Medeshi
DAY 81 - The FAINA crisis
Monday, December 15
Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over two-and-a-half months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.
Too many rumours surround the saga of the release of the Ukrainian vessel, but hope is indicated that in the coming days the long awaited release will happen.
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
In the mystery surrounding the case of the MT ACTION local reports speak of a suicide of the Georgian chief engineer, which occured 6 days before the release of the ship. Out of desperation that the ship and crew would not be released the man is said to have jumped from the highest point into the engine room, where he died. Thereafter a tug-boat from Mombasa was finally launched to deliver the ransom. The vessel was released on 12th December but due to its engine problems requested a naval escort. It is not known if that escort was provided and since initial reports spoke of 3 crew-members having died, further investigations are underway.
Reports from Riyadh suggest that Secretary-General of the Saudi National Security Council (NSC) Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz is now in charge of following the sea piracy issue and making contacts with the governments and pro-Saudi groups in the Red Sea and Horn of Africa. He is thereby also tasked to sort out the issue concerning the Saudi Aramco’s Sirius Star oil tanker which is held sea-jacked since 16/11/08. The Saudis continue indirect contacts with the pirates to get the oil tanker released as soon as possible.
With the latest captures and releases still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of at least 330 crew members (of which 91 are Filipinos) are held in Somali waters and are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed.
Over 124 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded to far for 2008 with until today 55 factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held 16). 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.
OTHER RELATED NEWS
Somali pirates fired two rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at a cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden before a foreign navy helicopter intervened to foil the attack, according to a Kenyan maritime official. Andrew Mwangura, who heads the Kenyan chapter of the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme, did not identify the targeted vessel but said in a statement that the attack took place on Saturday.
"The pirates fired two rockets and many shots from their automatic weapons," he said. "A coalition helicopter came to assist the ship and the pirates aborted the attempt." The IMB confirmed that a general cargo ship was attacked in the Gulf of Aden at position 13:43 North – 048:17 East, on 13.12.2008 at 11h45 UTC (15h45 local time) in an incident separate from the morning attack that day on MV GIBE and the intervention by the Indian navy, which later in the day saw 24 alleged pirates arrested.
In a statement and proposal welcomed i.a. by ECOTERRA Intl., Mr. Pinto, the former shipping secretary to the Government of India remembers that when the Stolt Valor was first hijacked in September maritime experts pleaded for meaningful intervention by government. This was turned down by mandarins in the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. It is a Japanese-owned vessel, the argument went, registered in Hong Kong and hijacked in Somalian waters. So how does the Indian government come into the picture? The fact that almost the entire crew from the Captain downwards was Indian was conveniently forgotten.
This in spite of the fact that the courageous wife of the Captain was moving heaven and earth to get someone somewhere to intervene in an outrageous situation and to re-establish the principle that Indian lives and interests must be protected wherever and whenever they are threatened. The action of the Indian navy has not come a day too soon but they cannot rest on their laurels, says Mr. Pinto.
The Stolt Valor has been released after an unspecified sums were paid by its Japanese owners but not before the crew went through an ordeal that lasted more than 3 weeks. MV Delight manned largely by Indians has been hijacked and her hapless crew must wait in hope and fear for a similar rescue package. This is no time to debate the morality of taking action against a ship that does not fly the Indian flag.
As the largest supplier of trained officer manpower to the world maritime industry should India agonise about the morality of taking action against a foreign vessel outside our territorial waters or must it send out a strong message that it will defend its nationals whenever they are in peril? To hesitate would not only make bright young Indians seriously reconsider a career at sea but disrupt vital trade routes to and from the country, Mr. Pinto stated.
The only question for Mr. Pinto is whether the Indian navy should act on its own or in concert with some international grouping. There might be some misgivings about joining the largely US-led group of 14 maritime nations based in Djibouti but there are other alternatives. The matter was raised at a meeting of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) but the reaction of both the Europeans as well as the Americans was at best lukewarm.
It is clear that as long as European or American lives are not in danger the seriousness of the situation will not be appreciated at the IMO. In these circumstances what should India do? One alternative would be for the maritime administration to involve the Indian Ocean Rim Memorandum of Understanding which was set up mainly for port state control activities but which can easily extend its mandate to checking piracy.
This grouping consists of countries of the Indian Ocean who are concerned that old, polluting vessels should not be allowed free access to the region. From naming and shaming owners of rust buckets that have long passed their sell-by date to checking a scourge that can seriously affect both international trade and our shipping interests is but a short step. Policy makers must take this step urgently. India’s seafarers no less than India’s vital interests demand nothing less, Mr. Pinto stated.
Meanwhile, Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has largely fallen apart and TFG President Abdullahi Yussuf Ahmed sacked today Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein, saying his government has failed to extend the federal system and security to the nation. Abdullahi Yusuf said he would nominate a replacement for Nur Hassan Hussein within three days.
But Hussein rejected the move saying the president had no power with out the consent of a parliamentary no-confidence vote. Hussein, a former Red Crescent official appointed 13 months ago, has reportedly been at loggerheads with Yusuf over efforts to reach a reconciliation agreement with an Islamist-led opposition. Under the constitution of Somalia's U.N.-backed government, Yusuf needs parliamentary approval for dismissing the prime minister.
After several years of efforts from all sides, and international support the TFG has also lost most (at least 80 percent) of the 15,000 soldiers and police that foreign aid paid to equip and train. The men have gone back to their clans and warlords, taking their uniforms and weapons with them. The ranks of Somalia's army and police have been gutted as most soldiers and police officers have deserted, often taking their weapons and vehicles, according to a new U.N. Security Council report.
The chairman of the council's Monitoring Group on Somalia said on Thursday that this was one of the main sources of weapons and ammunition in Somalia, along with illegal imports from Yemen and purchases of arms for opposition groups with funds from various domestic and foreign financiers. There has been "an 80 percent erosion and attrition in the (interim government's) security sector, by which over 15,000 soldiers and police had deserted or defected along with their arms, uniforms, skills and vehicles in some cases," South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo told the council. A U.N. arms embargo has been in place on the now lawless Horn of Africa country since 1992.
The United Nations has been unable to put together a multinational military force to stabilize Somalia, which diplomats said means the lawless Horn of Africa country might be left to fend for itself.
In a report to the UN Security Council, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had made it clear that the kind of force that would be needed for Somalia was beyond the capabilities of blue helmet peacekeepers, who are typically deployed to monitor an existing peace agreement and not to crush an insurgency. Ban said the initial stabilization force would need around two brigades - roughly 10,000 troops - and would have to be a "highly capable, self-sustaining, expeditionary force with full capability to defend itself against hostile threats." Council diplomats said that UN officials had been lobbying countries to lead or join an international "coalition of the willing."
But so far none is willing to supply troops. They said Ban had hoped to persuade Turkey, a NATO member with a strong military and a predominantly Muslim country like Somalia, to lead the force. But Ankara turned him down. "One country has offered to provide airlifts, logistical support and funding," a diplomat told Reuters. He declined to name the country but others said it was the United States. "No one wants to go to Somalia, it's too risky," he said. For months members of Somalia's transitional government and the African Union have pleaded with the Security Council to authorize a UN peacekeeping force that could take over from AU troops, who say they are incapable of stabilizing Somalia.
The US delegation has circulated to the 15-nation council a draft resolution that would give countries the right to pursue pirates on land as well as at sea. Council members including Indonesia and South Africa said they were not impressed. "They need to deal with the problem of piracy in a holistic manner," Indonesia's UN Ambassador Marty Natalegawa said, adding that he could not support the text in its present form. "Piracy is a symptom of a larger problem."
Brian T. Watson of Swampscott comments: If we think we can ignore a host of rising global crises and discount the roughly 3 billion people in the world who are becoming increasingly victimized by First World behavior and indifference, we are sadly mistaken. Far out to sea, the incongruous sight of five or six, reed-thin, barefoot, tribal Somalis with AK-47s climbing rope ladders to grab shiny luxury yachts and enormous freighters and tankers should shock us into deeper thinking about our world.
A lack of intelligence gathering is hampering efforts to combat the increasing problem of piracy off the coast of Somalia, a top US official warned yesterday. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said only by gathering more information about those responsible for the wave of attacks and hijackings of vessels would coalition forces be able to bring the situation under control. "The need for increasing maritime security has been highlighted by the recent high-profile acts of pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden," he told delegates attending the second day of the Manama Dialogue security conference. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa received US Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs William Joseph Burns on the sidelines of the forum yesterday and reviewed the progress of bilateral relations at all levels. They affirmed the importance of overcoming crises through dialogue.
The Premier stressed the importance of dialogues and forums in achieving security and stability in the world. Mr Gates, in his speech, dwelled on the global effects of terrorism. "As with terrorism, piracy is a problem that has serious international implications and should be of particular concern to any country that depends on the sea for commerce," he said during the conference of 25 states, which has been organised by Bahrain and the UK-based think tank the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) as a forum where delegates in regional security can meet to discuss key issues. Mr Gates warned that US adversaries would be "sorely mistaken" to test Barack Obama's resolve in the Gulf as Iran shunned a regional security conference.
"Anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to 'test' the new administration would be sorely mistaken," he said. "The president-elect and his team, myself included, will be ready to defend the interests of the US, and our friends and allies, the moment he takes office on January 20," he said and added "I bring from President-elect Obama a message of continuity and commitment to our friends and partners in the region". Piracy in the Gulf of Aden will only be defeated by a strong government in Somalia, the commander of the French naval operation in the Indian Ocean said on Sunday. "We will not end this phenomenon unless we have a Somali government that has the means to act on its territory to fight piracy," Vice-Admiral Gerard Valin said on the sidelines of the regional security conference. Valin also hailed the European Union naval mission in the Gulf of Aden.
"It is really a leap forward, since this is the first time that a coalition has been formed with the mission of fighting piracy," he told AFP. Yemeni Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Hassan said at the conference on Sunday that his country was prepared to provide full support within the framework of UN resolutions. Yemen shares the Gulf of Aden with Somalia and no waters outside the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of these two states exist.
The shipping corridor designated by NATO and CTF 150 runs inside the Yemeni EEZ. However Ahmad al-Kibsi, a political science professor at the University of Sanaa who attended the conference, said his country alone, or even aided by its neighbours, would not be able to fight off the pirates. "We need international support," Kibsi said. It also has transpired that large numbers of Yemeni nationals are among the pirates in the Gulf of Aden.
At the Eastern part of Somaliland - in the Northwest of Somalia -, the Minister of Interior from the breakaway Republic of Somaliland said, security forces clashed with pirates and arrested five. In a press conference, the police commissioner said the Somaliland coastal guards attacked a boat carrying a number of pirates at the border between Somaliland and the Somalia region of Puntland. The statement revealed that they arrested five of the pirates, who were planning to carry out piracy activities in Somaliland, with weapons and a boat. The Minister of Interior said the mission was successful and thanked both the Somaliland security forces and the local residents who helped them during the operation. This is the first time that Somaliland directly clashes with pirates from Somalia in its sea.
The NATO engagement, officially called Operation Allied Provider, which began escorts to enable WFP-chartered ships to deliver humanitarian aid ended. Its warships successfully escorted cargo vessels bearing 30,000 tons of aid to the troubled nation but failed to prevent a surge in pirate attacks. "I do believe that the presence of naval units in this area is fundamental to provide security," Italian Admiral Giovanni Gumiero said in a teleconference with AP from the destroyer Durand de la Penne.
Gumiero said deterring pirate attacks has proven very challenging, mainly because it is almost impossible to differentiate between pirate boats and fishing vessels. "They use the same boats, they wear the same clothes, and if you see these guys they look like ordinary fishermen," he said. NATO is considering mounting another naval mission to the Horn of Africa.
Chinese military strategists and international relations experts are debating whether China should dispatch its navy to the troubled waters off Somalia. The debate was first kicked off by Major-General Jin Yinan of the National Defense University, when he stated last week that "nobody should be shocked" if the Chinese government one day decides to send navy ships to deal with the pirates.
The general's views came after two Chinese ships - a fishing vessel and a Hong Kong-flag ship with 25 crew aboard - were seized by Somali pirates in mid November. Jin gave no sign that such a naval mission was under immediate consideration, but he said China's growing influence has made it likely that the government might use its forces in security operations far from home. While the military strategist is urging an active deployment, other scholars think the government should be cautious before a decision is made. The Chinese military vessels should go there "only within the UN framework," said Pang Zhongying, a professor of international relations with Renmin University of China.
India is to station a naval surveillance aircraft in the Gulf of Aden to boost its anti-piracy efforts in the region, a newspaper report on Sunday quoted a military officer as saying. "Our plan is to base a maritime reconnaissance aircraft at Djibouti," the Times of India quoted the unnamed senior naval officer as saying. There was no immediate official confirmation of the report.
Somali pirates have robbed with around 30 mio US $ ransom payments comparatively little in the international crime scene. Investigators say a violent gang of Eastern European jewel thieves with about 200 members in the group — all linked by village and blood — have been scooping up this year jewels worth more than $132 million in bold robberies in Dubai, Switzerland, Japan, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Monaco. Question is why no EU, NATO or US force is launched against this gang. Are they criminals or are they terrorists or even pirates of the high end (not the high seas)?
Now — while there is a unique opportunity for contrast and comparison on the world stage — is the time to vigorously pursue an agreement on a formal international definition of "terrorist" and "terrorism. Likewise the term pirates must be clearly defined, which also must include the other criminals of the high seas, which sea-jack or destroy local fishing vessels and the livelihood of local communities during their illegal fishing operations. The new outline of definitions must brand the dumping of toxic or nuclear waste as crimes against humanity to be dealt with by the ICC while the term genocide causing war-criminals must not just be reserves for those, which are not liked by the global war-mongers.
"Granted, this likely would involve diplomatic give-and-take on the part of the United States (especially concerning the term "enemy combatant"), and the final definitions might not be entirely agreeable to every faction in our political landscape, says Patrick Nolan, but he states that it would also be a unique opportunity to show leadership and initiative on the world stage around an issue that would be beneficial to the interests of most of the international community.
Formal and clear definitions that would put states and non-state actors on one or the other side of international law would formalize our relationship as an international, peace-loving and justice-seeking community with terrorists, war-criminals and international organized crime. Then we also could come to a new and clear understanding for the definition of legitimate freedom fighters per se - and not only when they serve the interests of political or economic blocks elsewhere.
Even bigger hoists are scooped up by the insurance industry today after the premiums for the passage through the Gulf of Aden and Suez Canal were drastically increased. Ship owners are having to pay up to $1.5 million a vessel to insure ships sailing up the coast of Somalia and through the Gulf of Aden. With an average of nearly 20,000 vessels taking that route per year, the earnings of the insurers and their agents are astronomical. And at the end global consumers and taxpayers are paying for all of this white/black/blue- or as far as their Somali counterparts are concerned no-collar crime.
While the world debates about piracy the majority of Eyl residents are furious at the bad reputation that pirates have brought to the village. They accept that pirates have supporters and friends within the community but they feel powerless to do anything against them, the TIMES reported. Abdinur Said, a shopkeeper in Eyl, also complained that the pirates spent most of their money elsewhere, though he admitted that they did make a contribution to the local economy. “During their stay they buy goods, use restaurants and coffee shops,” he said. “But all the stories we hear in the world media that the pirates are treated like heroes and kings are false and untrue.” Most of the pirate leaders and their affiliates within the governance structures are clearly identifiable.
ANOTHER APOCALYPSE NOW ?
WTN 14th December 2008
Still-President Bush will ask the UN to broaden its anti-piracy role in Somalia, in what is likely to be his final foreign policy move in the White House. The White House wants the UN to send peacekeepers to the Horn of Africa to replace the mostly Ethiopian force, rather than deploy an armada of warships to the region. "I expect in the coming weeks we will work within the UN to give the international system better policy tools to more effectively address the problem and its root causes," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
The Bush administration is talking up a plan to take on the Somali pirates threatening cruise ships and other vessels in the Gulf of Aden -- not only at sea, but on land and in Somali air space. The United States is working on a resolution at the UN Security Council to stabilize Somalia that would address the piracy issue, a senior US diplomat said confirmed last week. The U.S. has already circulated a draft United Nations Security Council resolution. International vessels patrolling the Gulf of Aden would be then granted permission to use "any means necessary" to chase the pirates into their hiding places on land. The proposal marks one of the Bush administration's last major foreign policy initiatives, and the Associated Press notes that if the U.S. military gets involved, it would mark a dramatic turnabout in policy.
The US commander tasked with tackling Somali piracy, has already refused the idea of attacking the bandits from land or the air. On Friday, Vice Admiral Bill Gortney, who commands the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet in Bahrain and oversees a coalition of navies fighting piracy off Somalia, also expressed concern about the difficulty in identifying the pirates and said a land or aerial attack could mistakingly target civilians as the pirates are "irregulars -- they don't wear uniforms."
"If you're going to do kinetic strikes into the pirate camps, the positive ID and the collateral damage concerns cannot be overestimated," said Vice Adm. Bill Gortney. The United States lacks the intelligence needed to pursue the fight against pirates on Somali soil, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said then on Saturday. "With the level of information we have at the moment, we're not in a position to do that kind of land-based operation," Gates told a regional security conference in Bahrain. "Our first need is intelligence, (to know) who is behind it." Referring to media reports that "two to three clans or extended families" were behind the pirate attacks on ships off the Somali coast, Gates said: "If we can identify who those clans are then we can operate on land under the auspices of the United Nations and seek out ways to minimize collateral damage."
Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, an expert for maritime security at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the international military response to piracy off the Somali coast lacked coordination.
"Military efforts to combat piracy continue to be fairly ad hoc, and not in terms of any strategic thinking or in terms of any attempted institutionalization," he said as reported by Reuters.
The Security Council could meet to debate this resolution coming Tuesday, a senior official said, speaking off the record. "Everybody is very concerned about the piracy issue, it is obviously a growing problem," said this source. "The international community is very united, but hasn't had the opportunity to speak with one voice on it," said the official. "A lot of countries were involved in trying to stop the piracy, but there had been very uncoordinated efforts so far to deal with this problem." Somalia's TFG government meanwhile is welcoming a call by the United States to have international authorization to hunt Somali pirates on land. Somali government spokesman Abdi Haji Gobdon said that the government will offer any help it can.
"The government cordially welcomes the United Nations to fight pirates inland and (on) the Indian Ocean," said Hussein Mohamed Mohamud, spokesman for Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf. "We're also willing to give them a hand in case they need our assistance," Mohamud told Reuters in the capital Mogadishu. But regional analysts see these statements in the wake of the usual Somali approach: "Welcome with open hands - give us something!"
"We are not happy because the United Nations never implements what they endorse," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, Puntland's assistant fisheries minister, told Reuters in Bosasso. "We urge them to fight the pirates on land and in our waters. We would also like them to empower our security forces so that we can participate in the global war on piracy too."
Chris Floyd comments in the Baltimore Chronicle: The U.S. wants to turn the ravaged land into an international "free fire zone, as . He explains: And now the Bush Regime -- going out in a Götterdämmerung of blood and fury aimed at the world (and at the American people) -- wants to intensify the chaos in Somalia, laying it bare to more invasions, "precision strikes," death squad operations, renditions and other atrocities, this time coming from not just from Washington and its Terror War proxies but from all directions. This is the answer of the American militarist state to any problem, such as piracy or terrorism: the blunderbuss assault of massive military force by land, sea and air; vast destruction, social collapse -- and immeasurable, unbounded human suffering.
World leaders have to deal "properly" with piracy off the Somalian coast, UK Defence Secretary John Hutton said. The problem had to be looked at strategically, with restoring law and order in the region a priority, Mr. Hutton said, but it was "too early" to talk about directly intervening in war-torn Somalia, which he described as a "basket case".
Diplomats who have seen the American draft said it speaks of taking “all necessary measures ashore in Somalia,” including air attacks, to prevent piracy. It also calls for the creation of a central clearing house in the region for information about the pirates and discourages the payment of ransom for captured ships. Opposition came on two grounds. Some diplomats said the Security Council had not done enough to bring stability to Somalia, which they called the root cause of the problem. U. Joy Ogwe, the Nigerian ambassador, said that while African states supported measures to fight piracy, “It is because we are not engaged on the ground that we see so much threat on the seas.” In addition, some opponents said enough concessions had already been made in allowing foreign powers to encroach on Somalia’s territorial waters. However, concerned countries fighting piracy along the 3025 kilometre (1,880-miles) Somali coastline would need to get approval from the Somali government and would have to notify U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon before taking any such action.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will present a draft UN Security Council resolution this week calling for permission to "take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia", but it has already being suggested that Russia, Indonesia and China will prevent the resolution from being carried.
Somalia has seen continuous conflict since 1991 and its weak, Western-backed government is still fighting Islamist insurgents. The U.S. military was involved in Somalia in 1992-1993. That culminated in deadly clashes in Mogadishu that forced the withdrawal of American forces from the country
