January 2009 – The Somali Piracy Records. VI

The horrible conditions aboard MV FAINA and the dramatic situation of the MVN FAINA crew members’ relatives are plainly presented in the Ecoterra 115th Press Release Update that I herewith publish integrally.

115th Update 2009-01-20 23h45:23 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 and related news.

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

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

Day 118 - 2817 long hours into the MV FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the almost four months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved, though contacts and direct negotiations have now commenced.

Massive efforts by humanitarian sides have over the last days achieved that the decision makers on both sides now are in direct talks, while access possibilities for humanitarian and medical assistance as well as the provision of supplies is worked on.

The parents of Ukrainian sailors held hostage by Somali pirates on a ship carrying a vast horde of weapons have told AFP they want humanitarian groups to help the sailors suffering "horrible" conditions. The parents, all from Ukrainian coastal regions, have set up a campaign centre in an apartment in the country's capital Kiev, thousands of miles from their sons on the Indian Ocean, after months of obeying a government request to avoid the media, reports AFP Moscow. Worried for the safety of their sons on the MV FAINA, which was hijacked on September 25 causing shockwaves due to its load of Soviet-type tanks, the parents imply they want speedy settlement of a ransom demand. "The conditions are horrible.... We are asking international humanitarian organisations to offer help in this situation", said Viktor Shapovalov, whose son Denis is among the captured crew of 17 Ukrainians, two Russians and one Latvian. "Many of the crew members are having stomach problems, many have ulcers.... Some have been bleeding from the mouth", he said, citing press reports based on communications with three senior crew members who have access to radio. "Seventeen people are in a 12-square-metre (130-square-foot) cabin meant for one person", said Shapovalov, who is a merchant marine captain. "There is no place to lie down".

The MV FAINA was seized on September 25, 2008 and has been held longer than any other cargo ship in a recent upsurge in attacks by Somali pirates in the waters off the lawless east African nation. The ship was bound for Kenya and carried 33 Soviet-type T-72 battle tanks along with other weapons and ammunition. While Ukraine and Kenya insist the tanks were bound for Kenya's military, the United States and the pirates themselves have said they were destined for rebels in southern Sudan. Talks on releasing the ship and its crew appeared to be near a breakthrough in late November, but fell through with the pirates reporting delays in a promised ransom payment. Last week the MV FAINA's captain Vladimir Nikolsky told AFP that middlemen had failed and called on the ship's owner, secretive Israeli businessman Vadim Alperin, to engage in direct talks with the pirates. Speaking by satellite telephone from the ship while being observed by the pirates, Nikolsky also said that "half of the crew is ill and the other half of the crew is going to go mad". The parents voiced their frustration at the fruitless negotiations and spoke darkly about their suspicion that their children had been trapped in a shadowy political game because of the ship's controversial cargo. "The ship itself and its cargo do not interest us. This problem should be solved after they free our boys from the ship", said Olga Girzheva, the mother of captured sailor Artyom Girzhev. A literature teacher from a village near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, Girzheva said she was "very worried" about her 21-year-old son. "Give the boys back to us and then figure out what to do. Because it's clear that we have been caught up in big politics. This is clear to everyone, even village teachers", she said.

The MV FAINA has stayed put near the pirate lair of Haradhere while other vessels have been freed for ransom, including the Sirius Star, a Saudi oil supertanker seized by pirates from the same clan as the MV FAINA's hijackers. "When people are willing to pay money their ships are released", said Lyubov Sarancha, the mother of captured sailor Sergei Sarancha. "But for some reason with us in Ukraine, nothing is happening", she added. All the parents said they had long obeyed a Ukrainian government request to avoid interviews because it might disrupt the negotiations, but with talks apparently going nowhere they decided to break their silence. Besides voicing their frustration at the government, the parents complained that the MV FAINA's owners had failed to inform the crew of its danger. "Our children were set up", said Svetlana Mgeladze, an accountant from Odessa and mother of Roland Mgeladze, the ship's 22-year-old steward. Mgeladze said the MV FAINA was first sent to Syria and returned to Ukraine with a cargo of automobiles, and only after it was loaded with weapons in the Ukrainian port of Nikolayev did her son learn he was going to Africa. "Under international practice they should have been warned where they were going and they needed to agree to it. But nobody asked their permission and nobody warned them", she said. Now she can only hope that her son is holding up well after three and a half months in captivity. "When he went to sea he was healthy", Mgeladze said. "Now I don't know".

We only can hope that all people on MV FAINA are informed about the following!

The Italian Ministry of Defence has been prosecuted on 17th December 2008 by a court of law in Florence / Italy and was charged to pay over half a million Euro in damages to a soldier. The amount was defined by the court as compensation to be paid to an Italian soldier, who had been contaminated during Operation IBIS in Somalia with radioactive substances - uranium - and fell sick thereafter. The ruling clearly points out the given direct correlation between the inhaled uranium-dust and the development of a Hodgkin Lymphoma. The scientific background to the ruling, elaborated by a medico-legal expert appointed by the court, has been published together with the ruling (see: www.vittimeuranio.com). The court found it to be a gross-violation, that the precautionary principle was not taken into consideration by the Italian Ministry of Defence. At a daytime temperature of 40 degrees the US soldiers had to wear protective clothing, masks and gloves, while the Italian soldiers were allowed to wear short trousers and tank-shirts during the handling of the ammunition.

Falco Accame, who founded an association to assist soldiers with ailments due to the handling of ammunition with depleted uranium, stated concerning the ruling: Since 1984 the Italian Ministry of Defence had been provided with scientific documents concerning the use of ammunition containing depleted uranium - as most likely also in other NATO countries. During the Gulf War the precautionary principle had not been implemented yet by the United States of America, but already 1993 during the Somalia operations it was standard practice for most armies. It was only in 1999 that this danger had been exposed in Italy publicly by KAFOR troops operating in the Balkan. The failure to implement the precautionary principle in context with the exposure to depleted uranium ammunition in Somalia therefore must be seen as a criminal act, the court ruled.

There is no limit to what a person can do or how far one can go to help - if one doesn't mind who gets the credit!

Though the world attention is focused on Israel and the genocide in Gaza as well as on the Obama inauguration, avoidable human suffering elsewhere can and must not be neglected. Though the so called international community has - at least in terms of people with official functions - developed over the years into a mostly help- and hopeless bunch of hypocrites, the international humanitarian community must step in here and provide for an independent and unbiased, selfless force to solve the stale-mate and end the human suffering on MV FAINA.

The Somali as well as the Ukrainian/Russian/Israeli sides must come to terms now and set the innocent seafarers free with first priority! And in order to avoid the destruction of the vessel and its cargo by anybody as well as the subsequent humanitarian, health and environmental horror-scenario, such can only be achieved together with the release of the ship, where also the body of deceased Capt. Vladimir Kolobkov is still kept.

The MV FAINA is one of at least 49 ships that pirates seized last year off the Horn of Africa during a surge in piracy driven in part by Somalia's growing poverty and instability. The multimillion dollar ransoms are believed by many to be one of the only ways to "make money" in the impoverished nation. But while the many cases of sea-jacked merchant vessels on innocent passage (sailing even outside the EEZ e.g. in the Indian Ocean) constitutes clear piracy, Somali actions against illegal fishing or against any transport of illegitimate or clandestine goods has a legal standing. Ecoterra advocates to end all destructive, detrimental, criminal and illegal activities in Somali waters.

Mr. Vadim Alperin (alias Vadim Oltrena Alperin, aka Vadim Galperin), a businessman from Odessa with an Israeli passport, was named in the Ukrainian parliament as the real owner of the vessel, while Mr. Viktor Murenko is believed to act as the managing proprietor of TOMEX and operator of the vessel from Odessa / Ukraine with Mrs. E. Kopitsyna as executive director.

Ecoterra Intl. demands immediate humanitarian assistance to be allowed, facilitated and dispatched to the vessel, and calls for human rights protection to be provided for all crew members, their families in Russia and Ukraine as well as for all well-meaning people assisting in solving the case, which have been subjected already to serious threats, acts of intimidation and persecution.

Ecoterra Intl. repeats its call to solve the FAINA case now with absolute top priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Humanitarian assistance must be allowed by the captors and facilitated by the owners. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen or those, who believe they would be capable to try an attempt of a military solution, must be held fully responsible for the surely resulting disaster. The saga and secrecy surrounding MV FAINA must not - like in the MS ESTONIA case, which is the worst naval disaster in Europe since WWII - become the shroud for its 20 seafarers.

Clearing-house:

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

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

A skiff with two outboard engines has been stolen today by Somali pirates from Socotra Island, which belongs to Yemen. Only the boat and no hostages were taken. But upon arrival at Alula the pirate group got into a gun fight among themselves with two people being killed and another two being injured.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of 273 crew members accounted for (of which 44 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held) and the mistaken sinking of one vessel by naval forces. For 2009 the account stands at 11 abandoned attacks and 2 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.

Directly related news ----

A top U.N. official says the time has come for Somalia to commit to a real working government and end the ongoing violence in the war-ravaged country. Representatives from Somalia's Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia are in Djibouti to discuss the potential formation of a unity government. Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, U.N. secretary-general special representative, Tuesday called on leaders involved in the talks to commit to peace and stability, the United Nations reported. "This is a key moment for Somalia, and it is extremely important to get it right, after almost two decades of violence", Ould-Abdallah said in a statement. "The committee members are working responsibly to ensure there is a fair process which should lead to the election of a new head of state", Ould-Abdallah said. After years of internal violence, Somalia has gained recent international attention from a surge in pirate attacks off the coast of the country. Critics have argued that the lack of a functioning government for more than two decades is the root cause, echoing the call from Ould-Abdallah to ensure the Djibouti talks are successful.

In Nairobi a further candidate for the presidential elections presented himself: Musa Mualim Yusuf from Galkayo, who is a successful entrepreneur in Uganda. In his speech in front of Somali dignitaries and many Somalis living in Kenya the outspoken Pan-Africanist presented the creation of peace and security as top points on his 12 point program and called for the creation of a peace and reconciliation commission.

A spokesman for the Russian navy said Monday a Pacific Fleet destroyer is escorting three commercial vessels off the coast of Somalia. Naval Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said the Russian destroyer was protecting the ships in the Gulf of Arden as part of its attempt to fight piracy in the troubled maritime region, RIA Novosti reported. "The Admiral Vinogradov destroyer is currently escorting a convoy comprising Russian ship Nadezhda, bulk freighter Trust Fortuna of Singapore and cargo vessel Radonezh sailing under a Liberian flag," Dygalo said. The warship had earlier escorted the MV KARAGOL, a Turkish freighter with unclear cargo to Salalah / Oman and into safe waters. RIA Novosti said the Vinogradov replaced the Neustrashimy missile frigate from Russia's Baltic Fleet in the regional escort efforts.

End of the Ecoterra 115th Press Release Update