MV FAINA Shadowy Owner Uncooperative with the Crew Members’ Relatives

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

[ Posted On: 2009-01-12 ]

Is MV FAINA owner a potential source of help or a thorny part of the problem? The latest news about the MV FAINA negotiations make many observers question the real intentions of this shadowy Ukrainian figure, MV FAINA uncooperative and unhelpful ship owner who has drawn the wrath of the crew members’ relatives. Ecoterra 104th Press Release Update is focused on the subject, as well as on many related issues.

104th Update 2009-01-09 20h18:31 UTC

Ecoterra Intl. - Stay Calm & Solve it Peaceful & Fast !

Ecoterra International – Update & Media Release on the stand-off concerning the Ukrainian weapons-ship hi-jacked by Somali pirates and related news.

We also can make sea-piracy in Somalia an issue of the past - with empathy and strength and through coastal and marine development as well as protection!

New EA Seafarers Assistance Programme Emergency Helpline: +254-738-497979
East African Seafarers Assistance Programme - Media Officer: +254-733-385868

Day 107 - 2550 hours into the MV FAINA Crisis - Update Summary

Efforts for a peaceful release continued, but the now over three and a half months long stand-off concerning Ukrainian MV FAINA is not yet solved finally, though intensive negotiations have continued.

ALERT: Relatives of crew members aboard the Ukrainian weapon cargo ship that was hijacked off Somalia are appealing to international humanitarian groups for assistance, reported the AP office from Kiev. The families say that neither government authorities nor the owner of the MV FAINA are giving them any information about negotiations with the captors and the health of the 20-member crew. The reason for this is presumed to be found in the fact that no straight negotiations were held, but middlemen and appointed mediators obviously must have fooled both sides on . The crew has been held captive now for far longer than three months after the ship loaded with 33 battle tanks was seized by pirates off the Somali coast on 25th September. The captors and Ukrainian authorities both said in December that a deal had been reached and that the seamen would be released soon. But there has been no sign of progress since then. The pirates had originally demanded $20 million when they hijacked the MV FAINA but are said to have dropped the demands drastically since long.

After the release of VLCC Sirius Star, held hostage by a group close to the captors of MV FAINA, there should be no reason why the release of the Ukrainian vessel could not be implemented immediately, if the owner would finally talk straight and really negotiate. The Orthodox Christmas has passed and from tomorrow there should be no more excuses.

Independent sources in Somalia confirmed that the crew of the MV FAINA is still physically all right, but in extreme distress.

Ecoterra Intl. repeats it's call to solve the FAINA case now with absolute top 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 or those, who believe they would be capable to try an attempt of a military solution, must be held fully responsible for the surely resulting disaster. The saga and secrecy surrounding MV FAINA must not - like in the MS ESTONIA case, which is the worst naval disaster in Europe since WWII - become the shroud for its 20 seafarers.

Clearing-house:

News from other abducted or newly attacked ships --------

Games Crazy People Play: Kidnapping, Pirating, and War - Naval War-games to protect Fish-piracy and to cover the real agenda !

Finally also an official at the Saudi Oil Ministry in Riyadh confirmed Friday that Somali pirates have released the Sirius Star tanker seized off the East African Indian Ocean coast in mid-November. The Saudi ministry spokesman made no mention of any ransom having been paid. And Poland, which has some of its nationals among the tanker's crew, said it had official confirmation from the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Kenya that the Sirius Star had been released by the hijackers. The U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain would not explicitly confirm the release of the tanker.

But Lt. Virginia Newman, a spokeswoman for the Combined Maritime Forces based in Bahrain, said it was likely that "a considerable sum" had been paid in ransom and that "it is expected that the ship will get under way in the next 24 hours". She would not elaborate further. However, the U.S. Navy also observed and photographed clearly the delivery of [at least part of] the ransom, whereby a container was parachuted from a small aircraft down to the tanker. Most sources speak of a ransom of 3 million US $ for the release of the tanker with a total value of about 280 million US $ (incl. oil of 100 million US $). "While the potential release of the Sirius Star is undoubtedly excellent news, we must not forget that nearly three hundred other merchant mariners are still being held captive. The men who attacked the ship and held the crew hostage are armed criminals and consequently, we must remain steadfast in our efforts to address the international problem of piracy", said Commodore Tim Lowe, deputy commander of the new Combined Task Force (CTF) 151.

With the latest captures and releases now still at least 16 foreign vessels with a total of 323 crew members accounted for (of which 92 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 had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) have been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases (incl. the presently held). For 2009 the account stands at 11 abandoned attacks and 2 sea-jackings. Mystery pirate mother-vessels Athena/Arena and Burum Ocean as well as not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (also 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.

Directly related news ------

Unidentified Somali militiamen on Thursday shot dead an officer working for the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) while on a food distribution duty in the Dayniile District north-west of the capital Mogadishu, the second such killing in three days. An eyewitness Bashiir Dahir Ali told APA that the Slain officer Omar Moalim Mahmoud was killed by three armed young men who after the assassination drove his car towards an unknown destination. “I knew the officer. He was working for WFP and was busy in food distribution work when unidentified gunmen arrived and suddenly shot him dead. I witnessed the brutal killing of Omar Moalim Mahmoud”, the eye witness told APA by telephone. This is the second targeted assassination against World Food Program aid workers in less than a week. On Tuesday a WFP food monitor Ibrahim Hussein Duale was killed in the Islamist-controlled town of Garbaharey in the Gedo region south-western Somalia. The slain WFP officer Omar Moalim Mahmoud and a colleague of his were briefly taken hostage in September last year and he was the fourth World Food Program worker killed in southern Somalia during the last six months. In August 2008, Abdi Naser Aden Muse a WFP senior program assistant was killed in Marka about 111 kilometers south of the capital, while in October another officer Abdulkadeer Diyad Mohamed was also killed in Dinsor District south-western Somalia.

There has been a new upsurge of piracy off Somalia, reports an agency associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). "Following a quiet period during late December, pirate activity increased significantly as the new year began", says the NATO Shipping Centre, the outreach arm of an agency set up to improve collaboration between military commanders and the commercial shipping industry. Though officially the NATO engagement has ended and handed over its duties to the EU mission ATALANTA, the NATO agency seems to continue to be involved.

Spain will send up to 395 military personnel and a patrol plane to the waters off Somalia to defend merchant ships from pirates, the government said on Friday. The force, which will include a frigate and a supply ship, will be part of a European Union task force set up last month to counter a wave of pirate attacks. Spain's parliament has yet to approve the mission. "The European Union has taken an important step forward and Spain is going to participate fully in it", Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega told reporters after the government's weekly cabinet meeting. The task force is under British command and uses warships and aircraft from several nations. Last September, Spain sent a military aircraft and some 90 crew to patrol waters off the coast of Somalia.

For Asian countries there is good reason to send warships, writes Matthew Tostevin on the Reuters Blog. This is the main trade route to markets in Europe and their ships have been seized. Attacks on shipping push up insurance rates and force some vessels to use more fuel on the longer, safer route around Africa instead of taking the Suez Canal. But there certainly appears to be evidence too to back up the U.S. National Intelligence Council’s “Global Trends 2025” report late last year that highlighted the relative decline in Washington’s long term influence in the face of the rise of China and India. As well as being a chance for the world’s old and new powers to show their strength in terms of numbers, the anti-piracy operations off Somalia could prove something of a test of effectiveness. While the hardware the navies have will always outclass that of the pirates, the new powers may have an advantage in more robust rules of engagement. That might lead to mistakes, however. In November, India trumpeted its success in sinking a pirate “mother ship”. It later turned out that a Thai ship carrying fishing equipment had been sunk while it was being hijacked. Most of the crew were reported lost. There is a lot of sea to cover, one of the reasons why naval forces have had so much difficulty in stopping the hijackings, but the presence of so many navies in the same area at the same time must raise questions over how well they are going to work together. Will this become a model for cooperation in a new world order? Or are there dangers? Might this also end up being a display of how little either East or West can do in the face of attacks by armed groups from a failed state with which nobody from outside seems prepared to come to grips? What do you think?

As two Chinese warships (and one support ship) are engaged now in the Gulf of Aden, the Chinese navy returns to an area it has not visited for six hundred years and Taiwan is lifting its ban on its military and government officials freely traveling to China. Meanwhile, China has announced that it believes Taiwan will voluntarily rejoin China as the economies of the two nations become more linked. This may take a few decades, but this is considered preferable to war. The current world-wide economic recession actually began for China already at the end of 2007, and in the first six months of 2008, nearly 70,000 factories shut down. By the end of 2008, there were, each week, hundreds of major demonstrations by unemployed or underpaid workers in cities and towns throughout China. The government fears that the unemployment violence could attract many more people who are unhappy with the corruption in the ruling Communist Party, and government officials in general. Police in violence prone areas are on high alert, and army units are being prepared for riot duty. Last month, two Chinese men were arrested in the United States, for illegally exporting thermal imaging technology to China, while UN investigators were unable [or unwilling] to prove that ammunition flown into Zimbabwe were of Chinese origin. At home China again began blocking Internet news sites that it had unblocked during the August Olympics. The blocked sites discuss Chinese politics, and touch on such "forbidden" subjects as relations with Taiwan and the Tibet independence. China also arrested 59 people in Tibet for "spreading rumors" and trying to organize more pro-independence (for Tibet) demonstrations. The independence movement has no weapons, but will get violent, especially against ethnic-Chinese migrants, who are becoming the majority in parts of Tibetan cities and towns. In addition, the government is now forcing all Internet search providers to block access to sexually explicit websites. This makes the government very unpopular with many of the 255 million Chinese Internet users.

The leader of the [Ethiopian] Unity for Democracy and Justice (UDJ) party, Birtukan Mideksa, should stop her hunger strike because she probably won’t be leaving her prison cell for a long time, friends advised. Though the current situation of Birtukan has no legality what so ever and it is only a hostage situation, the timetable for Birtukan’s release fully depends of the international situation. There is only one exceptional condition why Birtukan could possibly get released early. And that would be to take the attention of the international community from the anti-NGO draconian laws passed by the TPLF. Otherwise, Birtukan is a hostage until the new Obama administration or critical US Congressmen actively push for anti-TPLF and pro-democracy bills or policies. Then she would be a useful tool in the negotiation table.

End of Ecoterra 104th Press Release Update

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 52, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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