Weekly Pirate Activity Update - 7 Oct

Marie Dedieu (Phot: Somalia Report/NATION)

“We have brought Marie Dedieu here to Kismayo by truck three days ago," the spokesman of the pirate group holding the hostage said by phone.Marie Dedieu, 66, was kidnapped from her home in Manda Bay, Lamu in Kenya last week and spirited across the border into Somalia.

Despite suffering from a string of ailments including cancer, heart problems, and the need for a wheelchair which the gunmen left behind in Kenya, the pirate claims her health is fine.

"Her health situation is alright, and we hope she'll rest because we are not taking her to another position," he added.

Authorities in Kenya say they have arrested a security guard in connection with the kidnapping of the disabled Frenchwoman, Marie Dedieu by gunmen from Somalia.

The Frenchwoman was taken Saturday from her home near the resort town of Lamu by militants from Somalia. Kenyan authorities gave chase but the government said the militants escaped into Somalia with the woman.

A top police official on the Kenyan coast, Ambrose Munyasia, said Sunday that Mzee Aboudi had been arrested. He is the security guard who first called for aid after a group of 10 armed men attacked the Frenchwoman's house – Time.com.

Pirates in Court

The high court of Sahil region in Bebera, of the breakaway state of Somaliland, has sentenced five Somali men to five years in prison each for committing acts of piracy including hijacking ships and commercial boats.

Convicted Pirates (Photo: Somalia Report)

According to the chairman of Sahil High court, Osman Sutan Inrahim, the suspects were caught by Russian anti piracy troops and delivered to the Somaliland security forces on July 10, 2011.

“When we realized those men were involved with piracy operations, hijacking ships, commercial boats and taking several ransom, the court sentenced them five years in prison each,” the judge said, adding that they can appeal the sentence over the next 30 days.

The convicted men are Mohamud Aden Hersi, Abdifatah Cali Dahir, Mohamed Omar Mohamed, Hussein Mohamed Said, Mohamud Salad Ismail, Jama Mohamed Farah and Abdirisak Abdulahi Shire.

According to the residents, fear gripped the city after an unidentified group scattered warning letters on the streets last night, threatening to carry out revenge against Berbera's administration.

“The papers said they will targeted all government offices and the public places,” Layla Hirre, a local journalist told Somalia Report.

On June 6, the Sahil High court sentenced five Somali pirates to eight years to prison.

A US court sentenced two more Somali pirates to life in prison on Monday over the hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa in February that left four Americans on board dead AFP.

"A life sentence sends a strong message to anyone who chooses to engage in piracy against US interests that they will face severe consequences," US attorney Neil MacBride said after the sentencing in Norfolk, Virginia.

Muhidin Salad Omar, 30, and Mahdi Jama Mohamed, estimated to be 23 or 24, became the third and fourth Somali pirates to be sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty over the fatal hijacking in May.

Jean and Scott Adam, Christian missionaries from California, were sailing their Quest yacht around the world and planned to visit sites from India to Crete when they were hijacked by 19 men off the coast of Oman.

Omar, who skippered the pirate skiff, and Mohamed both admitted to taking part in the hijacking but said they did not personally shoot or instruct anyone to shoot the hostages.

US officials pledged the case would serve as a lesson for Somalia's pirates, who have created a virtual industry based on hijackings and ransom payments in the strategic waters next to their lawless homeland.

"Today's sentencings should serve as yet another example, in the litany that already exists, of what happens to those who pirate our ships and participate in the killing of Americans," said Assistant FBI Director-in-Charge Janice Fedarcyk.

The first life sentences in the case were handed down on August 22 to Ali Abdi Mohamed, 30, and Burhan Abdirahman Yusuf, 31.

Seven more of the pirates have pleaded guilty to charges of piracy and are awaiting mandatory life sentences.

Three others, aged between 20 and 29 years old, face the death penalty and are being prosecuted separately on allegations that include murder.

The Director of Public Prosecution has appealed against a ruling that Kenyan courts have no jurisdiction to try piracy cases. Through special prosecutor Patrick Kiage, DPP Keriako Tobiko is seeking a declaration from the Court of Appeal that Kenya has the power to try and prosecute suspected pirates.

Mr Kiage said Kenyan courts derive their jurisdiction from international law, which declares piracy an international crime – Daily Nation.

“Under international law, suspected pirates can be charged in any country where they are captured,” Mr Kiage said.

In November last year, Mombasa High Court judge Justice Mohammed Ibrahim stopped the prosecution of nine suspected Somali pirates on grounds that Kenyan courts do not have the powers to deal with matters which take place outside Kenyan territorial waters.

Justice Azangalala ruled that Kenyan courts had the power to try piracy cases and upheld the conviction of Somalis sentenced by a lower court to seven years in jail.

The nine suspected pirates were brought to court in Nairobi from Mombasa’s Shimo la Tewa prison under tight security. They could not speak English or Kiswahili and communicated through a Somali interpreter.

They are Mohamud Mohammed, Mohammed Ali, Mohammed Dogol, Abdi, Wahid, Abdulahi Omar, Abdiraman Mohammed, Khadir Mohamed, Abdirizak Hassan and Mohammed Ishmael.

They were arrested in March 2009 by American and German forces in the Indian Ocean off the Coast of Aden and charged with piracy in a Mombasa court.

It was alleged that on March 3, 2009 the nine, armed with three AK47 rifles, three pistols and portable rocket launchers, attacked Mv Courier, threatening the lives of the crew.

Mr Justice Ibrahim had released them unconditionally and ordered that they be repatriated to Somalia, but rescinded the decision after the State appealed.

Release (not) by Pirates

A Russian vessel and its crew detained by the Yemeni coastguard were to have been released by Wednesday evening, said a spokesman for Russia’s embassy in Yemen, Aidar Taigunov, reports RIA Novosti.

On Monday, the Yemeni coastguard detained a Russian vessel in Yemeni territorial waters in the Red Sea and convoyed it to a port in Hodeidah province. The coastguard said 19 weapons of various kinds were found on board the Russian vessel.

“As a result of the embassy's prompt actions in contacting the Yemeni authorities, and after clarifying why the vessel was in the Gulf of Aden and explaining that it protected Russian trading ships passing through the Red Sea against Somali pirates, we were told that the vessel and its crew will be released by this [Weds] evening”, said the spokesman.

Pirate Activity – West Africa

Pirates in West Africa followed the lead of East African pirates for the same reason Google and Amazon are mimicking the daily deal format that Groupon and LivingSocial originated. When a business model is profitable, people copy it, says Palisades Hudson.

Of course, the two sides of the continent have unique problems, and individuals in each region have taken up piracy for a complex assortment of reasons. In East Africa, the political black hole of Somalia has left many of the country’s 9.1 million people with no opportunity to earn a living through legitimate work. West African countries like Benin and Ghana are paragons of stability compared to Somalia. In those countries, however, recent oil discoveries have suddenly introduced a new level of income disparity, bringing a new level of political upheaval in response. On the surface, the recent rise of piracy may seem like a violent extension of local resistance to oil production, rather than part of a global kidnapping industry. Nigeria’s Jubilee oil field was discovered in 2007 and has reserves of 600 million barrels. That discovery, along with smaller ones, has had a dramatic impact.

Activists claim that oil companies’ negligence has resulted in hazardous pollution and spills that have made entire villages uninhabitable. This August, in a British court, Shell accepted responsibility for two spills. The company faces a suit at The Hague from another town, where a major pipeline burst in 2004.

Despite paying the price of oil production in environmental consequences, poor citizens have received little of the wealth being extracted from their coasts in return. But the advent of the oil industry has not just highlighted the poverty of ordinary citizens; it has also brought an abundance of high-value, difficult-to-defend targets to the region, in the form of tankers and refineries. John Drake, a senior consultant at the London-based security firm AKE, told Time Magazine that the motives for attacks on oil companies are “murky.” It’s unclear, he said, whether the attacks are meant primarily “to generate political impact or generate ransom.” In 2010, average ransom payments rose to $5.4 million, according to the One Earth Future Foundation.

 Puntland Anti Piracy

The 160-metre MV Map K RoRo ship arrived at Bosasso Port two days ago bringing one of the largest shipments ever to be delivered to Northern Somalia. The shipment of 50 40' small containers, 6 wheel drive blue Kamaz trucks, water trucks, desalination plant, modular clinic and a vast assortment of supplies is in support of the Puntland government's aggressive new plan to spread governance and eliminate piracy, reports Somalia Report.

MV Map K to Puntland (Photo: Somalia Report)

The shipment is the second major delivery of supplies to build a training and logistics base for the Puntland Marine Force. The Map K (right) had been delayed in Sharjah for 42 days waiting for the order to load. Unloading the fully packed ship was problematic at first (one crane operator wanted $147,000 to use his large crane) but the shipment will take the next day or two to offload. A number of livestock ships are waiting for the Map K to depart meaning that this shipment was given top priority by the government.

Although there is much speculation about the contents of the containers Somalia Report was given a copy of the manifest showing a large fleet of new Russian built trucks (oddly without air conditioning), water trucks, a 55 ton crane and a modular container city that will be assembled on the base just a few kilometres east of the Bosaso airport.

Puntland's anti piracy program was a major focus in the most recent UN report with allegations that the program was designed to attack Somaliland. Although one of the member of of the UN reporting team has clear personal and professional linkages and sympathies with Somaliland, the military might of Somaliland dwarfs anything Puntland can bring to bear. Somaliland can field about 12,000 soldiers while Puntland can barely muster 800. Even with the addition of the Puntland Marine Force the region would be hard pressed and financially strapped to make aggressive territorial gains.

The program has been on hold while background discussions have been ongoing. Although the UAE, the sponsor of the program and a major trading partner with Puntland kept a very low profile it also appears that has changed as well.

Kamaz Trucks (Photo: Somalia Report)

The UAE festooned the giant blue Kamaz trucks with magnetic signs and large banners in both Somali and English labelling the aid as a gift of the United Arab Emirates.  It would not be too difficult that as a seafaring, trading nation, the UAE would be motivated to be squarely behind any professional and legal efforts to eliminate piracy in the region.  President Farole was out of the country but the presence of the Minister of Finance Dr. Faarax Cali Shire told the BBC Somali service that the vessel carrying food which United Arab Emirates donated to people in Puntland those drought effects, and he thanked the UAE for helping Somali people.

Local fisherman in Somalia will now wear uniforms to differentiate them from the pirates, according to officials from Puntland. The threat from pirates who steal their boats, motors, and fuel, and concerns international navies may mistake them for pirates, writes Somalia Report.

In an effort to understand the causes of maritime piracy and what it would take to end it, Somalia Report exclusively interviewed the Director of Puntland's counter-piracy program, Abdirizak Mohamed Dirir (known as Du'aysane), who said piracy could be abolished within two months if given the support of the international community. Appointed to the post in August 2010, prior to which he had worked voluntarily as liaison between NATO forces and the Puntland government.

In May last year he arranged a special meeting between government officials, scholars, community elders from Nugaal region and the NATO forces around the coasts of Somalia. They discussed openly about piracy and the operation of NATO forces. The Nugaal members of Puntland were headed by Sultan Garaase and the police commissioner of Nugaal, the governor of Nugaal Province, the chairman of Eyl district and religious scholars from the region all attended. Read the full interview.

Private Security

Governments have ceded control of the Indian Ocean to pirates and the small deployment of naval forces to the region is like putting a band-aid on a gaping wound – so says ICS Chairman Spyros M Polemis – MaritimeSecurity.Asia.

And in a damning indictment of western governments, Mr Polemis will controversially suggest they would be acting differently if the many seafarers held hostage off the coast of Somalia were “Americans or Europeans”.

Speaking at Maritime Cyprus conference in Limassol on Monday (October 3rd) Mr Polemis was to tell shipping professionals: “The fundamental problem is the lack of navy ships that are committed to protecting shipping - a band aid on a gaping wound, although the navies do an excellent job under the circumstances and we commend them for this.”

In a straight-talking speech Mr Polemis is set to tell delegates that “by their own admission, the military advise that no ship is completely safe”. He was to say: “Sadly, one can only conclude from the current response of many governments that those thousands of seafarers that have so far been captured have simply had the wrong nationality. If they were all Americans or Europeans, the governments’ attitude might have been somewhat different.  It is really unacceptable that so many governments seem to feel that the current situation can somehow be tolerated and that a box has been ticked by making a relatively small number of navy ships available to police Somalia’s waters and the entire Indian Ocean.”

Cyprus is preparing legislation that will allow armed guards to board merchant ships to protect the crew, vessel and cargo from pirate attacks.

Details of the new law will be discussed at the “Maritime Cyprus 2011” conference in Limassol that starts on Monday where some 700 delegates will also debate on trade issues such as energy costs, environment-friendly transport and the freight markets where costs have risen due to piracy and increased insurance - Financial Mirror.

With the third biggest maritime fleet in the European Union and the tenth biggest in the world, Cyprus also boasts itself as the world leader in shipmanagement companies, all of whom are concerned about the safety of their ships.

The government is at the final stage of concluding the draft bill which, when passed, will make it one of the most comprehensive of its kind and help restore some order in the maritime industry that relies on navies and private security companies for its safety.

“Of the 200-300 piracies that take place every year, only two Cyprus-flag ships were hijacked by pirates and both were released, one of which last week after being held in the eastern Atlantic, off the coast of Nigeria and Benin,” Serghios Serghiou, the Director of the Department of Merchant Shipping, told a press briefing this week.

“We are in the same situation as all the other maritime nations. We cannot rely on navies to protect ships all around the world,” he said, adding that “even charterers are demanding to have security personnel on board.”

International law is very basic and does little to safeguard crews or prosecute would-be pirates.

Serghiou explained that the new law will overcome past legal obstacles and will help define issues such as the transfer of weapons on board ships and the protection of seamen in cases of conflict.

“This will also send out the message that Cyprus is willing to defend its ships, crew and cargoes,” even though the Republic does not have a navy that would patrol pirate-filled routes in the Indian Ocean or elsewhere. Cyprus does, however, participate in the EUROFOR patrols off the coast of eastern Africa with two naval officers.

According to press reports, a ship master and two security personnel have been detained in Dubai for six months after weapons were found on board - Shiptalk.

The three men have been convicted in Dubai of carrying weapons after they were held during an inspection at Al Hamriya in March.

Coast guard officers found a white bag with two Kalashnikov rifles in the engine room and six lockers filled with ammunition.

The three were immediately arrested. With private armed security being increasingly relied on, cases such as this highlight the problems faced by vessels carrying security personnel, who must comply with the different laws of each country whose waters they enter.

In an op-ed appearing on the OCEANUSLive website, Ryan Pearce of Beowulf Defense & Security provides a cautionary tale in the field of maritime security.

Whilst it is acknowledged that a level of success has occurred in the deployment of armed security on ships, it must be borne in mind that it is a State or Flag State responsibility to permit them to operate. Private armed security is not sanctioned by the IMO, and the carriage of weapons continues to attract close attention in ports around the Arabian Gulf States and Indian Ocean regions. The current state of MarSec is said to be “a house of cards”. The lauded success of MarSec in denying the hijack of a vessel to date cannot be complacently held up as a guarantee it will not happen in the future. Undertrained and under-equipped MarSec teams may potentially prove to be a liability as is the action of simply retreating to a citadel in the face of an attack. The recent tactic of setting vessels ablaze has already highlighted the dangers. Read more OCEANUSLive.

Economics of Piracy

Earnings from foreign fishing vessels have been dropping over the years because of piracy off the East African coast – Business Daily.

Vessels are shifting to safer waters in southern Africa, the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In the last four years, the vessels have reduced from more than 80 to 35 this year, said the chief fisheries officer at the Marine and Coastal Fisheries directorate, Mwaka Barbara.

“This is a significant drop in the past few years and it is mainly attributed to pirate attacks in the East African waters,” Ms Mwaka said.

“Foreign fishing lines pay an annual fee of Sh4.5 million after the fee was revised last year from Sh2 million,” said Ms Mwaka. The managing director of East African Deep Fishing Ltd, Mr Jose Gonzalez, whose fishing vessel MV Sakoba was hijacked last year, said, in an earlier interview, that operating in the East African Indian Ocean had become a huge challenge for the fishermen due to pirates.

Most of the fishermen do not process catches locally but exports to the European Union — mainly Portugal, Italy and Spain — making it easy to relocate in case of a change of environment.

In the past three years, pirate attacks have grown with vessels off the Somalia coast being the main target. For the first six months this year, there were 266 attacks compared with 196 a year earlier, according to the London-based International Maritime Bureau.

The chairman of the Kenya Association of Sea Anglers (Kasa) Simon Hemphil, an association bringing together operators of sport fishing boats, said earnings in the sector has been affected by the rising insecurity.

“Operators now have to keep a line of communication with the rescue centre in Mombasa and cannot venture far to avoid losing the contact,” Mr Hemphil said. This is an inconvenience that many would rather avoid.

Although there are more than 25 naval ships patrolling the Somalia waters, policing the region has become a huge challenge to the warships. Kenya does not have capacity to monitor the fishing vessels.

Unless Kenya invests in deep-sea fishing vessels, it risks losing the opportunity to catch more than 150,000 metric tonnes of marine fish.

Some of the big processors in Mombasa rely on the fish from foreign vessels. Some fish species such as Tuna, which are found in deep seas, also find their way into the local market through the foreign vessels.

Poor policing has also seen Kenya territorial waters exploited in illegal fishing by vessels not registered in Kenya.

Naval counter-piracy measures off Somalia have failed to change the incentives for pirates, raising calls for land-based approaches that may involve replacing piracy as a source of income, writes PoliEcon. This paper evaluates the effects of piracy on the Somali economy to establish which (domestic) groups benefit from ransom monies.

Given the paucity of economic data on Somalia, we evaluate province-level market data, nightlight emissions and high resolution satellite imagery. We show that significant amounts of ransom monies are spent within Somalia. The impacts appear to be spread widely, benefiting the working poor and pastoralists and offsetting the food price shock of 2008 in the pirate provinces. Pirates appear to invest their money principally in the main cities of Garowe and Bosasso rather than in the backward coastal communities. Read the full Discussion Paper (PDF).

Call to Arms & Action

Piracy poses one of the greatest challenges to peace and stability not only across the Eastern Africa region, but the entire world. Meanwhile, piracy has become an organized and attractively lucrative criminal activity undertaken for heinous ends.

Contact Group (Photo: blog.state.gov)

Pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution 1851, the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS) was established on January 14, 2009 to facilitate the discussion and coordination of actions among states and organizations to suppress piracy off the coast of Somalia. This international forum has brought together more than 60 countries and international organizations all working towards the prevention of piracy off the Somali coast.

The Contact Group has launched its own website. Previously, access was through the UK Foreign Office website. It is now available to the public, operated by the Republic of Korea with support from the United States and United Kingdom, serves as a repository of Contact Group documents and other counter-piracy related materials; a cyber secretariat offering a virtual workspace for Contact Group participants in order to raise awareness of discussion and decisions on piracy. Read more World Maritime News.

A new piracy season has come with new problems this time not on the high Seas.

The World is witnessing new tricks on a new frontier played out on the beaches of Kenya’s Lamu resort along the Indian Ocean. As the Monsoon winds ease their ferocious nature and allow more small vessels to take to the Seas, one would expect focus to be on the many ships seized by marauding gunmen on the Gulf of Aden.

Two women, Mrs. Judith Tebbutt and Ms. Marie Dedieu from Britain and France respectively, are captives in Somalia.

Mrs. Tebbutt was captured from her home by Somali gunmen on September 11 who shot her husband, Mr. David Tebbutt, possibly for trying to resist.

Mrs. Tebbutt is now reportedly suffering from stress and has even come down with fever in Hobyo, a pirate-controlled area in Somalia.

Last Friday, Somali gunmen struck again in Lamu.

According to Mr. John Lepapa, a key witness and Ms. Dedieu’s partner, six assailants disembarked from a boat on Manda Island, which is close to Lamu.

Four companions remained on board. Mr. Lepapa, 39, described the group as vicious saying: "They all had guns."

Later, media reports had it that two Kenyan officers missing following a shootout between the Kenya navy during a rescue operation for Ms. Dedieu, 66, who is disabled.

Though French and British agents have gotten involved in the search for the captives, their respective governments have now issued travel warnings to their nationals, who may be planning holidays to the north coast, which has sunny and immaculate white sandy beaches - Coastweek.

Criticism has been levelled from various quarters about the fact that the spectre of piracy has been highlighted due to two Europeans being kidnapped rather than the hundreds of multinational seafarers held in captivity by Somali pirates. The protracted issue of piracy has cursed seafarers for a number of years, yet the prospect of tourism being affected in Kenya has spurred more action than has taken place over the last 5 or so years.

With the South African counter-piracy task force under "Operation Copper" cycling through our shiny frigates at an alarming rate, the Southern African community is beginning to understand that piracy off the Horn of Africa is not a localised phenomenon. The thought of Somali piracy encroaching upon Southern African waters is a new one, but with a successful attack occurring last year, maritime security is back on the agenda in a big way – allAfrica.com.

The Eastern littoral states suffer an embarrassingly acute shortage in naval capability. From Mozambique upwards, there are simply not enough seaworthy vessels capable of venturing the hundreds of nautical miles out to sea to interdict and capture pirates, let alone the legal frameworks necessary to prosecute them. is admirable, and our Navy and SANDF contingent are doing us proud, but it will not be enough if pirate attacks increase in Mozambican waters. Put simply, our strategic planners need to think out the box when it comes to counter-piracy.

For Southern Africa, the biggest military asset on the seas is the South African Navy. With a single frigate operational at any one time, we represent the collective might of our regional maritime domain. Namibia is making great strides in forming its own smaller navy capable of patrolling its coastal waters, but by and large the SADC region is beholden to our own boys in blue. That is not going to be enough when (and it is important to stress it again: when) piracy spreads to our shores. But on land, there is a lot more our soldiers can do.

It's only a matter of time before a local Mozambican or Tanzanian fishing community get it in their heads that taking to the seas to capture or steal some vessel's valuables is preferable to scratching out a meagre subsistence fishing the Indian Ocean.

Instead, the piracy threat for the southern African maritime domain would be from southern Africans, not Somalis. To combat this we need an intelligence picture of the threats in our region before they become an act. If a neighbouring Mozambican village can inform the navy of some suspicious speedboats which passed their area, intercepting them at sea (or even finding them on land later) becomes a lot easier.

The United Nations International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has rebutted [Indian] Defence Minister AK Antony's claim that international terror groups could be behind the Somali pirates’ menace. This comes days ahead of a crucial Cabinet Committee on Security meet to finalise India's new policy to fight sea piracy off the Indian coast, writes ibnlive.

"We don't think that the menace of piracy is only on the part of these Somalian pirates. There are more powerful group and forces behind these pirates, they are siting somewhere else," Antony said.

The International Maritime Organisation quashed global speculations over al Qaeda affiliated, al Shahaab controlling the Somali pirates.

IMO Secretary General E Mitropoulos said, "We don't think the Somali pirates are backed by any terror organisations, they hijack ships to get ransom money which they again use for hijacking more ships."

This IMO reaction to CNN-IBN contradicts reports that al Qaeda backed al Shahaab which operates in large parts of Somalia is believed to control several gangs of pirates. Al Shahaab and Ras Kamboni, another local group ostensibly, even corner a share of the ransom money earned by the pirates.

Seafarers’ Plight

The Catholic Church has given its strong backing to a programme aimed at preventing and dealing with the damage done by piracy on the high seas – TotalCatholic.com.

Launched at the London Maritime museum in the Docklands, the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP) is backed by the Church, ship owners, ship managers, manning agents, trade unions, insurers and welfare associations along with inter-governmental organisations.

The guides and support provided are intended to help prevent piracy in the first place and deal with those who have been traumatised after being caught up in an attack. There is a focus on the families of captives who often suffer in silence and are not told what is going on. There are also links to specialist care and a 24-hour helpline provided.

The network that the Catholic Church can provide with its chaplains and other support networks have a key part in the new network of support.

Fr Bruno Ciceri, from the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, highlighted how the Church's network made it uniquely placed to support not only those who have been taken but also to link with the families.

Fr Ciceri said there was often a problem with getting the names of those who have been captured from ship owners, making it difficult for chaplains to let families know what has happened. "Sometimes we have to call on other specialists but we in the Catholic Church want to walk alongside families and seafarers," said Fr Ciceri, who said another problem arose with ships being attacked but no hostages being taken.

"They know they will have to go through that same area again, which causes problems," said Fr Ciceri.

Martin Foley, director of the Apostleship of the Sea in the UK, praised the initiative and expressed his delight that AoS was involved.

The World Maritime Day is an event of considerable significance in the calendar of the seafaring states, but somehow it passes by virtually unnoticed within Pakistan, says PakistanToday.com. The International Maritime Organisation (IMO), which is a specialised agency of the United Nations, is the moving spirit behind its observance. The IMO celebrated the day at its headquarters in London on September 29, while its 169 member states were allowed the flexibility to do so anytime during the last week of September (26th to 30th).

Meant to recognise the international maritime industry’s mammoth contribution towards the global economy, the day also focuses on the importance of shipping safety, maritime security, marine environment and technical and legal matters. A particular aspect of IMO’s work is also now being highlighted each year. Last year’s theme revolved around the seafarer, the most basic of ingredients that makes world trade possible. Sometime around the middle of that year, a diplomatic conference at Manila which was deliberating upon major revisions to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Seafarers and its associated code, gave official sanction to the idea to celebrate 25 June (the day these revisions were adopted) each year as the Day of the Seafarer.

We in Pakistan too need to recognise the services rendered by our seafarers, who mostly sail under foreign flags, to the cause of world trade and uplifting the global economy. These unsung heroes work in arduous conditions at sea, with very little time in harbour owing to the rapid turnaround times in most world ports.  It is an accepted fact that a majority of world shipping is registered under flags of convenience, where regulatory standards are lax and where a lack of interest in the welfare of the ship and its crew is visible.  Seafarers are thus not amply protected against excesses that they may be subjected to during routine operations. The trend of filing criminal charges against seafarers for political purposes and for causes beyond their control is an unhealthy one and grossly detrimental to the morale of this hardy workforce.

The Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) has come forward with an offer of $2.1 million to Somali pirates for releasing seven Pakistani sailors held hostage on board the MV Albedo – PakistanToday.com.

Well-placed sources told Pakistan Today that Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad has tasked CPLC chief Ahmed Chinoy for negotiating with the pirates for the early release of the captive Pakistanis.

The Somali pirates are demanding $8 million ransom for the release of the MV Albedo that they had hijacked around 10 months ago. The 23-member crew of the ship includes seven Pakistanis, seven Sri Lankans, five Bangladeshis, two Indians and an Iranian. After the ransom demand was announced, the CPLC chief, on the orders of the Sindh governor, communicated with Omid Khosro Jerdi – the owner of MV Albedo.

“In an email sent to Jerdi on September 17 at 10:18 pm Pakistan Standard Time, Chinoy informed the ship’s owner that Pakistan can pay ransom money amounting to $2.1 million,” sources privy to the development told Pakistan Today.

After one and a half hour, Jerdi replied to Chinoy’s email informing him that a high-profile figure from Somalia, Mohammad Ali, is in Dubai and can be contacted for negotiations.” The sources said that the CPLC chief then flew to Dubai from Russia on October 4 and held a lengthy meeting with the Somali personality. “Chinoy requested him to contact the pirates and persuade them to release the ship for a sum of $2.1 million.”

The Somali pirates had earlier demanded $9 million ransom for the release of MV Albedo; however, the amount was later reduced to $8 million.

SaveOurSeafarers is taking its message to celluloid with the launch of a short video highlighting the human and economic cost of Somali piracy.

The six-minute video launched at Safety4Sea, an international maritime security conference in Athens, this week highlights the significant threat of Somali piracy attacks for the worldwide seafarer community.

The video, which is also being posted on YouTube, uses a mixture of hard-hitting real life interviews, and the latest technology to create a “Hollywood style” action sequence where a ship is captured and hostages taken.