Iraq, India, Israel and the MV FAINA Piracy Crisis – Across-the-board Updates by Ecoterra

Ecoterra 80th Press Release Update offers a spherical viewpoint to the MV FAINA piracy crisis which is about to complete 3 months of terrible suffering fro the crew members who have been held as hostages by the pirates. Herewith, I republish it integrally.

80th Update 2008-12-16 15:55:23 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868

Day 83 - 1969 hours into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

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

Under a totally still surface upwelling waters can pose great dangers and risks to the innocent and inexperienced swimmer. Likewise the fate of the FAINA is hanging in the balance and a peaceful release plan still could be jeopardized by unscrupulous players.

Ecoterra Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted ships --------

An official from the oil company Total says pirates have hijacked one of its tugboats off the Yemeni coast, according to AP. The Yemen-based Total SA official says the tugboat is carrying a crew of Indonesians and other nationalities. He says the boat was on its way to Malaysia when it was seized today, Tuesday.

According to the South-Africa run news link of the Saudi-Gazette - owned by the Saudi Okaz family - Somali pirates are likely to release the Saudi supertanker Sirius Star within 72 hours after payment, since a ransom deal has been struck, a source said Monday without revealing the ransom amount. "The negotiators on behalf of the owners of the Sirius Star have agreed to pay a ransom", Abubakr Dari, one of the negotiators, said by telephone. Representatives of Saudi Aramco subsidiary Vela International, who owns the supertanker, have been in contact with the Somali clans and the pirates’ representatives in the Somali port of Harardheere. Dari said the supertanker is anchored in Somalia’s Hobiyo Port, 25 km away from Harardhere.

All the 25 crew members (Polish captain and officer, 19 Filipinos, one Croatian and one Saudi plus two British) were well and had been even allowed to make phone calls to their relatives, he said, adding that an American woman is among the negotiators for Vela International. However, Yusuf Adso, secretary general of the Somali Foreign Ministry, said "there is no certain information" about a deal but a "massive effort involving a heavy presence of Somali clans is being exerted to release the supertanker in the next few days". According to unconfirmed reports, the ransom amount has come down from an initial $25 million to $3.5 million.

The Karagöl, owned by the YDC Maritime Company, was hijacked on Nov. 12 with a 14-member crew on board. It was heading to the Indian port city of Mumbai when it was seized by pirates off the coast of Yemen. The M/V Yasa Neslihan, owned by the Yasa Maritime Company, was hijacked on Oct. 29. Twenty crew members were aboard the ship when it was seized. Kubilay Marangoz, a lawyer for the YDC Maritime Company, speaking to the Anatolia news agency, expressed regret that they were unable to rescue the crew of the Karagöl before the four-day Eid al-Adha holiday, which started on Dec. 8.

"All the initiative has been held by pirates during the negotiations. The pirates have a system for bargaining, and we've been moving accordingly. They released a few ships before Eid al-Adha; however, they later hijacked a few other ships. That's to say, they don't want to empty a pool in which they have around 30 or 40 ships", Marangoz was quoted. "Experience also shows that bargaining with pirates takes approximately one-and-a-half or two months. We've been approaching the end of this process. Our sole goal is rescuing our crew safe and sound", Marangoz added. Turkish government officials reportedly threatened during an ant-piracy-conference in Nairobi last week that the Turkish navy could set a precedent by attacking or even sinking the two vessels and that Turkey would not mind to sacrifice the crew and ship, if the pirates would not release the vessels immediately. That statement received immediate critique from numerous human rights organizations as well as from the families of the seafarers on board the two ships.

With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of at least 330 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 124 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 55 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16). Several other vessels with unclear fate (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.

Other related news ----

Kenya is imposing sanctions on Somali TFG president. Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetang'ula said today Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf was an obstacle to peace. The sanctions, which also apply to Yusuf‘s family, include a travel ban and the freezing of any assets in Kenya. Wetang'ula said. Kenya took the action in line with a November decision by an eastern Africa regional group to impose sanctions against Somali leaders identified as an obstacle to peace. Kenya is home to more than 215,000 Somali refugees and acts as the base of all U.N. and international NGO operations in Somalia. Many Somali leaders have family, property or businesses in Kenya. Local observers fear this first move by the Kenya government against a Somali Politician could have a domino effect triggered by greedy business men, which would like to take over each others businesses.

Abdullahi Yusuf ignored so far all this and the Somali Parliament and announced today that he has appointed a former interior minister, Mohamoud Mohamed Gouled (nicknamed Gacma Dheere = long arms) from the Habr Gedir Saleebaan sub-clan, as the new prime minister, despite the fact that the parliament had rebuffed President Yussuf's attempt to have Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein (nicknamed Nuur Cadde = white light) from the Abgal Cely-Comar sub-clan sacked and voted overwhelmingly in confidence for the currently elected PM. Analysts believe that this move by Abdullahi Yussuf tries to divide the powerful HabrGedir and the Abgal clans for his own benefits. Apparently a police investigation was ordered to find out if Somali parliamentarians were bribed to vote for Nur Hassan Hussein. Mohamed Mohamud Guled, a close ally of Abdullahi Yusuf, has already accepted the nomination and declared that he would work to unite the different fronts.

The international community, which supports the transitional government of Somalia, had earlier called on the two sides to bridge their differences and join efforts to work for the interests of the country and its people. In a statement issued late Sunday, African Union Commission chief Jean Ping said the sacking of the prime minister would undermine efforts to bring peace and further weaken the fragile transitional government of Somalia. On Monday the European Union expressed concerns over the political developments in Somalia where the differences between the president and prime minister are threatening to bring down the fragile transitional government.

Local reports confirmed earlier rumors that ex-warlord, TFG "parliamentarian" and ex-"defense minister" Colonel Barre Aden Shirre (nicknamed Barre Hiiraale / Hiraale = salty from sweat) from the Marehan clan of former Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre has fled the country together with family and entourage onboard of two Kenyan fishing vessels, returning from Somalia to Kenya. While he is said to have disembarked in Malindi, the two vessels Roberta and Vega, which had not been stopped to enter Somali waters - neither by the joint naval forces nor the Kenyan authorities-, returned to Mombassa harbour. Barre Hiiraale lost his stronghold Kismayo to Al-Shabaab 4 month ago and was recently also chased from Bula Hawa location near the boundary of Kenya.

Kenyan territorial waters have been placed under a 24 hour military surveillance to check on spillover of pirate activities from the lawless Somalia coastline. Chief of General Staff Gen. Jeremiah Kianga said a joint Kenyan Navy and Air Force response patrol unit has been activated along its 600 km shoreline to fight against increasing piracy activities in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. ''We have intensified sea and air patrols in the Kenyan waters close to the troubled Somalia waters that is now firmly in the grip of piracy activities to secure and safeguard our shoreline'' said Gen. Kianga in Mombassa.

Gen. Kianga was briefing the press on Monday evening at the Mombassa’s Moi International Airport after flagging off two F-5 patrol attack aircrafts and inspecting the state of preparedness of the military to the threats posed by piracy. ''The Kenyan military will not hesitate to hit back at Somali pirates who attempt to venture into our side of the border and secure its waters and to this end we have deployed more sophisticated firepower to deter piracy on Kenyan waters,'' he said. "The aircrafts and sea naval ships will respond to any distress calls received from ships plying the ocean", he added. Gen. Kianga who was flanked by Navy Commandant Maj. Gen. Samson Mwathethe assured shipping lines, tourists and Kenyans that Kenya's shoreline is secure and safe and asked those planning on visiting the Coast especially during this festive season to do so without fear. At the same time Gen. Kianga revealed that the military was awaiting instructions from the government on whether to pursue pirates who attempt to extend their nefarious activities to Kenya.

U.S. backs off from UN-voting on peacekeeping force for Somalia. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Bush administration's top diplomat, who leaves office in 36 days, said that during her final and last U.N. trip, she would consult with foreign diplomats on the continuing instability in Somalia and the rampant piracy off its coastline. The administration favors creating a multinational peacekeeping force for Somalia, but is not yet ready to push for a Security Council vote on the matter, Rice said. Despite concerns by U.S. military officials in recent days, Rice also defended the U.S. proposal for U.N. authorization to pursue pirates ashore in Somalia. She said the Bush administration is united behind the idea that American or other forces might need to take on pirates under "hot pursuit" on land and therefore she planned to urge the council to authorize "all necessary measures" against piracy in the waters off the Horn of Africa nation. That would include hunting pirates ashore, even though the commander of the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet expressed doubt Friday about the wisdom of military action on land. Some of the 15-nation council's members also have expressed reservations. An official in the Somali Foreign Ministry, Osman Mohamed Adan, said that land incursions would deter the pirates only temporarily. "We need international forces to assist us to build up our own security forces," Adan said. "Militias could play a tit-for-tat game against each other, feeding false intelligence to get rid of the competition", said Peter Lehr, a piracy expert at the University of St. Andrew’s in Scotland. "We could be lured into their own tribal war".

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah said that US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice along with other ministerial-level officials, is also expected to attend the meeting of the International Contact Group on Somalia today at UN Headquarters. He says that the meeting will cover the political, security and humanitarian situation in Somalia, including political cooperation, human rights, piracy and reconstruction, and development.

Dr. Ivan Eland, Senior Fellow and Director of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The Independent Institute comments: Somalia is about to be overrun by a radical Islamist threat that U.S. actions essentially created. The Islamists in Somalia had little standing—the country’s population is generally made up of moderate Muslims—until the U.S. started supporting violent, corrupt, and reviled warlords. As the Islamists grew in strength and took over Somalia in 2006, the United States then persuaded Ethiopia to invade the country. Once again, an Islamist movement has been radicalized and strengthened by the invasion of Muslim soil by a perceived non-Muslim nation and also by the feckless, weak, and intransigent transitional government that the U.S. and occupying power have been supporting. Ethiopia will soon withdraw its troops, and the Islamists, this time on steroids, likely will soon take over. In this instance, much like the case of massive U.S. aid to the militant Islamist resistance in Afghanistan against the Soviets in the 1980s, the United States, by its needless overseas meddling, has not only strengthened its enemies, it has created them in the first place.

The U.S. is likely to ignore all the lessons it should have learned and wade even deeper into the Somali quagmire. As luck would have it for the U.S. government’s aggressive approach to terrorism, the deteriorating situation in Somalia has bred a new potential excuse for the U.S. to get more greatly involved in yet a third quagmire. Pirates, acting on greed rather than Islamist theology, are increasingly preying on ships off the Somali coast. In continuing its failed "offense is the best defense" strategy, the Bush administration is circulating a draft United Nations resolution that speaks of authorizing "all necessary measures ashore in Somalia" to prevent piracy. Of course, like the U.S. counter-drug mission in Colombia, which masks U.S. support for the host government’s war against communist guerrillas, going after seaborne Somali pirates on land can be a cover for using U.S. forces, including air power, to shore up a Somali government that would surely collapse after the Ethiopians leave.

Comment
By Ghulam Muhammed, Mumbai, which could ring in the ears of many "ambassadors" of the "free world".

In fact, it was the most dramatic and historic moment in the Bush presidency's saga of ignominy and infamy. And a fitting one at that! No amount of scorn and contempt could have been recorded for the posterity to watch in live footage than this simple act of Arab degradation to register how much Bush has brought down the prestige of the mighty USA. An Iraqi, one of the millions that carry the wounds of Bush family's wanton destruction of their people and their country, a journalist could not bear to hold back at the supposedly solemn ceremony of the farewell of the departing President that ravaged Iraqi people, and hit it out by throwing his shoes one after the other at the person of the US President of the world's most powerful nation. "This is a gift from the Iraqis; this is the farewell kiss, you dog!", shouted Muntader al-Zaidi, 28, when he hurled his shoes at President Bush. Bush ducked the shoe with remarkable agility. The second shoe too missed the target bodily, but hit the bull mark, with the words: "This is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq"! It is an act of great shame that the peeved India, the moral standard bearer of the world at a time, should be compromising its very soul, its very ethos and had no word to condemn the US, for its illegal invasion of Iraq, and that too on false pretexts.

India, now under the rule of the moral midgets, in the shadow of giants like Nehru and Gandhi, has sold its freedom, its moral authority, its place in the comity of the nations of the world, as the voice of reason, justice and fair-play; always siding with the victims of the colonial brutalities and imperial conquests, never forgetting the trial and tribulations of its own freedom fighters, is now being trampled by every Tom, Dick and Harry from the US/UK/Israel axis, who can buy a plane ticket to New Delhi. It was not very much in the past, when the US Ambassador was to face a public outcry when he tried to lecture India, as how to run their country. Today, the ambassador of Israel has the audacity to castigate Indian leaders publicly for their negligence in not preventing the terror attack on Mumbai. The Indian media slavishly carried his diatribe. The Indian Prime Minister his External Affairs minister took the public reprimand and kept quite. Nobody is asking Israel, what Israeli citizens are doing in India. Who gave them permission to run a charity mission in Mumbai, which can become a centre of conspiracy, at any time of Israel's choosing? India was dragged into Afghanistan imbroglio and it is that colossal mistake that is the beginning of India's misfortunes, starting with the Mumbai terror attack. Why our 'war' navy vessels should cross over to Somalia to hunt the pirates, when our own coast are so unguarded and unsecured. Who pushed India to show its naval might across the Indian Ocean, while our coast is so naked and open to invaders from the sea? What kind of conspiracy was hatched to entangle India into the great game?

U.S. Secret Service had been caught flatfooted by the shoe-throwing incident in Bagdad. Officials said journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi has been turned over to the prime minister‘s security guards to face further investigation by the military agency in charge of enforcing law in Baghdad. Thousands took to the streets in Iraq already on Monday to protest after Al-Zeidi was taken into custody for throwing his shoes at the still-U.S. president Bush during a Sunday news conference. Al-Zeidi, a 29-year-old employee of Cairo, Egypt-based Baghdadiya Television could face charges of insulting a foreign leader and the Iraqi prime minister, who was standing next to Bush. Officials in Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's office refused to comment on his condition or on whether he would be criminally charged. TV-station Baghdadiya hasn't apologized, and it too pressed for Zaidi's release, while Iraqi Shiite Muslims marched again in Sadr City, a sprawling Baghdad slum, hailing Zaidi as a hero and holding up shoes as they demanded his release.

Special maritime police should patrol the Horn of Africa coastline to arrest the Somali pirates who have been preying on commercial shipping, the head of the U.N. anti-crime agency said today. African and Arab police officers could be assigned to warships in Horn of Africa waters to try to seize Somali pirates and force them to face trial in the region, the United Nations crime-fighting agency proposes. "Pirates cannot be keelhauled or forced to walk the plank, nor should they be dumped off the Somali coast. They need to be brought to justice", said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Costa urged law enforcement officers to deploy on warships as "ship riders" to seize pirates and try them in the arresting officer's home country. A similar approach has helped prosecute drug traffickers in the Caribbean, he said. Costa said countries in the region — such as Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania and Yemen — could sign special agreements empowering police officers to arrest pirates in the name of the officer's country, then escort them there to be charged and tried.

"Regional cooperation is essential", Costa said. "A few years ago, piracy was a threat to the Straits of Malacca. By working together, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand managed to cut the number of attacks by more than half since 2004". Costa also urged authorities to crack down on the Somali pirates' coastal bases, support networks and financial transactions. "Somali pirates are in it for the money, so we should try to capture their treasure", Costa said. "Unlike buccaneers of old, Somali mafias are not burying their booty in the sand ... Pirates are increasingly working through intermediaries in financial centers. This is where we need to hit them". The U.N. agency also urged shipping and insurance companies not to pay ransom, which Costa contends just encourages pirates to take hostages.

French shipowners delegate general Anne Sophie Avé has issued a plea for coordinated worldwide government action against piracy as a means of heading off the temptation for owners to respond to the violence of the pirates with greater violence. Only states could intervene, she said, through protective and preventive measures at sea, diplomatic and political action ashore, as well as at law through the integration into their national legislation of international legal instruments allowing them to arrest and prosecute the pirates. "For only coordinated and efficient action by states removes the temptation for foreign shipowners to outdo the violence of the attacks by embarking uncontrollable mercenaries whose commercial interest is that the situation should persist", she said. "In a word, we cannot reply to disorder by disorder".

On December 13th, the Indian warship, INS Mysore, interrupted a pirate attack on a merchant ship, tracked the speedboats back to their mother ship, and captured it and 24 pirates (12 Somalis and 12 Yemenis) along with weapons, communications and GPS gear. The incident occurred 250 kilometers east of the Yemeni port of Aden. Since all this happened outside the territorial waters but within the Exclusive Economic Zone of Yemen, India is trying to expedite the captives of both nationalities to Yemen. The Indian Foreign Ministry is working on that, while the captives are still on board of the naval vessel. Since World War II, national and international laws for dealing with pirates (which used to mean trying and executing the pirates on the spot) have been discarded. But nothing similar took the place of those procedures, because it was believed that piracy was no longer a problem. Few nations working with the anti-piracy patrols, have now signed deals with Kenya, which sends pirates captured off the Somali coast, to Kenyan courts for prosecution. Though these deals provide cash to encourage the Kenyans and help to defer the costs of prosecution and incarceration, which would otherwise be a burden for a poor nation like Kenya, the transfers of pirates from the Gulf of Aden or Somali waters to Kenya are seen as unlawful renditions by many human rights organizations and local anti-terror-analysts warn from possible implications for Kenya itself, since such complicit service by Kenya for other nation's interests could trigger retaliations. All countries, which have provided naval forces to the Horn of Africa actually could prosecute obvious pirates at home, but shun the complications and possible repercussions themselves.

Admiral Gumiero, Commander of the NATO counter-piracy Operation Allied Provider off the coast of Somalia, met with his EU counterpart, Commodore Papaioannou, to ensure a smooth transition to EU Operation ATALANTA on 14 December 2008. The meeting was held at sea, on board the NATO flagship ITS Durand de la Penne, where Admiral Gumiero shared his knowledge and perception of the maritime challenges in the region with Commodore Papaioannou. "I believe the information we provided the EU Commander will certainly help him in successfully conducting ATALANTA", said the Admiral after the meeting. Greek frigate Psara, the flagship of European Union anti-piracy operations, arrived today in the former French colony Djibouti, which has agreed to serve as a rear base for the operations, officials said. The ship, whose commander Antonis Papaioannou heads the EU armada for four months, will begin its mission tomorrow, Wednesday, in the waters of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. Papaioannou, who will have at first have a maximum of five ships, three aircraft and four helicopters at his disposal, will meet political leaders in Djibouti and diplomats before his ship sets sail, a European diplomat told AFP. "Djibouti signed an accord with the European Union to be the rear base for the operation", he said. The year-long EU mission will later comprise of 20 warships from Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.

The Commander British Forces South Atlantic, Air Commodore Gordon Moulds, was quick to respond to suggestions in the British press that the Falkland Islands would be left undefended by the decision to divert the frigate HMS Northumberland to a European Union counter- piracy mission off the coast of East Africa. HMS Northumberland, which is armed with guided missiles, torpedoes and a Lynx helicopter, was due to begin patrolling duties in the South Atlantic this month. Its place has been taken by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship Largs Bay. HMS Northumberland is currently deployed as part of a new European Union task force which is escorting ships of the World Food Aid program into Somalia, as well as taking part in more anti-piracy operations. Before joining the EU task force she was involved in a variety of missions in and around the Gulf of Aden before moving North through the entire length of the Red Sea to Eilat in Israel followed by an about turn and a journey all the way back down the Red Sea, through the Gulf of Aden, and down south the Indian Ocean.

End of the Ecoterra Press Release Update

Note
Picture: MV FAINA
From: http://flickr.com/photos/28807394@N05/2898881300/