From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sat Oct 11 2008 - 06:57:03 EDT
Pirates: West plans to destroy Sudan
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:43:13 GMT
Pirates say the weapons on board the ship are meant to be used against Sudan.
Somali pirates say the weapons aboard the seized Ukrainian ship MV Faina are part of the West's 'secret' plans for 'destroying' Sudan.
Sudan's Christian opposition groups were meant to receive the on-board armament and use it against the Muslim majority and the Omar Al-Bashir administration, a spokesman for the pirates told Press TV.
We have documents proving that the weapons were earmarked for the Christian Sudanese opposition, pirates' spokesman Sugule Ali said, inviting the Arab League and the international news outlets emissaries to verify his claims.
The evidence point to the conclusion that the West seeks a strong foothold in Sudan, Ali said.
On September 25, the MV Faina and its 17 crewmembers were captured off Somalia's coastal region of Puntland where the pirates' presence has complicated naval transportation.
The vessel allegedly holds around 100 pieces of military hardware including tanks, anti-aircraft missiles and automatic weapons.
The West's plans poses threats to Omar Al-Bashir's government, says the pirate spokesman.
The Kenyan port of Mombassa had been chosen as a stopover for the ship en route to Sudan, the pirates' spokesman Ali said. He also warned Kenya against laying any claims to the weapons and accused Nairobi of fueling Sudan's crisis.
The spokesman added despite the international condemnation of their banditry, they would not pose any threats neither to the UN aid convoys to Somalia nor the vessels docking at Somali ports for business.
The pirate called on the concerned nations to task an impartial committee with addressing the stalemate in Somali waters.
Another ship hijacked off Somalia
Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:13:41 GMT
Faina crew member on deck
A Panama-flagged ship carrying cement has been hijacked in the pirate-infested waters between Somalia and Yemen, a Somali official said.
Ali Abdi Aware, foreign minister of the semiautonomous region of Puntland, said, just hours after receiving a USD 1.6m ransom to release a Japanese chemical tanker MT Irene, on Thursday, Somali pirates captured the ship, Wail, carrying cement from Oman through the Red Sea in the Horn of Africa.
The hijacked ship with a crew of 11 - nine Syrians and two Somalis - was hijacked Thursday night between Socotra Island and Bosasso, the booming port in north-eastern Puntland, Reuters quoted Aware as saying.
Piracy is rife in the Horn of Africa waters off Somalia, which has been mired in anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other.
More than two dozen ships have been seized in and around Somalia waters in 2008 and some 200 crew members remain in custody of the brigands. The last vessel seized, Ukraine's MV Faina flagged by Belize is carrying 33 T-72 tanks and armaments en route to Kenya's Port Mombasa and has drawn serious global concern.
A man on the hijacked Faina said last Tuesday that the ransom had been reduced to USD 8m. But the pirates' spokesman said on Thursday that the ransom still stands at USD 20m.
The pirates were originally demanding USD 35m, according to our Press TV correspondent reporting from south Mogadishu on September 29.
Six US warships have surrounded the Faina and are tracking the ship amid fears its weapons might fall into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked insurgents in Somalia. A Russian frigate is also on its way to the locaton and will arrive shortly.
Defense ministers from NATO alliance agreed on Thursday to send seven warships to help combat piracy and protect vessels off Somalia's perilous coast.
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