the UN Law of the Sea Treaty). Innocent passage may only be denied under strict restraints", and assumes the captors to be pirates. But what he did not take into consideration is the Somali Maritime Law of 1972, whereby Somalia declared already back then a Somali Territorial Sea of 200 nm (i.e. 200mn territorial waters, not just 12). The basic idea as model was picked up by other coastal states but the United Nations Common Law of thee Sea (UNCLOS) agreed only a 200 nm EEZ for signatory states which is not seen as territorial waters. However, Thomson continues: "Two vessels are Egyptian fishing boats inside Somalia’s 200 mile exclusive fishing zone, protected by the same law of the sea. Both Egypt and Somalia are signatories, Egypt # 9 and Somalia # 40. Under the treaty, the captors are a civil coast guard defending Somalia's fishing rights and the Egyptians are poachers". He concludes that the U.S. of America should finance and train coastguards in Somalia.
Well, Ecoterra Intl. had asked for such help already in 1994 and requested Admiral Howe the retired US naval officer, who served back then as UN Special Envoy - to facilitate such aid - but to no avail. Millions have been spent in the meantime in naval war games but nothing to assist Somalia to protect the Somali seas from all the evil, including foreign fishing fleets, toxic and nuclear waste dumping and last but not least Somali and Yemeni sea-bandits. We better declare all the Somali waters a marine National Park and charge all the Navies and foreign vessels hefty entrance fees, from which the Somali authorities and communities along the coast could finance sea-rangers !
You are being lied to about pirates writes Johann Hari in the San Francisco Bay View
Who imagined that in 2009, the world’s governments would be declaring a new War on Pirates? As you read this, the British Royal Navy - backed by the ships of more than two dozen nations, from the U.S. to China - is sailing into Somali waters to take on men we still picture as parrot-on-the-shoulder pantomime villains. They will soon be fighting Somali ships and even chasing the pirates onto land, into one of the most broken countries on earth.
But behind the arrr-me-hearties oddness of this tale, there is an untold scandal. The people our governments are labeling as "one of the great menaces of our times" have an extraordinary story to tell - and some justice on their side.
Pirates have never been quite who we think they are. In the "golden age of piracy" - from 1650 to 1730 - the idea of the pirate as the senseless, savage thief that lingers today was created by the British government in a great propaganda heave. Many ordinary people believed it was false: Pirates were often rescued from the gallows by supportive crowds. Why? What did they see that we can’t?
In his book "Villains of All Nations", the historian Marcus Rediker pores through the evidence to find out. If you became a merchant or navy sailor then - plucked from the docks of London’s East End, young and hungry - you ended up in a floating wooden Hell. You worked all hours on a cramped, half-starved ship, and if you slacked off for a second, the all-powerful captain would whip you with the cat o’ nine tails. If you slacked consistently, you could be thrown overboard. And at the end of months or years of this, you were often cheated of your wages.
Pirates were the first people to rebel against this world. They mutinied against their tyrannical captains - and created a different way of working on the seas. Once they had a ship, the pirates elected their captains, and made all their decisions collectively. They shared their bounty out in what Rediker calls "one of the most egalitarian plans for the disposition of resources to be found anywhere in the 18th century".
They even took in escaped African slaves and lived with them as equals. The pirates showed "quite clearly - and subversively - that ships did not have to be run in the brutal and oppressive ways of the merchant service and the Royal navy". This is why they were popular, despite being unproductive thieves.
The words of one pirate from that lost age - a young British man called William Scott - should echo into this new age of piracy. Just before he was hanged in Charleston, South Carolina, he said: "What I did was to keep me from perishing. I was forced to go a-pirating to live".
In 1991, the government of Somalia - in the Horn of Africa - collapsed. Its 9 million people have been teetering on starvation ever since - and many of the ugliest forces in the Western world have seen this as a great opportunity to steal the country’s food supply and dump our nuclear waste in their seas.
Yes: nuclear waste. As soon as the government was gone, mysterious European ships started appearing off the coast of Somalia, dumping vast barrels into the ocean. The coastal population began to sicken. At first they suffered strange rashes, nausea and malformed babies. Then, after the 2005 tsunami, hundreds of the dumped and leaking barrels washed up on shore. People began to suffer from radiation sickness, and more than 300 died.
Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, the U.N. envoy to Somalia, tells me: "Somebody is dumping nuclear material here. There is also lead and heavy metals such as cadmium and mercury - you name it." Much of it can be traced back to European hospitals and factories, who seem to be passing it on to the Italian mafia to "dispose" of cheaply. When I asked Ould-Abdallah what European governments were doing about it, he said with a sigh: "Nothing. There has been no cleanup, no compensation and no prevention."
At the same time, other European ships have been looting Somalia’s seas of their greatest resource: seafood. We have destroyed our own fish stocks by over-exploitation - and now we have moved on to theirs. More than $300 million worth of tuna, shrimp, lobster and other sea life is being stolen every year by vast trawlers illegally sailing into Somalia’s unprotected seas.
The local fishermen have suddenly lost their livelihoods, and they are starving. Mohammed Hussein, a fisherman in the town of Marka 100km south of Mogadishu, told Reuters: "If nothing is done, there soon won’t be much fish left in our coastal waters".
This is the context in which the men we are calling "pirates" have emerged. Everyone agrees they were ordinary Somali fishermen who at first took speedboats to try to dissuade the dumpers and trawlers, or at least wage a "tax" on them. They call themselves the Volunteer Coast Guard of Somalia - and it’s not hard to see why.
In a surreal telephone interview, one of the pirate leaders, Sugule Ali, said their motive was "to stop illegal fishing and dumping in our waters … We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits. We consider sea bandits [to be] those who illegally fish and dump in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas". William Scott would understand those words.
No, this doesn’t make hostage-taking justifiable, and yes, some are clearly just gangsters - especially those who have held up World Food Program supplies. But the "pirates" have the overwhelming support of the local population for a reason. The independent Somali news site WardherNews conducted the best research we have into what ordinary Somalis are thinking - and it found 70 percent "strongly supported the piracy as a form of national defense of the country’s territorial waters".
During the revolutionary war in America, George Washington and America’s founding fathers paid pirates to protect America’s territorial waters, because they had no navy or coast guard of their own. Most Americans supported them. Is this so different?
Did we expect starving Somali to stand passively on their beaches, paddling in our nuclear waste, and watch us snatch their fish to eat in restaurants in London and Paris and Rome? We didn’t act on those crimes - but when some of the fishermen responded by disrupting the transit corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil supply, we begin to shriek about "evil". If we really want to deal with piracy, we need to stop its root cause - our crimes - before we send in the gunboats to root out Somalia’s criminals.
The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarized by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know "what he meant by keeping possession of the sea". The pirate smiled and responded: "What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor".
Once again, our great imperial fleets sail in today - but who is the robber?
The Other Side of the 'Somali Pirate' Story
by Adjetey Osekre
During the past few weeks, intense focus on the operations of Somali pirates has garnered a lot of media attention. Observers haven't held back their opinions about the unfairness of the exploitation of vessels carrying unarmed crews by the so called, "Somali pirates". While critics continue to encourage attacks on the perpetrators of such "crimes" at sea, it is equally important to increase pressure on governments and organizations that are responsible for ensuring the rules of the Basel Convention which "lays down rules to control, trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal", leading to the cessation of fishing activities in an area that has significantly become a hub for pirates.
Piracy should not be condoned in any "way, shape, of form". However, Somalis whose waters have been exploited over the past years by international fishing corporations should not only see a joint coordination by Western governments to curb piracy on Somali waters, but a strong condemnation by the same governments against corporations and governments which have been using Somali and other developing countries as dump sites for nuclear and toxic wastes from the west.
The exposure of poor developing countries to varying forms of environmental injustice should be addressed. In the past, fishing companies explored Somali waters without permission, capitalizing on the absence of a Somali navy guard and thereby claiming the jobs of local fishermen who did not only feed communities through fishing but relied on fishing as their main source of employment.
Last March, the State Department of the US was said to have protested an incident which involved five Chinese vessels which were said to have "maneuvered dangerously close to a US Navy ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, approaching within 25 feet of the unarmed surveillance ship". In Somalia the absence of a navy because of the unstable political situation in the country, thanks to western influence and imperialist agenda in Somalia and neighboring countries, exposes the coastal borders of the country to grave dangers.
Piracy is a huge threat to global trade. It's great to see leading world powers unite to confront the issue. However, we must agree to disagree that Somali's are not supposed to carry the blame for the outcome of the eco-imperialism that developing countries have been trying to resist.
The exploitation of a nation's weakness and use of its corrupt leaders makes both the exploiter and exploited, corrupt. Gerd Leipold, Executive Director of Greenpeace International, was quoted in Der Spiegel back in 2006 warning about a new "toxic waste colonialism". His warning included recent incidents which included: plastic remnants collected under Germany's Green Dot household recycling program being dumped into the Egyptian desert. Benin for instance, received "advance cash payment of $1.6 million and 30 years of development aid" for taking in "hazardous waste, including radioactive waste".
So called "valuable goods", carried by cargoes on high seas headed towards developing countries include "large amounts of discarded computers, mobile phones and other electronic junk, as well as old cars and refrigerators are sent to Africa -- all filled with hazardous substances, some of which are highly toxic, including oil, fire retardants, dioxins and PCBs".
It is great for western countries to look out for their interests in the face of pirate threats. However, it is significant for them to observe the strong tenets of the "control of trans-boundary movements of hazardous wastes". To ask poor developing countries to carry excessive toxic and waste materials from western corporations that view developing countries as a dump-site is uncivil. Western governments should not seek the interests of their corporations over human lives in developing countries.
So when Newt Gingrich says that, "President Obama is making a major mistake in not forcefully outlining the rules of civilization for dealing with pirates. We look weak", Gingrich must keep in mind that exposing poorer countries to toxic wastes and depriving them of their jobs isn't civil. Besides, Somali fishermen will also look weak when they return home from fishing in toxic-filled waters without any money or meals to provide for their families.
Adjetey Osekre is assistant managing editor of The Daily Voice.
GMAnews TV reported from the Philippines
The high-seas rescue of American ship captain Richard Philips might have momentarily brought the world’s attention back to Somalia, but it did little to bring to the fore the plight of the remaining 98 Filipino seafarers held captive there by pirates.
Nelson Ramirez, president of Manila-based seafarer’s group United Filipino Seafarers said the international community seems to turn a blind eye to the larger population of Filipino crew members kidnapped by Somali pirates since November last year.
"The entire incident is sensationalized because an American was held hostage", Ramirez told GMANews.TV in an interview. "[But] when the number of Filipinos abducted by pirates swelled to 100, there was no reaction".
As this developed, reality television show, Spike TV, announced that it will follow US naval units hunting for pirates in the Gulf of Aden to bring "an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the US Navy operation to end this deadly threat of piracy".
The International Maritime Bureau said there were 260 crewmembers on 14 hijacked ships being held off the coast of Somalia as of Tuesday. Six of these hijacked vessels have a total of 98 Filipino seafarers involved.
The number of Filipino seafarers being held hostage in Somalia have constantly yo-yoed — from 44 at the start of the year to 108 last month — as pirates continuously hijack ships passing through the Gulf of Aden, slowly releasing vessels only after ship owners willingly pay multi-million dollar ransom.
Various US media entities gave a blow by blow account on the hijacking incident involving Capt. Philips, particularly the daring rescue that involved snipers shooting three of the four Somali pirates who have kidnapped the American ship officer. (For related story click here: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/156746/Kidnapped-US-captain-freed-snipers-kill-3-Somali-pirates)
No other than President Barack Obama praised the risky Sunday rescue and even vowed to work with other nations "to halt the rise of piracy". But Somali pirates threatened to kill the remaining hostages should other countries attack them to free their nationals.
Noting the danger faced by the hostages, Ramirez urged the Philippine government to use the newfound attention of the Western media and steer it toward the plight of Filipino seafarers.
"It is high-time for the government to strengthen its representation in the UN to bring to the fore that many Filipino seafarers are being held against their will in Somalia", Ramirez said.
While the Philippine government is "relieved" to learn about the rescue of Capt. Philips, it remains mum on the issue of the reported ‘hypocrisy’ of the US in being concerned about the piracy in Somalia only because an American was abducted, while almost 100 Filipinos have been kidnapped since November 2008.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ed Malaya told GMANews.TV that they are constantly working with their partners in securing the safe release and repatriation of the 98 Filipinos held by Somali pirates.
Malaya noted that despite the pirates’ threats, they have not received any report of Filipinos deliberately hurt by the sea bandits.
While the hostage drama involving the American captain concluded in just four days, Ramirez said, at least one Filipino captain remains to be freed since he was kidnapped last Nov. 10.
The UFS president identified the Filipino ship officer as Capt. Abelardo Pacheco of the Panamanian-owned MT STOLT STRENGTH who has been kidnapped along with 22 other Filipinos for 155 days.
Pacheco was a former examiner of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC), Ramirez added.
The delay in the release of Filipino seafarers seems to be a norm under the current policies of the Philippine government, according to Milton Unso, president of the Mariners Association for Regional and International Networking Organization (Marino).
"Our government has no teeth. It has no capacity to extract the Filipino seamen; it only resorts to diplomatic means", Unso said.
Spouses of Filipino seafarers onboard the MT STOLT have broken their silence on Tuesday afternoon and demanded that the Philippine government step up its action to help free their husbands.
"Can’t they just free our husbands?" one of the wives told reporters, referring to the Somali pirates.
The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs has always maintained that it does not directly talk with kidnappers as the government keeps a ‘no-ransom policy’ in these situations.
Instead, the DFA contacts the ship’s owners and the seafarers manning agency to facilitate the safe release of the Filipinos. Despite report of ransom money being exchange for the release of the crew and the vessel, the DFA maintains that it has no knowledge of this.
Unso said that they want to ask the government what it can do to resolve the kidnappings of Filipino seafarers in the Horn of Africa.
Since Filipinos compose one-third of the world’s shipping manpower, they are the most prone to piracy attacks. But Unso said seafarers already have the option to refuse passing through pirate-prone areas like the Gulf of Aden to avoid being kidnapped.
"But they still do because they are paid more. That’s suicide", Unso said.
Last year, the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) issued Resolution No. 4, which doubles the hazard pay of seafarers crossing "high-risk waters". Aside from this, seafarers are also given the option to step down at the nearest port before crossing the troubled Gulf.
At first, the DFA eyed a confusing deployment ban on Somali waters. "I suggest that we look into the contracts of the seafarers so that they won’t be allowed to board ships that will pass through dangerous areas", Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo said last August.
Then the government backpedaled on the proposal when the maritime industry questioned the rule. They argue that seafarers cannot simply leave the boat once it crosses waters that the Philippine government has banned for travel.
In case seafarers are abducted, Esteban Conejos Jr., DFA undersecretary for migrant workers’ affairs, said Filipino crew members could always deal with the situation through language adaptability.
"We have even given our seafarers certain basic language courses in Somalia like how to say ‘no,’ ‘yes,’ ‘eat,’ and ‘water,’" Conejos said.
Some ship owners too, who are often forced to shell out millions of dollars in ransom, have initiated steps to curb the expensive hijackings of their ships.
One-third of the world’s shipping manpower requirement or an estimated 350,000 seafarers are supplied by Filipinos.
An seafarers' advocacy group urged the Philippine government on Monday to speed up negotiations for the release of 92 Filipino seafarers held hostage by Somali pirates.
The International Seafarers’ Action Center (ISAC) Philippines Foundation Inc. said the seafarers' plight has placed their families in agony.
"Can you imagine the agony of their families here? The government should exert more effort to speed up the release and repatriation of those poor seafarers, who were just pushed by poverty to try their luck at the high seas", ISAC president and maritime labor lawyer Edwin de la Cruz said in an article on the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines website.
He said that while the international community is all eyes on the dramatic release of MAERSK-ALABAMA ship captain Richard Phillips, the number of Filipinos being held hostage by rebel groups in lawless Horn of Africa, is hard to ignore.
On the other hand, he assailed the ship owners who frequently endanger the lives of their crew by letting their ships sail on the dangerous waters, that part of Africa.
"They only want profit. They often disregard the safety of their crew.
What is more saddening, they don’t even want to lift even a single finger whenever their ships got into trouble", he said.
De la Cruz also called on groups advancing the rights and welfare of seafarers to pressure government, especially the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), to act with immediacy.
"To the religious, governmental, and non-governmental institutions, with concerns over migrants, let us be united to make the negotiations faster. The longer they remain captives, the more danger that they face", he said.
How sick some brains get in the search for egocentric "solutions" can be seen in what Economist Peter Leeson writes at NRO's:The Corner: "Obama says we need to fight back against piracy. But maybe piracy doesn't require a military solution--it requires a business solution". He then postulates that "piracy is a result of the "tragedy of the commons"--nobody owns the oceans, so nobody has incentive to police them." And he proposes as [his] lesson's solution: "Sell the waters, and let the new owners pay for security forces". And he continues:
"Rather than trying its hand at Somali state building, the international community should try auctioning off Somali’s coastal waters. According to some Somali pirates, greedy foreign corporations are exploiting valuable resources in these waters, which is allegedly why they’ve resorted to piracy (the large ransoms earned from pirating are a happy but unexpected byproduct of pursuing social justice, I suppose). If this is right, Somalia’s coastal waters should be able to fetch a handsome price. The international community can use the proceeds of the auction for humanitarian assistance in Somalia, or put it in a trust for Somalia’s future government, if one ever emerges. The "high seas" should be similarly sold. It’s not so important where the proceeds go. The important thing is that the un-owned becomes owned. One problem: the people who blame "greedy foreign corporations" for Somalia's woes are not likely to be too excited about the idea of auctioning off Somalia's waters to those "greedy corporations"", he concludes.
We leave it to our readers to visit the author in the mental hospital his megalomaniac government certainly provides for him or to comment on: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/risky-business/2009/04/14/a-market-solution-to-piracy.html, since first that proposal is not new and had been partly implemented by a mafia-like construct created and enforced by Hart Security of London, whose aftershocks still can be felt in Puntland where jobless Hart-security-guards filled the vacancies of pirate outfits and secondly in the totally destructive fishing-for-protection adventure of the European Union in Mauritania.
Over the Easter-weekend, courts in Puntland, the main hub for piracy in the Gulf of Aden, sentenced 10 people to 20 years in jail each for piracy in one trial, and 15 pirates to three years each in a second.
No Real Peace in Sight
US congressman meets with Somali president in Mogadishu. Donald Payne held a press conference in the capital after the meeting he had with the president and the prime minister. "We came Mogadishu to meet the president, the prime minister, other ministers and to see the progress made by the new Somali government", said U.S. congressman Donald Payne. Payne flew into the war-torn capital early Monday in what was believed to be the first such trip by a U.S. elected official in years. The news service said Payne was expected to meet the country's foreign minister to discuss piracy among other topics. It's not clear why the longtime Newark congressman made the trip so shortly after the rescue of Richard Phillips -- which prompted howls of revenge among the pirate leaders.
Reuters then reported first that insurgents fired mortars near a plane scheduled "to whisk Rep. Donald Payne (D-N.J.) out of Mogadishu this morning" -- hours after Navy snipers killed three Somali pirates who held a US merchant captain. "One mortar landed at the airport when Payne's plane was due to fly and five others after he left and no one was hurt", Abukar Hassan, a police officer at Mogadishu airport, told Reuters. Payne's office at first didn't immediately return calls for comment. Then his press secretary, Kerry McKenney, stated that the New Jersey Representative was safe today after mortar shells were fired towards a plane in which he was leaving an airport in Somalia. "Our office has received reports that mortars were fired towards the plane the congressman was in", McKenney said in a telephone interview. "Everyone is safe. I don’t know that the plane is in the air yet. We’re waiting to hear whether they’ve left Mogadishu. We haven’t spoken to him yet". The interesting reality: Neither the congressmen nor the reporters, who accompanied him on this trip, realized anything until they received phone-calls from worried friends and family after landing safely in Nairobi and direct eye-witness-reports from Mogadishu stated that there was not even any attack near or at the airport at all.
Impacting News from the Global Village
What passed as a low key ceremony at the Foreign Affairs ministry, when Kenya and Somalia signed an agreement on maritime boundaries has caused national uproar in Somalia, writes the Kenyan Business Weekly. The Somalia government, already under pressure from insurgency attacks, is being accused of giving Somalia sea resource to Kenya for free. Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetang’ula and his Planning colleague in Somalia Abdirahman Abdishakur Warsame signed a memorandum of understanding agreeing to cooperate on a review of maritime boundaries. But Somalia Islamists, the opposition, media and the general public are reading differently into the new MOU. The debate centres around claims that the administration of the Transitional Federal Government had been duped to cede some land to Kenya, the newspaper writes. But in the same time it does not explain to Kenyans (nor Somalis) that this was done as a prerequisite to follow the demands of the International Seabed Authority in relation to the extension of the 350 nm zone. The MOU in its form is also not really binding and expresses clearly that the final delineation of the national boundary between the two countries is still outstanding.
Press Contact:
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+254-714-747090
www.ecop.info
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+254-733-633-733
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme
SAP Media Officers
+254-722-613858
+254-733-385868
Note
Picture: Mogadishu harbour
From: http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop/images/ESC/small/ISS014/ISS014-E-17112.JPG
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