From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Oct 02 2008 - 09:40:26 EDT
Somali rebels threaten to burn MV Faina
02 Oct 2008
Somali
rebels have threatened they will urge pirates holding a Ukrainian ship
carrying military hardware to burn the cargo and the vessel.
The pirates have insisted on being paid USD 20 million to release
the cargo and the 21 crew members of the MV Faina's which is blockaded
by US warships and other navies off Somalia's Indian Ocean coast.
"If they do not get the money they are demanding, we call on them
to either burn down the ship and its arms or sink it," Sheikh Mukhtar
Robow, a spokesman for the al-Shabaab movement, said on Thursday.
The spokesman, however, denied any link to the pirates who seized
the Belize-flagged freighter last week as it was bound for Mombasa in
Kenya.
"It is a crime to take commercial ships,” stressed Robow whose
al-Shabaab group almost uprooted piracy when it gained control of
southern Somalia last year.
He, however, stressed the Ukrainian vessel was an exception as it
was carrying arms for 'the enemy', claiming the 33 Soviet-era T72
battle tanks and other military hardware on the ship belonged to
Ethiopian forces, backing the embattled Somali government which hardly
has control beyond Mogadishu.
The remarks follow earlier claims by the pirates that the arms were
destined for Sudan. The MV Faina's Ukrainian owners and the Kenyan
government, however, said the tanks were being shipped to Kenya.
Despite a vow by the US Navy to prevent the pirates from looting
the arms, Robow said his movement would not mind getting hold of them
to boost its campaign against the army and foreign military forces in
Somalia.
"The Ukrainian ship is loaded with military hardware that is very
important …and it would have changed the war in Somalia if that
military shipment falls in our hands," he said.
Somali pirates, base in the autonomous state of Puntland in the
north, are said to number more than 1,000, mostly former coastguards,
who storm foreign vessels and take their crew hostage in return for
considerable ransoms.
A new report released by London-based think tank Chatham House
estimates the total ransom payments for 2008 to range between 18-30
million dollars.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=71119§ionid=351020501
----[This List to be used for Eritrea Related News Only]----