From: Yemane Natnael (yemane_natnael@yahoo.com)
Date: Sun Oct 26 2008 - 01:13:47 EDT
Somali pirates hold whip hand in standoff
Nick Wadhams, Chronicle Foreign Service
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Kenya - More than a month after Somali pirates seized a Ukrainian cargo
ship carrying 33 battle tanks and crates filled with guns and
ammunition, a delicate dance is under way: Three U.S. warships encircle
the Faina, and no one has any idea when the standoff will end.
The pirates, armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades, are
staring down the globe's most powerful Navy, as they have done for the
last few years with increasing success. This year has seen more than 60
such attacks, on a pace to make this year the worst ever for pirate
attacks in the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes.
"They've proven time and time again that they can do this and get
away with it," said James Wilkes, managing director of London's Gray
Page Limited, a maritime consulting group. "It's quite a
straightforward MO that they've got. They know they can do this,
they're hijacking the ships in daylight hours, and it's probably more
sophisticated in organization than they've been given credit for
before. There are hundreds and hundreds of people involved."
The capture of the Faina, which is now anchored near the Somali
town of Hobyo - has focused the world's attention on pirates who have
made the shipping route that runs past the Somali coast, across the
Gulf of Aden and through the Suez Canal one of the world's most
dangerous.
Most experts agree that the pirates would not have received nearly
as much attention if the Faina had not been carrying weapons. Their
initial ransom demand was $35 million.
"We saw a big ship, so we decided to capture it, and later we
discovered that it was carrying tanks," the pirates' spokesman, Sugule
Ali Omar, said by satellite phone from the deck of the hijacked ship.
"That made us happy because we got a chance to demand more money."
While the gunmen have practically been portrayed as folk heroes by
some regional commentators who seem to delight in the curious notion of
their being in-the-flesh pirates, their stranglehold on Somalia's
waters is driving up the cost of international shipping and cutting off
the flow of relief supplies to the millions of Somalis who rely on food
aid to survive.
Sixteen years of war have made refugees of hundreds of thousands and
forced 2.4 million Somalis to rely on U.N. World Food Program aid each
month. On Oct. 6, 52 nongovernmental organizations said 3.2 million
people -nearly half of Somalia's 7 million inhabitants - need emergency
aid.
The hijackings may also be exposing secrets that the shipping world would rather remain in the shadows.
The Kenyan government said it bought the tanks for its army, while
the U.S. Navy, the pirates and shipping experts said the tanks were
bound for southern Sudan. If Kenya had been acting as a transit point
for the hardware, it would have violated a U.N. arms embargo that
covers Sudan.
Days after the hijacking of the Faina and its 20-man crew, police
in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa arrested Andrew Mwangura, a
well-connected and oft-quoted shipping expert who had been among the
first to say the cargo was meant for Sudan. He was accused of making
"alarming statements" to the press and possessing marijuana - the
latter charge drew derisive laughter from the gallery when announced in
court.
So far, shipping insurers say they have seen no decline in the
number of vessels passing through the Suez Canal, and now offer "kidnap
for ransom" policies to ships passing through the canal. The
Bermuda-based Hiscox Insurance, for example, sells a $15,000 policy for
transit through the Gulf of Aden, and its agents say business is
booming.
The willingness to pay ransoms has only encouraged the Somali
pirates, who readily acknowledge their thirst for hefty sums but also
portray themselves as a de facto Coast Guard for their lawless nation.
Somalia has had no central government since a clan-based rebel groups
ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, and a transitional
government backed by Ethiopia is currently fighting Islamic militants.
The pirates say they are intent on stopping the ruin of its waters
by foreign ships that fish illegally and dump toxic waste off its coast.
"We don't know whether they are going to dump a toxin or collect
marine resources, but we have to capture any ship that passes through
our waters illegally," pirate spokesman Ali said. "In Somalia, there is
no functioning central government that can manage our waters, so we
have appointed ourselves to guard our coast against foreign ships."
Shortly after the hijacking of the Faina on Sept. 25, the United
States, which patrols the region, surrounded the ship with three
warships, desperate to keep the weapons from falling into the hands of
al Qaeda linked Somali Islamic insurgents. Russia sent another ship,
and France is pushing a measure through the U.N. Security Council to
strengthen anti-piracy efforts.
Yet unless order is restored in Somalia, experts and Somali
officials agree it will be impossible to restore order at sea. Since
the Faina has been surrounded by the U.S. Navy, the only new
development has been the pirates' decision to lower the ship's ransom
to $20 million. But Tomex Team, the firm that operates the Faina, said
recently it had only amassed $1 million.
An attack, however, could jeopardize both cargo and crew.
"If you have a gun, you're going to be tempted to use it, and if
you are tempted to use it then the other guy is going to be tempted to
use his, which may result in somebody dying," said Cyrus Mody, a
manager at the International Maritime Bureau. "Secondly, you really
don't want to start a shooting competition on a chemical tanker or gas
tanker. You don't want bullets or RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)
flying around."
Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is worsening. Ninety
percent of the U.N. World Food Program aid arrives by sea, and each
ship must now travel with a military escort to fend off the buccaneers.
Since 2005, the pirates have captured three U.N. ships.
"This being the worst year for piracy off Somalia, we could see the
supply line cut completely," said World Food Program spokesman Peter
Smerdon. "That would mean many people quickly going hungry."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/25/MN6913NSJK.DTL
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