Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor). Part XIV. Give a Chance to the Elders!

More details about the developments off the Somali coast are to be found in the 14th Ecoterra Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor that I herewith republish integrally.

Ecoterra Intl. – SMCM (Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor). Part XIV.

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.

2009-04-10 23h54:48 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

Clearing-house

News from sea-jackings, abductions or newly attacked ships

Somali Elders and parents of the four pirates, who are holding the captain of a American merchant vessel hostage in a life-boat entangled in the stand-off with the US-American Navy, have vowed to solve the problem peacefully. They traveled already from inland Galkayo to Garacad at the seashore and are ready to travel at first light by boat towards the scene. The group of respected local leader Abdi Ali Mohamed is determined and promised that they will be able "without any guns or ransom" to hand over the American captain of MV ALABAMA safely to the nearby USS Bainbridge. The elders demand only that they get a written guarantee for their safe and free return to Somalia together with the young pirate-boys hailing from their community. They started to insist on the written guarantee signed by a senior US naval officer only after their offer to the US was responded to by a call to their known mobile phone number from a Somali - presumably from the naval destroyer that arrived on the scene earlier Thursday-, who -according to the elders - speaks very poor, Americanized Somali language and whom they do not trust. Already earlier in the day it was reported that first negotiations by the FBI - presumably with the help of this Somali translator - failed miserably. Thereafter an escape attempt by the captain was quickly averted by the Somali youngsters, who recaptured him and still hold him on the lifeboat, reportedly unharmed. The elder are reachable by their mobile phone and only await the consent and go-ahead from the Americans.

Weather in the area was expected to be sunny with calm winds over the next few days, said Josh Newhard, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.com, a global weather service. Waves were expected to average between 2 and 4 feet, which is relatively calm, he said.

Meanwhile MV Alabama began sailing toward the Kenyan port of Mombassa - its original destination - and was expected to arrive Saturday night, said Joseph Murphy, a professor at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy whose son, Shane Murphy, is second-in-command of the vessel. A Navy team of 18 armed guards is aboard the vessel. The Bainbridge had arrived earlier in the day near the Alabama and the lifeboat. Maersk shipping company spokesman Kevin Speers told AP Radio the lifeboat was out of fuel and "dead in the water." The U.S. Navy sent up P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft and had video of the scene. Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, said more ships would be sent to the area because "we want to ensure that we have all the capability that might be needed over the course of the coming days." U.S. officials said the guided-missile frigate USS Haliburton was among the ships en route.

Give a Chance to the Elders before you Need Missiles!

After the French Navy had attacked already on Thursday the small sailing yacht S/Y TANIT the vessel was left limping towards the Somali coast with a shot-up mast and hardly any engine power or fuel. The boat, a Norwegian-made 14.5-meter (47.57-foot) sailing boat with a single mast, was heading far out in the Indian Ocean southwards when it was seized. It had been sea-jacked by a group of around 14 pirates operating from a commandeered Yemeni fishing vessel six days ago. While some of the pirates had earlier left the Tanit on board of the Yemeni ship, 7-8 pirates were observed by several aircraft to be on the yacht during the days after the attention of the French Government was raised concerning this case. Florent and Chloë Lemaçon together with their three-year-old son, Colin, were accompanied by two male friends en route to Zanzibar when the armed thugs took them hostage. The owners of the yacht, Florent and Chloe Lemaçon, had left the French port of Vanves in Brittany in July 2009 on a tour with their three-year-old son, according to their blog http://tanit.over-blog.fr/1-index.html. Two friends had joined them along the way. The first attack by a French navy vessel - reported as F 713 - and two commando boats took place around 47 miles off Ras Hafun at the Indian Ocean coast of North-East Somalia yesterday. The vessel was thereby "immobilized" as the official statement reads, which is contradicting because later the same statement says that the vessel still moved towards the shore - a fact, which was also confirmed by local observers.

The French President's office declared today evening that French forces then attempted to persuade the pirates to give up their criminal undertaking, but it also admitted that "unfortunately their attempts were unsuccessful". After today's second attack the French Government had to state then that two of the pirates were killed and three arrested, and also confirmed that the owner of the yacht - Florent Lemaçon - was killed in the attack carried out by French navy commandos. Local fishermen reported that they heard sounds from an intense gun battle over a longer time. Four hostages, including a small child, were freed, said French Defense Minister Herve Morin. Termed as "a break with French government policy", authorities had proposed a ransom but the pirates rejected the offer, Morin said. According to AP, a grim-faced Morin said that "negotiations were leading nowhere, and the boat was approaching the coast". He said French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the order to attack. It came at 3:30 p.m. Paris time (1330 UTC = 16h30 local time).

The second attack then was launched some 20 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. The four remaining hostages, including the child, were being taken by French authorities to Djibouti. The whereabouts of the dead and arrested pirates is not known. The dead hostage was identified as Florent Lemaçon, the owner of the boat, the Tanit, and father of the family, the defence minister confirmed. This is the third time in a year that the French have freed hostages from the hands of pirates in Somalia. While in the first incident - exactly a year ago - the French tourist yacht was freed against a ransom payment and later a French helicopter unit shot up a car on land and captured some people, who allegedly were said to be part of the leaving pirate gang, in the second case a commando-style operation was launched to free a couple from their sailing boat, whereby one pirate was killed and the other six Somalis arrested. All 12 Somalis from these cases were taken to Paris for trial and it was feared that any new hostage case involving French nationals could be used by the captors to press for their repatriation. The case of the Tanit is in line with an observed escalation in response and it is the first time any hostage was killed during a rescue operation.

This caused a wave of first disbelief and later shock throughout the maritime world, which tries to curb Somali piracy. Already when the hi-jacking of the yacht became known, many analysts and Somalis themselves feared that the French would go after the pirates with all fire-power available and so all efforts were made to safeguard a peaceful solution. But to no avail, because France did not respond to proposals made by elders, local leaders and groups. Immediately after the hi-jacking became public French media had been fast to spread the military PR that the young couple had been warned concerning possible piracy attacks and several articles did not stop short to portrait the sailors with remarks - most likely just triggered by jealousy - about the young couples determined stand against consumerism and today's lifestyle in Europe.

Florent Lemaçon' words on his blog were: "The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream!" but he did not know that his dream would end in a hail of bullets from his own country's forces.

The Norwegian tanker MT BOW ASIR was released Friday only two weeks after it was seized by armed pirates off the Somali coast. Somali pirates released the tanker after receiving an average ransom payment from owners of the vessel captured at the end of last month, sources said. The 23-000-tonne chemical tanker's operator, Salhus Shipping AS, confirmed that the vessel was freed and the 27-member crew was unharmed but declined to say if it paid any ransom or give details about any negotiations with the pirates. "The pirates on board the Norwegian ship took the ransom and now they are all in Haradheere with me", one pirate told Reuters by telephone. The crew consists of a Norwegian captain, 19 Filipinos, five Poles, one Russian and one Lithuanian, who have been held since they were seized by pirates on March 26 about 250 miles east of the Somali coast. "All crew are unharmed and we wish to thank them for their handling of this difficult situation", Salhus Shipping AS said in a statement. "The ship is still sailing in dangerous waters". "Our absolute priority during negotiations with the pirates has been the crew, charterer, cargo and the ship". said the company, based in Haugesund, Norway. The tanker was carrying a cargo of caustic soda and was headed for the Kenyan port of Mombassa from the Gulf when it was commandeered. This case shows clearly how quick a release can be realized if the owner of a ship and the state authorities are determined to rescue the crew and vessel as fast as possible.

Meanwhile, sixteen Bulgarian sailors aboard MV MALASPINA CASTLE - hijacked earlier this week - spoke to family members on Thursday, the Bulgarian foreign ministry said. "The Bulgarian captain of the boat and the fifteen sailors are doing well", ministry spokesman Dragovest Goranov said. It was unclear whether the pirates had demanded a ransom for the crew, also comprising Russian, Ukrainian and Filipino members, who had been seized aboard a British cargo on Monday, he said.

Two Greek-owned cargo ships have escaped pirate attacks off Somalia, with one helped by European Union intervention, Greece's merchant navy ministry said. The first vessel ducked an attack at 3.40am local time in the Gulf of Aden with the help of a ship and helicopter from the EU's Atalanta anti-piracy mission, the ministry said. Three hours later, the crew aboard the second boat repulsed pirates in the same region, it said.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 15 (16 with an unnamed sole Barge which drifted ashore, 17 with JAIKUR I whose crew is still held in Mogadishu harbour) foreign vessels with a total of not less than 270 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 52 averted or abandoned attacks and 14 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.

Impacting news from the global village ----------------

The governments of Somalia and Kenya inked a Memorandum of Understanding last week that has stirred socio-political controversy across Somalia, re-igniting memories from half a century ago when Kenya was "awarded" Somali territory by withdrawing European colonizers. A copy of the MoU, obtained by independent Somali news agency Garowe Online, indicated that the Somali and Kenyan governments will pose "no objection in respect of submissions on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 Nautical Miles" to a United Nations body tasked with enforcing the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The two-page document noted that the "maritime dispute" between Somalia and Kenya "has not been settled yet", adding: "While the two coastal States have differing interests regarding the delimitation of the continental shelf in the area under dispute, they have a strong common interest with respect to the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf beyond 200 nautical miles, without prejudice to the future delimitation of the continental shelf between them". The document went on to mention that the two States will "work together to safeguard and promote their common interests" and that the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) will submit to the UN "preliminary information" regarding continental shelf limits on May 13, 2009. But the MoU warns: "This submission may include the area under dispute", which was defined earlier in the document as "an overlapping area of the continental shelf".

However, the MoU notes that "the submissions made before the [UN] Commission and the recommendations approved by the Commission thereon shall not prejudice the positions of the two coastal States with respect to the maritime dispute between them and shall be without prejudice to the future delimitation of maritime boundaries in the area under dispute".

Confusion

The MoU between the governments of Somalia and Kenya regarding the continental shelf has stirred public debate among the Somali people, who are already weary of foreign agendas. The document, however, provides the legal framework for a future agreement between these two neighbors in East Africa, who share a coastline and a history of contradictions. The UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which reviews submissions, defines the continental shelf as comprising "...the submerged prolongation of the land territory of the coastal state" or to a distance not exceeding 200 nautical miles from the baseline of the coastal state's territorial sea. Further, the Law of the Sea treaty stipulates that the "coastal State exercises over the continental shelf sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources". The MoU signed between the governments of Somalia and Kenya leaves room for different interpretations, as the document openly admits that upcoming submissions to the UN body may allow the two countries to lay claim over the so-called "area of dispute". This vague clause throws into question Somalia's sovereign rights over natural resources found on the continental shelf, as the long-standing "maritime dispute" between Somalia and Kenya has been placed on hold to allow Kenya to lay claim over the so-called "area of dispute" within the 10-year submission deadline period. The document does not provide any information on longitude, but repeatedly states that the MoU does not impact the positions of Somalia and Kenya on the future delimitation of the maritime boundary. However, there is the sense that since Somalia is a weaker nation-state, the MoU was written to empower Kenya to lay claim over an area of ownership that has apparently been in "maritime dispute" for years. The signing of this MoU comes at a time when Kenya is intensifying its search for oil, especially in offshore blocks, with Swedish and Chinese firms leading the effort.

Concern

Rebels opposed to the TFG in the Somali capital Mogadishu have spread information and accused the Somali government of "selling the sea" to the neighboring Republic of Kenya. This information, rightly or wrongly, has largely been accepted at face-value by a Somali public reeling from nearly 20 years of civil war, gross abuse of public trust and a legacy inherited from the colonial years. In the 1950s, the Northern Frontier District (NFD) was given to Kenya, although the territory's Somali-speaking population wanted to be part of the Somali Republic after gaining independence from Great Britain. The TFG in Mogadishu, first created in Oct. 2004 following a conference of Somali clan factions in Kenya, was radically transformed in Jan. 2009 when the TFG Parliament was doubled to include Islamist MPs and Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed was elected President of Somalia at a peace conference in the neighboring Republic of Djibouti. Currently, the TFG controls very little territory outside of Mogadishu, where Islamist rebels control key neighborhoods and have openly defied the government's orders. Most regions in southern Somalia are controlled by Al Shabaab hardliners and their Islamist allies, including the key towns of Kismayo, Baidoa and Marka.

The central regions of Somalia fall under the control of various groups, including clan militias and Islamist fighters. Support for Sheikh Sharif's government in these regions is very fluid and uncertain. In the northwest, the unrecognized breakaway republic of Somaliland has refused to recognize President Sheikh Sharif's government, strictly following a separatist policy since the early 1990s. The Puntland regional authority, in northeastern Somalia, has adopted a wait-and-see approach, although the region's leader has repeatedly supported federalism as the only acceptable system of government for Somalia. It is not clear what impact the MoU between Somalia and Kenya will have on the rest of the country, but the document has stirred debate across the country as Somalis largely view such agreements hidden from the public with suspicion.

Press Contacts:

ECOP-marine
East-Africa
+254-714-747090
www.ecop.info

ECOTERRA Intl.
Nairobi Node
+254-733-633-733

EA Seafarers Assistance Programme
SAP Media Officer
+254-733-385868

End of Ecoterra Press Release

Note
Picture: S/Y TANIT before the massacre ordered by the idiotic and criminal gangster, the rubbishy president of France