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Hostage crew in breakout bid as EU mulls daunting task

Mogadishu Wednesday, 10 December 2008 SMC

MOGADISHU— Crewmen aboard a hijacked Ukrainian ship fought their Somali captors in a desperate escape bid as the commander of the EU's fledgling naval operation called on Tuesday for more ships and air support.

Rear Admiral Phillip Jones said the EU was pressing African, European and East Asian allies for contributions that could double the size of his tiny armada of six ships, tasked with patrolling thousands of square miles of sea.

"Geography is not on our side," Jones admitted, a day after his EUNAVFOR mission, dubbed Atalanta, was launched to tackle rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

"We could have a force of hundreds and hundreds of ships and still have gaps in our patrol area."

Meanwhile, Somalia's pirates, who have rattled world trade by preying on one of the planet's busiest maritime routes, hold the upper hand, prepared to bide their time to get the ransom demanded of the owners of more than a dozen ships held near the coast.

They reacted angrily Tuesday to a blatant escape attempt by some of the Ukrainian crew aboard the captured arms transporter, the MV Faina.

Two of the pirates were jumped by crew members but eventually overpowered, a spokesman told AFP by telephone from the ship, captured on September 25.

"Some crew members on the Ukrainian ship are misbehaving. They tried to harm two of our gunmen late Monday," said the pirate, who declined to give his name.

"Maybe some of the crew are frustrated and we are feeling the same but our boys never opted for violence, this was a provocation," he said, adding that the crewmen involved risked "serious" punishment.

A Greek-owned ship captured by pirates 11 weeks ago was released Tuesday and was making its way to Italy, a maritime official said.

"The MV Capt Stephanos has been released," said Andrew Mwangura, who heads the Kenyan chapter of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.

The Greek freighter was seized on September 21 and its mostly Filipino crew of 19 are safe, Mwangura said.

However, the pirates continue to hold around 15 ships and some 300 crew. Among them is the Sirius Star, a 330-metre fully-laden tanker owned by the shipping arm of oil giant Saudi Aramco for which pirates are demanding 25 million dollars in ransom.

The pirates operating along the east Africa coast and Gulf of Aden are a rag-tag army of an estimated 1,200 former fishermen and coast guards. Sea-jacking is one of the only flourishing businesses in a lawless country ravaged by conflict and starvation.

However as pirates get more ambitious -- amid reports of two cruise liners being attacked in the last week, albeit unsuccessfully -- world leaders and experts gathering in Nairobi on Wednesday for a two-day conference will explore various ways of combating piracy.

The Faina is carrying 33 battle tanks, as well as ammunition and other weaponry and was the pirates' highest-profile catch until the Saudi-owned supertanker carrying two billion barrels of crude was seized on November 15.

The pirate would not say whether the incident could adversely affect ongoing negotiations for the MV Faina's release.

The pirates had lowered their ransom demand to 3.5 million dollars and told AFP late last month that an agreement had already been reached for the ship's release.

In recent days, some sources have reported frustration among the pirates over delays in the ransom payment.

More than 120 attacks by Somali pirates have been reported this year alone in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean but all the hijackings have so far been resolved peacefully through the payment of ransoms.

Atalanta's task will be to prevent the heavily armed pirates from adding to that number, as its ships escort aid deliveries to war-torn Somalia and other merchant vessels heading to the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.

"The rules of engagement are very robust, with the possibility of using all means including force to protect, to deter and to prosecute all acts of piracy," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters in Brussels.

Even as Atalanta readied to patrol the Gulf of Aden, the pirates appeared to be shifting the goalposts on the EU armada by attacking ships further south along the African coast, according to the International Maritime Bureau.

A Dutch-operated container ship, the Maersk Regensburg, was set ablaze during an unsuccessful attack by pirates using rocket-propelled grenades off the coast of Tanzania on Sunday. Though damaged, the ship managed to continue.

Source (AFP)

Somaliweyn Media Center “SMC”
 
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Somaliweyn Media Center (SMC)
Muqdisho Somalia

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