DAY 79 - The FAINA crisis
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The European Union this week launched its first naval mission - Operation Atalanta - with significant French and Spanish participation and its ships joining ...
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DAY 79 - The FAINA crisis
Sunday, December 14, 2008 08:08:38 PM
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.
The Ukrainian ship Faina, captured by Somali pirates in September, may be released in the next two weeks according to a Russian website devoted to maritime issues, which recently spoke of two days for the release. "An agreement has basically been reached, there are just some details that have to be ironed out," said the Sovfracht Maritime Bulletin, adding that it expected the ship and its crew to be freed in "the next two weeks or so." Reports that the negotiations between the negotiators for the owner and the captor had stalled for the last 5 days could not be confirmed in either way.
Russia's anti-terror units are prepared for operations against the Somali pirates. This is what Feliks Makiyevskiy, former first deputy commander of the Vympel USSR KGB special unit, stated. "Our special forces, naval infantry units and a special commando team have already joined the operations against the pirates and are now based on the patrol ship Neustrashimy guarding merchant ships off the coast of Somalia" Makiyevski said.
The crews of some merchant vessels were bolstered by so called "ship-riders" and in these cases by men of Russia's special forces. Igor Dygalo, aide to the Navy commander in chief, confirmed that his AT team from the Neustrashimy was put on the ship Sachi Maara, and one further team followed by helicopter.
This special reinforcement seems to come more than timely. Disturbing news had been reported from London by Lloyds, the biggest insurance fund and premier underwriter of maritime transportation. According to its information from Lloyds of London, Al-Qa'idah terrorist has formed its own flotilla of 20 ships and stationed them in small harbours and island shelters in the area of the Horn of Africa and among the numerous islands of the Indonesian archipelago.
Rapid-fire automatic guns and man-portable air-defence missile systems have been installed on the vessels. In terms of combat employment they are subdivided into assault boats and kamikaze ships: fast patrol craft capable of carrying up to three tons of explosives. Many experts observe that Al-Qa'idah terrorists could perfectly well borrow the tactics of the modern-day freebooters from Somalia, disguising their ships as a pirate fleet.
Aleksey Bolshov, colonel of Russia's FSB reserve and former high-level officer of the USSR KGB Anti-Terrorism Department, said that an increase in the number of Russian special units in the area of the Horn of Africa could be expected in the immediate future. "In Soviet times we already had quite a wealth of experience of the freeing of hostages on land, at sea, and on hijacked airplanes, as when it came to protecting merchant vessels also," he said.
The colonel himself took part in such operations repeatedly, for which he was highly decorated. Bolshov also considers timely the idea of the formation of an international warning centre in Somalia. A high-level officer of Russia's intelligence services made such a proposal recently. This centre would collect information and notify ships' captains of the operational situation in the waters of the Indian Ocean adjacent to the coast of Africa - though the permission of the Somali Government is needed for this.
Soviet seamen in former decades successfully combated sea pirates operating in the Red Sea area. In May 1990 the minesweeper Razvedchik off the shores of Ethiopia successfully fought off an attack by ships of Eritrean separatists on the cargo ship MV International.
In this same area the patrol craft AK-213 fought for 24 hours an unequal engagement with four fast patrol boats operated by the separatists, sinking three of them.
"But the fight against piracy only with the Navy will be ineffective unless the Somali authorities permit special forces to 'operate' on their territory. For all the pirates' bases are on the coast. And special forces, which would conduct operations on land, destroying the pirates' vessels also, would be required for their elimination. They could be both put ashore and air-dropped. This was the case in Indonesia's Aceh Province, which was a local pirate base: special forces practically destroyed the entire pirate fleet and supply depots. Now things are relatively quiet in the Strait of Malacca."
The colonel emphasized that it would be necessary to operate not only against the mostly illiterate bandits in Somalia but their supervisors. According to Western sources' information, there are among the pirate-networks high-class military personnel and experienced sailors and also mercenaries from various parts of the world, Europe included.
The French special forces' detachment - Commando Hubert - so far is operating as the most successful commando in this area. It conducted its first operation on the Somali coast this April, securing the freedom of 30 hostages held by pirates against a ransom payment.
The French did not seek any permission from the local authorities here: they were afraid of leaks of information. After the peaceful release French commando on board a naval helicopter shot up an alleged flight vehicle of the pirates, arrested 6 people and reportedly found some of the ransom money. The six men were taken to Paris for trial with the permission of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia.
Then in September Commando Hubert, using the Russian built, U.S.-abandoned base at Berbera in the northwestern region of the Somaliland republic, liberated a private yacht together with its hostage sailor-couple that had been seized by pirates - paying no ransom, but killing one pirate and arresting six others, which subsequently also were deported to France. Aside from the French special forces, their counterparts from Denmark, Australia, Germany, Spain, and India are operating also in the area and one platoon of American Seals, at a minimum, is in permanent readiness. But they have not yet once been "in action".
Captain 1st Rank Oleg Gurinov reportedly met now with Vice Admiral Gerard Vallen, the French Navy commander in the Indian Ocean, to coordinate joint operations in the fight against pirates in that area around the Horn of Africa.
ECOTERRA Intl. renewed it's call to solve the FAINA and the SIRIUS STAR cases with first priority and peaceful in order to avert a human and environmental disasters at the Somali coast. Anybody encouraging hot-headed and concerning such difficult situations inexperienced and untrained gunmen to try an attempt of a military solution must be held responsible for the surely resulting disaster.
CLEARINGHOUSE: NEWS FROM OTHER ABDUCTED SHIPS
Linked to its country, Turkey has three merchant vessels which were recently sea-jacked by Somali pirates and are held off the coast off Somalia. The negotiations concerning MV YASA NESLIHAN and MT KARAGOL seem, however, not to go smoothly. A third is MT ACTION, which is flying a Panama flag and has a Panama registered owner, but while reported to have Greek ownership seems to be linked to Turkey too.
According to observers at the Anti-Piracy conference in Narobi, Turkey is on the brink of sending in its warships, patrolling the area already, in order to end the stand-off militarily, if a peaceful solution is not found within a short time. "Turkey is ready to make sacrifices, as we have done in the past", a Turkish diplomat warned the pirates, who certainly also had their ears at this conference.
The chemical / oil products tanker MT ACTION with a gross tonnage of 5,280 to and flying Panama flag, which was hi-jacked on 10th October, was apparently released today, but developed engine problems and some of the seamen of the 20 men crew died after the release, local sources reported.
The 1983 built vessel has as registered owner and is operated by LOBAN SHIPPING CORP of Panama, but is said to be Turkish-owned. The release has not yet been officially confirmed.
With the latest captures and releases still at least 17 foreign vessels with a total of at least 350 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which are observed off the coast of Somalia, have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 123 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 53 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 17).
Several other vessels with unclear fate (not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail. In the last four years, 22 missing ships have been traced back with different names, flags and superstructures.
UN / KENYA CONFERENCE ON PIRACY
Piracy "poses an enormous challenge to the international legal system", UN humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, Mark Bowden, said already at Wednesday's opening of the conference.
The UN-backed international conference on piracy entered its second day in Nairobi on Thursday with participants decrying surge in piracy and calling on the world to curb the menace along the coast of Somalia. UN Special envoy for Somalia Ahmedou Ould Abdallah appealed to the international community to help stabilize the war-torn nation, saying piracy is a result of an almost nonfunctioning government in Somalia.
The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Somalia told the over 140 participants attending the meeting that the threat of piracy cannot and should not be underestimated any more, noting that addressing the vice requires identifying and targeting the perpetrators and their associates. "Countries that can do so, should trace, track and freeze the assets of the backers of pirates. They deserve to be brought to justice and prevented from harming their country, its economy and reputation. Impunity and lack for human rights have no doubt encouraged piracy," said the envoy and expressed concern that the unprecedented rise in piracy was threatening the freedom and safety of maritime trade routes, affecting not only Somalia region but also a large percentage of world trade.
He said the UN Security Council has adopted significant resolutions on the issue which calls upon states and regional organizations to take part actively in the fight against piracy and armed robbery at seas off the coast of Somalia.
In the keynote speech to the conference read on his behalf by Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka during the official opening of the ministerial session of the International Conference on Piracy off the Somali Coast in Nairobi, President Mwai Kibaki on Thursday called on political leaders in Somalia to play a more active role in ensuring that peace and stability are restored in the country.
The President' statement said while the United Nations and the international community were committed to Somali's reconciliation efforts, it was up to the politicians in the country to put the interests of their people before those of their own. "If the major powers paid one-tenth of their responsibility to Somalia, compared to the 100 per cent paid to Iraq, Afghanistan or the former Yugoslavia ... we wouldn't be here today," Vice-President Musyoko read from Kinbaki's statement.
Piracy in Somali has its roots in the early 1990s, when illegal fishing trawlers and ships dumping toxic waste took advantage of the collapse of the regime of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 to target Somali waters. Fishermen began seizing the foreign ships, saying they were defending their coastline. Now piracy in Somalia has morphed into a multimillion-dollar industry, with gunmen commanding huge ransoms for the ships they seize.
President Kibaki' statement elaborated that continued lawlessness and insecurity in the country, which in turn had led to piracy in the territorial waters, disrupting trade and other humanitarian activities in the region, as well as raising the cost of commodities. The head of state described the criminal activities in the territorial waters off Somalia and the Gulf of Aden as grave and worrying, adding that they needed the concerted efforts of the international community to eradicate.
"The audacious attacks, increasing numbers of attempted hijackings, the range of operations and the capacity demonstrated by the pirates is very worrying", he said, adding the crime had hindered the safe delivery of humanitarian assistance to millions of desperate people.
The President appealed to the UN to deploy peacekeeping troops to bolster the efforts of the AU mission in Somalia. At the same time the statement reaffirmed that Kenya did not approve the payment of ransoms to the pirates. "The ransoms paid perpetuate the crime thereby exacerbating the fragile security situation. Ransoms undermine our regional and international efforts to bring peace to Somalia," he pointed out.
He said the country has taken several measures towards complementing international efforts in combating piracy citing the signing of pacts and initiation of various legislations. "As part of these efforts, my government has established the National Counter Terrorism Unit' he added. The President commended various international players for their continued support to the anti-piracy efforts.
Over 140 delegates from 45 countries - including ministers, ambassadors and technical experts - had gathered in the Kenyan capital to look at how to increase cooperation in fighting Somali pirates, in particular the thorny legal aspects of the issue.
A communique issued at the end of the two-day gathering in Nairobi, Kenya, stressed "the importance of enhancing coordination and cooperation in the fight against piracy." Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, in a statement read out at the start of the conference, called for UN peacekeepers to be deployed to help an undermanned and overwhelmed African Union force. "Somalia has been abandoned by the whole world," the statement said. "It is high time (the world) examines its conscience and comes to rescue Somalia now."
India pointed out that Somali pirates were a threat to Indian ships and seafarers in the Gulf of Eden. Though no ship carrying the Indian flag had been hijacked, several Indian seafarers were affected in many of the hijackings. The problem could not be tackled by individual countries. Hence the Indian government was pressing the United Nations for a unified command so that the navies of different countries could make a joint effort to snuff out sea piracy.
While all speakers stressed the importance of solving Somalia's problems ashore, some participants said there was little evidence the world was ready to stabilise the country. "We are not seeing major changes... and everybody is failing to acknowledge the resentment that these naval missions are creating on the ground," said one diplomat, according to AFP.
The European Union this week launched its first naval mission - Operation Atalanta - with significant French and Spanish participation and its ships joining an existing US-led coalition, but experts argue the area is too large to cover for a few dozen naval vessels with diverse interests. Several participants pointed out that the cost of the EU naval force - estimated at 250 million euros (320 million dollars) - was four or five times the EU's annual aid budget for Somalia.
In addition, the head of East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, Mr. Andrew Mwangura said the clampdown was unlikely to work until the "root cause" of the problem -- the poverty of chaotic Somalia, which has had no effective government since 1991 -- was addressed.
"The young men are poor," he said. "The real pirates are the sharks outside of Somalia, and these are the ones that take big money." While naval efforts to contain the problem are useful, more should be done on land to ease the problems, he said. "The presence is good, but we should do something diplomatically, politically," Mwangura said. "Talk to the people, the common people."
France and Spain, who are the most interested in the tuna-rich Indian ocean fisheries, had earlier called for the creation of an international maritime police force and were seeking an endorsement from the UN and the European Union, but many felt that this would be like making the goat the gardener. An earlier workshop in November on Piracy off the Somali Coast, commissioned by the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN to Somalia, found:
The number of foreign boats fishing illegally off the coast of southern Somalia is reported to be still increasing and includes fishing boats with the following flags: Belize (either French or Spanish-owned purse-seiners operating under flag of convenience to avoid EU regulations); France (purse seiners targeting tuna); Honduras (EU purse seiners targeting tuna operating under flag of convenience); Kenya (Mombasa-based trawlers); Korea (longliners targeting swordfish seasonally); Pakistan (trawlers, but also targeting shark); Saudi Arabia (trawlers); Spain (purse seiners targeting tuna); Taiwan (longliners targeting swordfish seasonally); and Yemen (trawlers).
What the UN-expert group - for whatever reason - did not yet list is China with longliners and Japan with tuna-hunting fleets consisting of factory-ships and sophisticated tuna-hunter-vessels equipped with satellite technology to follow the shoals.
Former colonial powers Britain, France and Italy as well as Greece, Germany, and Turkey, the United States, India, Malaysia as well as Russia have naval ships patrolling the waters off Somalia, founding their legality of operations on the UN Security Council resolutions, but they have miserably failed to arrest a single illegally fishing foreign vessel.
Now under consideration, to complement international mobilisation to patrol the high seas and regional cooperation among the states affected, is again the idea to create proper coastguard schools to train young Somali men considering becoming fishermen and not to leave such to individual private companies or locally governed (illegal) fishing-licence-scams, whose later abandoned guards became hostage takers.
Mr. Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenyan branch of the East African Seafarers' Association, who participated in the conference, already had called during a press-conference on Tuesday for dialogue with the pirates and local communities to address their grievances. While delegates at the conference said that the insecurity in Somalia had to be addressed, calls for dialogue with the young gunmen were at first rejected. "These other things like illegal fishing and toxic dumping need to be addressed, but it is no excuse for the behaviour of these gangsters," German Ambassador to Kenya Walter Lindner told Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
What the German Ambassador still and many at the conference first seem to not have understood is that the ending of the persistent criminal activities in Somali waters like illegal fishing by foreign fleets and dumping, which likewise are organized but in many cases at least not investigated crimes committed especially from European and Far-East countries, is a prerequisite to end crime and injustice in Somalia - and to first and foremost make it also clear to the Somalis as a whole and the world that the international assistance-operations against piracy in Somalia come with their own hands being clean and with the honest intend to make Somalia a better place for its people and not just to provide for a training field of naval forces and commandos.
Though curbing illegal fishing by foreign fleets and bringing a lasting end to illegal dumping practices surely is not the tool to stop the true masterminds and syndicates of internationally organized crime which have the young pirate-gangs in their grip, to just leave Somalia' underlying problems unattended and not to take serious steps to uproot the true culprits will only have piracy to continue.
That the issues are more complex, the members of the German delegation could at least also learn from the fact that the conference's legal workshop, which was led by a German representative, remained the only working group of the conference, which could not provide the ministerial level session with a single draft resolution for solutions to the existing legal tussles to be deliberated and concluded.
The most important conclusions approved by the ministerial session deriving from the other three expert meetings therefore are:
* To secure coastal waters for the recovery of the Somali fishing community/industry.
* Support Somalia to establish an effective police and coastguard to provide adequate law enforcement capacity to deal with piracy, human trafficking, illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste.
* Establish a task force of UN/international community/Somali representation to identify and investigate the issues at the local community level including local complaints with regard to economic, security concerns and the illegal exploitation of Somali maritime resources including human and arms trafficking, toxic waste dumping and illegal fishing.
Most Governments understood during the meeting that of course the sole and brute military force alone is not the solution and will only solve the problem temporarily, if at all. It is not enough what is presently in the international anti-piracy folder.and only to take an interactive look at modern piracy and the defences that ships use to avoid attacks is unsatisfactory. Cracking down on piracy and crime is indeed a must, however logic demands that the thousands of unemployed and aimless youth in the Horn of Africa be offered a way out of their misery.
What is needed is a mini-Marshall plan to help develop the region and to offer Somalis a viable alternative to joining marauding gangs of criminals, be they on land or at sea.
"The Somali interim government lacks control capabilities for the struggle against piracy due to the ongoing civil war. Therefore, we appeal to all countries, private companies and civil society to cooperate. Specifically, we appeal to Russia to give technical assistance in the struggle with piracy, poaching and arms smuggling," one diplomat said.
"The restoration of the coast guard fleet is being given priority, as Somalia has no warship now," he said. "We hope Russia will assign additional warships not only for the struggle with piracy, but also within the scope of military-technical co-operation with Somalia and other countries in the region," he said. "However, any deployment of an international mission to control pirates should be based on UN Security Council resolutions," he said. The text stipulates that Somalia's transitional government would need to give its consent. It was, however, not clear what form that Somali consent would take in the present political turmoil in the country.
In a joint communiqué issued at the end of the two-day meeting, the 145 delegates from 45 countries, including ministers and ambassadors admitted that piracy cannot be effectively tackled in Somalia without the return of peace, stability and a functioning government. "Somali leaders who impede the stabilization of their country creating conditions to breed and escalate piracy will be individually and collectively placed under sanctions by the African Union and IGAD and also in accordance to U.N. Security Council resolution 1844 (2008)," they said.
The meeting highlighted the importance of strengthening the capacity of Somali national as well as regional authorities in combating the menace, both to interdict pirates at sea, and to take effective legal action against pirates once returned to shore. Providing a broader agreement between coalition countries and coastal nations such as Kenya, Tanzania, Djibouti and Yemen is one of the main proposals on the agenda at the Nairobi conference.
The international community is looking already at the upcoming Djibouti conference in January next year to make some headway in tackling the rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Somalia under IMO guidance, with the hope of forming a UN-led anti-piracy naval force. The Arab League of nations are also likely to meet in January over their concern to a disruption of important oil-trading routes due to piracy.
Prior to the conference Kenyan security forces had arrested numerous Somalis, among them officials of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia (TFG) in an operation they carried out in the neighbourhood of populous Eastleigh, Nairobi.
Eastleigh is a residential area mostly populated by Somalis, who also own many businesses there. Plain-clothes police officers combed the area during the night of 9th/10th December and carried out security operations in most hotels in Eastleigh, where they arrested many people.
the Kenyan security forces were demanding to see the papers of those arrested, and those found to be with valid identification were released while the rest were taken to police headquarters in Nairobi. Also some officials of the TFG were arrested and later released upon producing valid papers allowing them to stay in the country.
Nur Shiribow, the deputy police commissioner of the TFG, was among the TFG officials whose hotel was raided by the Kenyan police, and at first arrested. Only later and upon producing a valid documentation, he was released. The official figures of those arrested in the swoop are not yet known. Increasingly, Kenyan security officials carry out such operations in residential areas and hotels at night. Most of those arrested in these swoops are released by paying a bribe was reported by the Somali website mareeg.com.
Kenya and Britain agreed Thursday to hand over any suspected pirates captured on the high seas, removing a key legal obstacle to prosecuting suspects in a growing menace off Somalia's lawless coast, a British diplomat said Thursday at the U.N.-organized anti-piracy conference. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the arrest, transfer and prosecution of Somali pirates detained by British naval vessels lifts Britain out of a legal limbo, since the UK already had handed over suspects earlier.
"This MoU is very important," said Britain's under-secretary of state for security and counter-terrorism, Lord West of Spithead, on the sidelines of an international conference on combating Somali maritime piracy, having signed the MoU for Britain together Foreign Minister Moses Wetang'ula for Kenya. "Kenya is a step ahead of the rest in doing this," the retired admiral told reporters. The deal will provide legal support for Britain to hand over to its former colony Kenya suspected pirates whom its naval fleet may detain during operations in the Gulf of Aden or Indian Ocean.
On November 18, the British navy already had handed over eight suspected pirates captured a week earlier during an incident at sea near Yemen. They are now facing trial in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. The UK demanded assurances that pirates’ legal and human rights would be respected in Kenya and that they would not be subjected to the death penalty. Kenya has agreed to accept, and prosecute, pirates arrested off the coast of Somalia.
The pirates will be tried under Kenyan law, but foreign countries will provide money to help pay for the proceedings. Under the terms of the MoU, the suspects are to receive a fair trial and not be subject to torture, as required by the European Convention on Human Rights, to which Britain is a signatory, the British Foreign & Commonwealth office stated. Talks are under way for a wider treaty covering all pirates seized by British vessels, the FCO confirmed.
The deal was also made possible because Kenya is a signatory of the IMO's Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against the Safety of Maritime Navigation. The convention requires signatories to prosecute those alleged to have committed 'unlawful acts against ships'. Suspects previously captured have been in legal limbo because Somalia has no effective legal system, often leading to suspected pirates being released without charge. The relevant UN body, the International Maritime Organization, has prepared already for another meeting in Djibouti to seal other such agreements.
The pending trail against the alleged pirates brought by the UK to Mombasa has been put off until January. Resident magistrate Lilian Mtende denied the eight bail on Thursday and said more time was needed to study their case, which will next be heard on January 14. But their lawyer, Jared Magolo, told CNN that his clients were fishermen and that Yemen, rather than Kenya, should have jurisdiction over them. Since they were caught off the coast of Yemen, he said they would challenge the jurisdiction of Kenyan courts.
Attorney Magolo stated the prisoners, kept in Kenya's infamous Shimo la Tewa maximum security prison, which is under investigations for prisoner-killings and other human-rights abuses by prison-warders, were being mistreated and argued unsuccessfully that proceedings should go ahead. The eight Somalis were led off a prison bus in a double line, handcuffed to each other in pairs. They were still dressed in blue coveralls and red sandals, they had been given by the British navy.
The men were captured by a British frigate in the Gulf of Aden in November and brought to Kenya for trial. If convicted, the men face a maximum sentence of life in prison. "It is very important that we prove that this all happened in international waters," state prosecutor Monda said.
But Andrew Mwangura, the head of the Kenya Seafarers Association, said the men should have been handed over to Yemeni authorities. "You apply the laws of the nationality of that ship and the area that the ship was when the incident happens," he said. Senior State Counselor Vincent Monda conceded that now the prosecution first needs to bring in witnesses from the British navy, Yemeni victims and seamen from the Danish cargo ship MV Powerful, which the suspects are charged with trying to commandeer. He said the need to line up international witnesses and the complexity of the case required more time for preparation.
While the journalists were focussing on the alleged pirates at Mombasa law courts, that same day the case at the same location concerning whistleblower and head of East-African Seafarers Assistance Program, Mr. Andrew Mwangura, who had been misused by certain media to expose the long-known but still mysterious Ukrainian weapons deal involving the arms on FV Faina, was postponed again.
While during the previous hearing the Government chemist's statement for the presumed framed-up and alleged finding of 3 US$ worth of marijuana joints with the accused was not ready, this time the police officer required as witness of the prosecution to take the witness stand was mysteriously absent and could not be summoned by the court. Resident magistrate Catherine postponed the case to 4th February in what is seen as an indirect gagging order imposed by different means on the human and seafarer's rights defender.
OTHER RELATED NEWS
Last week, Somaliland Foreign Minister Abdillahi Duale used an interview with Reuters to offer the international community the use of ports along Somaliland’s 900 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Aden for anti-piracy patrols such as European Union joint naval mission, which took up station earlier this week in Djibouti, due to the recent insecurity in Somaliland, which had to suffer from simultaneous bombings.
The attackers, whom analysts believe to have been sent by the al-Shabaab faction led by Mukhtar Robow and Ahmad Abdi Godane, were apparently acting on the basis of a fatwa issued two years ago by Hassan Dahir ‘Aweys, the nominal leader of hardliners among the Islamist insurgents and chairman of the erstwhile Islamic Courts Union’s shura, which authorized the “killing of the Jewish and American collaborators in the northern regions,” according to sources close to Somaliland.
The German Federal Government and German tour operators quarrel over the protection of German tourists against pirate attacks on cruise ships off the Somali coast. Defence Minister Franz Josef Jung - CDU (Christian Democratic Union) called cruises in the area irresponsible.
Tour operators, on the other hand, demanded that cruise ships get military escort in the danger zone off Somalia. The FDP (Free Democratic Party of Germany) and the Association of Reservists (of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) stressed that the costs for the operation must not be paid from the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) budget alone.
The Bundeswehr Association (soldiers' trade union) demanded that the German soldiers taking part in the anti-piracy mission get the same danger bonus as their comrades in Afghanistan. The cabinet on Wednesday (10 December) resolved the anti-piracy mission of the Bundeswehr.
The Bundestag (lower chamber of the German Parliament) is to decide on it on 19 December. According to the will of the government, the Bundeswehr is to provide up to 1,400 soldiers and one frigate for the EU operation "Atalanta." Jung said the Federal Government had issued a "clear warning" for the region, in particular also for tourist cruises. There were clear priorities. Ships of the World Food Programme would have precedence over ships in humanitarian missions and EU ships, and then other ships would be protected.
Moreover, it would be wise if German ship owners sailed under German flag and with German crew. FDP defence expert Rainer Stinner said the Bundeswehr mandate was not going far enough. The Defence Ministry's rules of engagement for the operating forces should be as broad as possible and allow the Navy to use military force.
"Escorting food aid ships is not enough," Stinner said. He called for tougher action against pirates. Not only their speedboats, but also their mother ships should be seized or destroyed. Moreover, the additional costs of up to 1.9 million euros in the current budget and up to 43.1 million euros in the coming year must not be paid from the defence budget alone, he said. Ernst-Reinhard Beck, head of the Reservist Association, said: "The defence budget is just about sufficient to cover the usual expenses. Additional expenditures cannot be paid from this budget."
The financing of safe sea routes, and hence, trade routes, was a classic responsibility of the police supported with military means. "Hence, it is a task of national interest that should be paid from the overall federal budget," the CDU deputy stressed. cover from so-called ‘vessel protection detachments’ would only be extended where a vessel’s owner and flag state wanted this to happen. “Vessel protection detachments have a variety of things that they can do to combat piracy.
It doesn’t start with force, there are tactics and things they can advise masters to do to avoid being attacked,” a EUNAVOR spokesman stated. “How we go about this, what we decide is vulnerable shipping and whether or not shipowners want us to help them in that way is a matter for discussion... We are not sticking a whole load of armed guards on every vessel that goes through [the Gulf of Aden].” Military forces will be from across EU Navfor, and will not charge for their services, he added.
The government of Tanzania has denied reports that Somali pirates have attacked several ships off the coast of Dar es Salaam, explaining that all attacks were made in the high seas, far from Tanzanian waters. A statement issued yesterday by the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) said that all reported incidents were more than 360 nautical miles from the coast of Tanzania, which is beyond Tanzania Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
“TPDF would like to assure the public that all our borders are safe and security has been tightened,” said the statement. Under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, EEZ is a sea zone which extends 200 nautical miles from a coast of any coastal state, over which a the state has special rights concerning the exploration and use of its marine resources. Reports were published last Sunday saying that Somali pirates armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked a Dutch-operated container ship off the coast of Tanzania but failed to hijack the vessel.
However, the TPDF says that the attack on a bulk carrier called Maersk Regensburg occurred at the east of the country, about 480 nautical miles off Dar es Salaam coast, some 450 nautical miles from Kisimayo, Somalia and 210 nautical miles from the Seychelles. The statement further explained that other two attacks that were carried out in November were done on MV Kaanitonnilov, 360 nautical miles from Dar es Salaam, while the other was carried on a Saudi Arabia tanker, some 405 nautical miles from the Tanzania coast.
Japan's parliament on Friday extended for a year a naval refuelling mission in support of U.S.-led military operations in Afghanistan, relieving government fears it could be forced to suspend the mission which may have hurt ties with Washington, REUTERS reports. The extension of the mission providing free fuel to U.S. and allied ships patrolling the Indian Ocean comes as Japan prepares to withdraw its air force from an Iraq mission this month, ending its military support for the United States there.
Many politicians and the mojority of the informed public believe that Japan's military involvement actually is a breach of Japan's U.S.-drafted post-World War Two constitution strictly limits its military activities abroad, requiring a new law to be passed in each case. It seems that Japan like Germany is persistently wrestled into this kind of war involvement by the still present Bush government.
The oil marketers in Kenya rebutted fears of a looming fuel shortage in the country over the increased hijack of cargo ships by Somali pirates in Indian Ocean. Earlier Kenol Kobil had issued a statement to the effect that the country’s fuel situation was likely to be affected by the delay of ship in transit occasioned by the hijackings in the Indian Ocean. These allegations and fears are unfounded and Somali piracy should not be used as a cover-up to the mischivious ways most oil marketers still operate in Kenya, consumer-rights-group stated. The Kenya government therefore rightfully is placing now directives curbing the unjustifiable high fuel prices in the country, which damaged the economy throughout most of 2008.
Russia, Iran and Qatar took their first serious steps toward forming an OPEC-style cartel for natural gas on Tuesday, a prospect that has unnerved energy-importing nations in Europe as well as the United States. (www.ecoterra-international.org)
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