January 2009 – The Somali Piracy Records. VIII – Who’s The Responsible?

The extreme prolongation of the different negotiations undertaken between the pirates’ representatives and various interlocutors ends up with the attempt to correctly attribute the responsibility for the inability to resolve the phenomenal case of piracy. It’s easy to accuse the ship owner whose interests have been obviously jeopardized; yet, the ship owner bears minimal responsibility, compared with the Ukrainian government.

For a moment, it seemed as if all the observers and commentators forgot that there is an independent country named Ukraine, and that MV FAINA is a ship manned mostly by Ukrainians. The drama of the MV FAINA crew, who have been held captives for more than 3000 hours, is a major Ukrainian problem that should have been solved long before taking its current dimensions.

The total responsibility for the prolongation of the Ukrainian Drama falls on Ukraine’s incompetent, indifferent and irrelevant prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who did not show the slightest concern for her compatriots’ drama and exposure to grave danger. Kiev’s comical and kitsch Cleopatra proved to be an irresponsible figure able only to damage Ukraine’s national interests and confine her unfortunate compatriots, who have been held captives off the Somali coast, to unsolicited adventure and undeserved drama.

The Ukrainian president should consider to what extent the prolongation of such a government is compatible with Ukraine’s national interests, and undertake all political and legal measures needed against Ukraine’s Folle de Chaillot.

I herewith publish the Ecoterra 117th Press Release Update that sheds light on all related issues.

117th Update - 2009-01-22 - 23h10:23 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
EA Illegal Fishing and Dumping Hot line: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed)

Day 120 - 2865 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.

The Russian Interfax news agency reported today that a ransom for the crew of the Ukrainian ship FAINA held by Somali pirates has been agreed, Viktor Murenko, a spokesman for the ship's owner, told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday. The amount of any ransom is restricted by a special UN Security Council resolution but these restrictions were overcome thanks to Ukraine's representatives at the UN Security Council and due to the unprecedented situation around the FAINA, he said. According to the spokesman, at 9 p.m. yesterday the ransom was raised to the level demanded by the pirates. He refused to give any figures but repeated that the ransom had already been agreed and the hostages were to be released shortly. The FAINA is owned by Vadim Alperin, a citizen of Israel, Interfax stated.

The information that the UN Security Council ever had deliberated on levels of ransoms with respect to classification of such cases was news to several questioned diplomats, who liked not to be quoted publicly but questioned the interpretation provided by the spokesman of the owner.

However, reports from local sources in Somalia did also not confirm what was reported by the Russian media based on the owner's statements, that an agreement had been reached, though they also reported that direct communications had commenced. However, it could not be established independently if food, water and fuel supplies really had been delivered and would be sufficient now as claimed by the ship owners and the Ukrainian Foreign Minister. All reports from the ground and different sources claim the contrary and state that food, drinking water and fuel has run out again, while the captors have openly stated that they have no possibilities any more to re-supply from own sources and therefore would welcome humanitarian interventions incl. medical assistance, which also was requested by the parents of the sailors.

Parents of FAINA sailors bring a legal case against Yushchenko, states MIGnews.com.ua. Parents of the sailors who had been captured on board FAINA ship, intend to bring a case against the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for inactivity in the crew's release. The Ukrainian Helsinki Union member of the board Vladimir Chemeris reported at a press conference. "Parents will take a legal recourse anyway", he said. This case is in the jurisdiction of administrative courts, Ukrayinski novyny cites him as saying. If the recourse is ineffective, parents will go to the European court, he added. According to the father of one of the crewmen Viktor Shapovalov who attended the press conference, currently parents have been collecting signatures to go to the court.

Today the Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, who finally had achieved that the Russian gas will flow again westwards, has registered in the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, a bill "A Draft law on making alterations to the 15th article of the Law of Ukraine "On the legal regime of martial law".

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!

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 to avert 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.

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 Malaysian naval vessel has arrived near MASINDRA 7, the abducted tugboat with attached barge, local observers reported and hope was expressed that the 11 Indonesian crew of the Malaysian tug will be released together with the boat and towed barge soon.

The crew members of a Chinese merchant vessel that fought off pirates in Somali waters last month sailed into their home port of Shanghai yesterday and prepared for a heroes' welcome. Each of the Zhenhua 4's 30 crewmen will receive US$10,000 for their bravery in an award ceremony today organized by Zhenhua Port Machinery Corp, which owns the ship.

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 ------

Yemen has granted political asylum to former Somali president Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who resigned in late December after a row with his prime minister, a Yemeni presidency source said on Wednesday. "The president of Yemen granted Somalia's president the right of political asylum last night", the source told AFP. The ex-head of state has been given a permanent home in Yemen, which faces Somalia on the other side of the horn of Africa. Yusuf stepped down on December 29 after having tried and failed to sack Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein. The former president's bid to push Hussein out of his job was thwarted when parliament backed the prime minister with a massive vote of confidence. Yusuf clashed with Hussein over their approach to the opposition. During his time as president, Yusuf had poor relations with the opposition, who accused him of obstructing the peace process. Conflict in Somalia and power struggles that erupted since 1991 have hampered successive initiatives to restore any semblance of order to the country, where the government is facing a military campaign by Islamist fighter.

Ethiopia's withdrawal, resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and increased political dialogue among warring factions are a clear signal that the bloodshed that has wrecked Somalia for decades is coming to an end, the Uganda government said on Thursday. Crispus Kiyonga, Minister of Defense, flanked by Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, Chief of Defense Forces of Uganda People's Defense Force told a defense committee of parliament here that since these events occurred, the level of violence in the Horn of African country has gone down. Somali leaders are gathering in Djibouti to increase the number of members of parliament from 270 to 550 who will then elect a new president after President Yusuf resigned following intense internal and external pressures. Religious and traditional leaders who have themselves been divided are now uniting and have called against further bloodshed.

Somali political leaders are headed to neighbouring Djibouti for a presidential election to be held within the next few days. U.N. special envoy to Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah says Djibouti would be the election site, though the date has not been finalized. A Somali journalist tells VOA the envoy has dispatched planes to Somalia to pick up members of parliament and fly them to Djibouti for the vote. Somalia has been without a president for about a month, since Abdullahi Yusuf resigned in a power struggle with Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein.

The World Food Programme has halted its food shipments to Somalia in a high-stakes attempt to press local warlords to rein in violence that has killed two of its employees this month, FT reports. Peter Goossens, Somalia country director of the United Nations agency, said the WFP would distribute the food left in its Somali warehouses but he warned that it would run out by early March if it was not replenished by fresh shipments. He said the WFP would only reopen its "pipeline" – a reference to the sea and land routes through which it ships food from the Kenyan port of Mombassa – when it had received security guarantees from local administrations, warlords and armed militias that control the areas where it operates. What the naval vessels from several nations, who only were sent to escort WFP shipments, will do in the meantime is unknown.

Impacting news from the global village -----

Ms. Hillary Clinton, who was confirmed on Wednesday as United States Secretary of State, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week during her confirmation hearing, that the foreign policy objectives of the Obama administration in Africa are rooted in security, political, economic and humanitarian interests. Ms. Clinton said the Obama administration’s foreign policy objectives for Africa also include "combating al-Qaeda’s efforts to seek safe havens in failed states in the Horn of Africa; helping African nations to conserve their natural resources and reap fair benefits from them; stopping war in Congo; and ending autocracy in Zimbabwe and human devastation in Darfur". "We must work hard with our African friends to reach the Millennium Development Goals in health, education and economic opportunities", she added. "The Obama administration recognizes that even when we cannot fully agree with some governments, we share a bond of humanity with their people. By investing in that common humanity, we advance our common security", Ms. Clinton told the committee. Ms. Clinton underscored the importance of US involvement in the continued global fight against HIV/AIDS and hailed former president George Bush’s efforts through his Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Clinton also emphasized that the Darfur crisis will be one of the top priorities of the Obama administration. "There is a great need for us to sound the alarm again about Darfur. It is a terrible humanitarian crisis, compounded by a corrupt and very cruel regime in Khartoum, and it’s important that the world knows that we intend to address this in the most effective way possible once we have completed our review, and that we intend to bring along as many people as we can to fulfill the mission of the UN/AU force, which is not yet up to speed and fully deployed". Ms. Clinton condemned the chaotic situation in Somalia, Zimbabwe and DR Congo, calling the three nations "breeding grounds not only for the worst abuses of human beings, from mass murder to rape to indifference toward disease and other terrible calamities, but they are also invitations to terrorists to find refuge amidst the chaos", she added.

Statement From 16 Retired Admirals And Generals, Who Have Been Working Through Human Rights First, On Meeting Today With President Obama To Discuss Executive Orders Banning Torture And Closing Guantanamo
see: http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/media/usls/2009/alert/388/

End of the Ecoterra 117th Press Release Update