Waiting for the Neustrashimy, off the Somali Coast at Hobyo – Ecoterra 27th Update

As Neustrashimy (Unchallengeable), a missile frigate from Russia's Baltic Fleet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neustrashimy_class_frigate ), is passing through the Suez Canal, and relatives of the Ukrainian in its majority crew held hostage are ready to pay a certain amount of money as ransom, Ecoterra released the 27th update of their press release to shed more light on all the related facts.

In this article, I publish the Ecoterra update, whereas separately, in another article, I focus on the Yemenite sources, reports, analyses and viewpoints on the MV FAINA piracy crisis. With the President of the Russian Senate in Yemen and with the alarming declarations of Yemenite officials, the Yemenite connection takes a different allure.

Day 27 - 625 h into the FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

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.

27th update 2008-10-21 15:35:26 UTC

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

Cut out the clutter - focus on facts !

Despite increased negotiation efforts, the stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is still not yet solved, but intensive negotiations have continued and both sides are striving to finalize the safe release of crew and vessel. Relatives of the mostly-Ukrainian crew held hostage aboard the ship are preparing to pay a ransom demanded by pirates, a crew spokeswoman told the Ukrainian Fakty newspaper on Tuesday. Nina Karpecheva, a Ukrainian government official, was in Kenya and in regular contact with pirate negotiators as well as with diplomats on the scene, the newspaper reported.

A missile frigate from Russia's Baltic Fleet is passing through the Suez Canal today en route to the coast of Somalia in order to join an international naval group fighting sea piracy in the region, a senior Russian Navy official said. "The task of the destroyer Neustrashimy (Unchallengeable) is to escort and protect Russian vessels or ships with Russian crew-members on board from pirate attacks," Russian Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo said according to RIA Novosti. Other maritime sources, however, claimed the Russian warship had already arrived in Somali waters. The Russian deployment has raised media speculation that Moscow, which has dealt harshly with hostage-takers in the past, could use force to free the crew of the MV FAINA. Russia's central command, however, had earlier ruled out a direct military engagement with the situation concerning the weapon-laden ship pinned down at the Somali coast by several US and EU navy ships plus a submarine in the area, which regularly is also spotted further South near Mogadishu harbour.

The commander of a NATO task force on its way to tackle piracy off the coast of Somalia has said he still does not know what the rules are for taking on the high-seas bandits. U.S. Admiral Mark Fitzgerald said while he was aware of where the pirates were operating, there was little he could do militarily to stop them and that guidelines on how to take them on -- including whether to shoot -- were still in the works. "You know, I don't think we've gotten the rules of engagement yet from NATO," Fitzgerald told reporters on Monday during a briefing on U.S. naval operations in Europe and Africa.

Top Sudanese government officials will not attend an Inter-Government Authority on Development meeting slated for Kenya next week in what is seen as an escalation of the controversy on the hijacked Ukrainian ship with weapons.

Other news ----

Alert: A severe cyclonic storm has hit the very Horn of Africa and crushed near Ras Hafun over 70 small fishing boats thereby destroying the livelihoods of two Somali fishing communities. A returning assessment team speaks of disastrous destruction. A deep depression centred south of Socotra has caused a massive cyclon with serious impact on the Somali coast for which no forewarning was given.

As India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh leaves for Tokyo today, families of the MT STOLT VALOR crew are hoping the Prime Minister will take up the issue of the hijacked ship with the Japanese leaders. Seema Goyal, wife of Captain Prabhat Goyal, captain of hijacked ship appealed to the Prime Minister on Monday to seek Japan's help in resolving the MT STOLT VALOR hijacking crisis. "My request to Mr Prime Minister is – Sir, please pick up the issue and try to get it sorted out through the Japanese government, because the Chinese real owners of the ship are Japanese citizens." and she added: "My request is please get the negotiations expedited so that the crew can return home at the earliest possible." Indian maritime unions on Tuesday warned that their members would refuse to sail in pirate-infested waters unless the government takes action over the fate of their colleagues on the hijacked ship.

The Japanese owners of MT STOLT VALOR, however, seem to engage now in a disinformation campaign, speaking of the vessel as having 20 tonnes of fresh water on board, while this is tank-water - used usually not directly for drinking but for all other needs from laundry to wiping the floors. This is not real drinking water and the families had earlier complained that the crew had to drink that tank-water and developed diarrhea. Actually that tank water can be filtered on modern ships to achieve drinking water quality, but if the ship is not running also the filtration stops and it was reported that even these 20,000 litres are exhausted by the up to 60 people being on MT STOLT VALOR in the moment. A humanitarian group delivered safe drinking water and food and stated that another delivery is under way today. 'No threat has been made against the crew and no deadline issued,' is another statement from the owners, thereby contradicting the wife of the captain Seema Goyal, who had spoken to the crew directly. Observers fear that disinformation tactics, which usually are employed by pirates to press for ransom, are now used by ship owners in collaboration with some media for their own tasks. The ones suffering from all this are the crew and their families, who reacted with outrage to the statement of MT STOLT VALOR’s owner, which postulated that it could take another month for the release of the chemical tanker with an 18-member Indian crew.

It seems that propaganda plays an ever increasing role. As of today actually three Indian Dhows (smaller cargo vessels) transporting rice and sugar from India to Somalia were not in contact with their base. The piracy monitoring centre presumed that at least one dhow with 13 sailors might have been hi-jacked around Ras Hafun, while the home offices hope that the break-down in radio communication might still be attributed to bad weather over the Indian Ocean. Efforts to get confirmation on the whereabouts of these vessels from Somalia have so far resulted in confirmed information that there was a clash between two different militias over one such vessel bound for Bosasso. While CNN based on AP quote Ali Abdi Aware, the foreign minister of Somalia's semiautonomous region of Puntland, saying that Somali gunmen acting as freelance coast guards freed a hijacked Indian dhow and its 13 crew members after a battle with pirates off the country's northern coast, whereby allegedly four of the pirates were captured during the shootout while another four escaped and none of the dhow's crew was wounded, observers in Puntland wonder where the 4 escapees went to on the open ocean. Due to a similar controversial hi-jacking and "rescue" case involving the Somali and Panama flagged vessel Wael-H just two weeks ago, where 10 people were arrested by the Puntland authorities and now charged as "pirates", a large scale demonstration was held in Garowe with several injuries and serious damage, which claimed that the allegations against the people arrested as pirates were all fabrications by the Puntland governance, which would like to show itself thereby as eligible for counter-terrorism-funding. The situation in Puntland is often controversial due to the upcoming elections and local frictions. Also former minister Hassan Abshir is set to contest for the Puntland presidential elections and to return to Garowe from Dubai and this has already led to tensions between faction of the region.

Following the Djibouti agreement in June and after realisation that the conflict in Somalia is now taking unpredictable forms, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD), has summoned the entire Transitional Federal Government (TFG) parliament to Nairobi to explore the possibility of the antagonists in Somalia working together after 18 years of anarchy. The three-day meeting, set to kick off on October 26, will discuss issues like the rampant piracy in Somali waters, outside interference in Somalia, Somali refugee imprisoned in Tanzania and the continuing attacks on Somali nationals in South Africa. It is evident that most participants would not be averse to a power sharing deal. Prof. Dalha noted that conflict is no longer between TFG and the UIC, but between those who want to restore law and order in Somalia and those who are against any system of government since they are benefiting from the chaos by engaging in illegal trade, kidnapping and illegal taxes.

Vice Admiral Gerard Valin, commander of the French Forces in the Maritime Zone of the Indian Ocean has held talks with Yemeni officials at the Interior Ministry and discussed with them security cooperation aspects particularly between French Forces and Yemeni coastguards. Recently, the coastguards and some of the French navy based in the international waters in the Indian Ocean conducted some joint exercises. The exercises included trainings on how Yemeni coastguards can intercept ships and fight pirates.

Indonesia's navy chief of staff, Fleet Admiral Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno, today starts an official visit to Russia to discuss bilateral military-technical cooperation and to seal new weapons deals.

Note
Picture: Neustrashimy (Unchallengeable), a missile frigate from Russia's Baltic Fleet