NEWS | Wednesday, 19 November 2008

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Seized tanker anchors off Somalia

Pirates have anchored a hijacked Saudi oil tanker off the Somali coast, as the spate of hijackings gathered pace with two more ships seized on Tuesday.
Vela International said all 25 crew on the Sirius Star – the biggest tanker ever hijacked – were said to be safe.
The vessel is carrying a cargo of 2m barrels – a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output – worth more than $100m.
A cargo ship and a fishing vessel were the latest to join more than 90 vessels being held by the pirates in the area.
A Hong Kong cargo vessel was attacked in the early morning in the Gulf of Aden, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said. Chinese media said the ship, with a crew of 25, was carrying wheat intended for Iran.
The other vessel, a fishing boat registered in Kiribati, was carrying a crew of 12, the IMB said. Its owners lost contact with it on Tuesday morning.
The Sirius Star was seized on Saturday off the Kenyan coast in what the US Navy called an “unprecedented” attack.
A statement issued by Vela said the company believed the ship had anchored, adding: “At this time, Vela is awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel.”
The US Navy confirmed the ship had anchored off the Somali coast near the town of Harardhere.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister condemned the hijacking as “an outrageous act”. Prince Saud Al–Faisal said the international community needed to fight piracy.
Speaking during a visit to Athens, he compared piracy to terrorism describing it is “a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together”.
The prince gave no indication of what action, if any, Saudi Arabia intended to take over the hijacking.
Nato said it had no plans to divert any of its three warships from the Gulf of Aden. And the US Navy’s 5th Fleet also said it did not expect to send ships to try to intercept the oil tanker.
Poland’s foreign ministry confirmed on Tuesday that the ship’s captain is one of two Poles on board the vessel. “The other is a technical officer,” said spokesman Piotr Paszkowski.
Somalis on shore spoke of their surprise at seeing the huge vessel pass just off the coast.
“I headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles (5km) off the shore,” said fisherman Abdinur Haji.
“I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one,” he said.
Vela International said a response team had been mobilised to work towards ensuring the safe release of vessel and crew.
Vela said the crew consisted of two British, two Polish, one Croatian, one Saudi and 19 Philippine nationals.
The hijacking – 450 nautical miles (830km) off the Kenyan coast – was highly unusual in terms of the size of the ship, says BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.
The seizure points to the inability of a multi–national naval task force sent to the region earlier this year to stop Somali piracy, he says.
US Navy Adm Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the pirates involved were well trained.
“Once they get to a point where they can board, it becomes very difficult to get them off, because, clearly, now they hold hostages,” he told a Pentagon briefing in Washington.
Commander Jane Campbell, of the US Navy’s 5th Fleet, said it had warned shipping companies that the US naval presence could “not be everywhere”, adding: “For that reason we have strongly encouraged proactive self–protection measures for the companies.”
Hijackings off the coast of East Africa and the Gulf of Aden – an area of more than 1m sq miles – make up one–third of all global piracy incidents this year, according the International Maritime Bureau (IMB).
They are usually resolved peacefully through negotiations for ransom but, given the value of the cargo in this instance, a military response has not been ruled out, our correspondent says.
Fourteen vessels – including the Ukrainian freighter MV Faina carrying 33 tanks and other military hardware, which was seized in September – remain captive in Somalia and under negotiation with around 268 crew being held hostage, according to the IMB.
The group’s Piracy Reporting Centre said it had records of 92 attacks against vessels so far this year, including 36 successful hijackings.
This month alone, pirates have seized a Japanese cargo ship off Somalia, a Chinese fishing boat off Kenya and a Turkish ship transporting chemicals off Yemen.
War–torn Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 and the anarchy on land has spread to the high seas in recent years.
The route around the Cape of Good Hope is a main thoroughfare for fully–laden supertankers from the Gulf.

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