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Hijacked Supertanker Anchors Off Somalia
Mogadishu Tuesday, 18 November 2008 SMC
JIDDA, Saudi Arabia — A hijacked Saudi-owned supertanker carrying more than $100 million worth of crude oil is believed to have anchored off Somalia and its owners are working toward “the safe and speedy return” of the 25 crew, the owners said Tuesday. A statement from Vela International, a subsidiary of the Saudi Arabia-based oil giant Saudi Aramco, said the company was “awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel” who seized it some 480 miles off the coast of Somalia. Earlier reports said the 1,080-foot Sirius Star had been hijacked off the Kenyan coast. The statement did not say specifically that negotiations with the hijackers had started. The supertanker, about the same length as an American Nimitz class aircraft carrier, is the largest ship known to have been seized by pirates. The statement from Vela International, issued in Dubai, quoted the company’s president and chief executive, Salah B. Ka’aki, as saying the company’s “first and foremost priority is ensuring the safety of the crew. We are in communication with their families and are working toward their safe and speedy return." The crew is composed of 2 British, 2 Polish, 1 Croatian, 1 Saudi and 19 Philippines nationals. “Vela continues to monitor the situation and coordinate with the relevant embassies. At this time, Vela is awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel,” the statement said. Earlier, Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet, stationed in Bahrain said that if the hijacking follows the pattern of previous attacks, the ship would anchor and “negotiations will begin between the pirates and the owners of ship.” Although the supertanker’s exact location near the Somali coast was not clear, in the past most pirates have brought hijacked vessels to a stretch of coastline between Eyl in the north to the Harradera region to the south, Commander Campbell said in a telephone interview. The hijacking follows a string of increasingly brazen attacks by Somali pirates in recent months, but this appeared to be the first time that pirates have seized a loaded oil tanker. Asked about a possible naval intervention, Commander Campbell said: “Once the attack takes place, this is a hostage situation, and there are 25 crew members on board that ship. As with any hostage situation, there has to be concern for those individuals.” Negotiations with pirates have often taken weeks or even months. A Ukrainian vessel hijacked in September, loaded with tanks and other heavy weapons, is still being held at Hobyo on the Somali coast, where the ship’s crew remain captives, Commander Campbell said. According to the International Maritime Bureau, a global clearinghouse for piracy reporting based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, , 88 ships have been attacked in the Gulf of Aden alone this year. And 14 hijacked ships remain in the gulf — the heavily armed hijackers still on board, with the crews, cargo and the vessels themselves being held for ransom. “They’re still at sea and still negotiating,” said Noel Choong, the head of the bureau’s piracy reporting center. As ransom payoffs have risen, he said, pirates have increased their demands. “They know the going rate.” Only a few years ago, the average ransom was in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now payments can range from $500,000 to $2 million. The pirates’ profits are set to reach a record $50 million in 2008, Somali officials say. Shipping firms are usually prepared to pay, because the sums are low compared with the value of the ships. The attack on the Sirius Star took place despite an increased multinational naval presence off the Somali coast, where most of the recent hijackings have taken place. The pirates, often armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, travel in speedboats equipped with satellite phones and GPS equipment. The location of the latest attack, far out to sea, suggested that the pirates may be expanding their range in an effort to avoid the multinational naval patrols now plying the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. “I’m stunned by the range of it,” said Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a news conference in Washington. The ship’s distance from the coast was “the longest distance I’ve seen for any of these incidents,” he said. The vessel was headed for the United States when it was seized, Reuters reported. Maritime experts recently have noticed a new development in the gulf — the pirates’ use of “mother ships,” large oceangoing trawlers carrying fleets of speedboats which are then deployed when a new prize is encountered. “They launch these boats and they’re like wild dogs,” said Mr. Choong in Kuala Lumpur. “They attack the ship from the port, from starboard, from all points, shooting, scaring the captain, firing RPGs and forcing the ship to stop.” There are some countermeasures the merchant ships can use when approaching pirates are spotted. Fire-retardant foam or huge blasts of water can be sprayed from the ship to douse the would-be hijackers. Once pirates get aboard, however, the ship is theirs, because crews on commercial vessels are rarely armed, according to Mr. Choong and other maritime experts. “They are not mentally or physically fit enough to handle weapons,” he said. Nor do many ship owners use armed contractors — seagoing mercenaries — to fight or ward off approaching pirates. Experts said crew safety and insurance liability were overriding concerns of captains and owners. “We do not advocate this, having armed escorts on board,” said Lee Yin Mui, assistant director of research at the Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery Against Ships at Sea. Known as ReCAAP, the 16-nation network is based in Singapore. “Armed escorts could only escalate the situation,” she said, “and perhaps trigger off heavy crossfire.” Robert F. Worth reported from Jidda, Saudi Arabia, Mark McDonald reported from Hong Kong and Alan Cowell contributed from Paris Source: AP Somaliweyn Media Center “SMC”
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