Thursday, June 01, 2006
The Daily Tribune
Two months after dismissing offhand as false reports that said 20 Filipino crew were being held hostage aboard an oil tanker they were manning by armed Somalis, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is now scrambling to secure the safe release of the sailors.
|
|
The DFA yesterday, after its denial, cited late confirmation that the Filipinos were indeed being held hostage on the boat by the Somalis.
The incident has prompted the department to warn “Philippine-registered ships and Filipino seafarers not to sail into Somali waters or trade with Somali ports in view of the difficult security situation in that country (Somalia).”
The DFA assured that the home office and its different embassies in Africa and the Middle East are closely monitoring the hostage crisis aboard the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-registered oil tanker MT LIN1 that is anchored off the Somali coast.
The Philippine missions watching the crisis include the country’s embassies in the United Arab Emirates and Kenya and the consulate general in Dubai.
The DFA said the shipowners, who are based in Dubai, have been speaking with the Somali gunmen since the hostage-taking last March 29.
It stressed “the need of the shipowners to have every available time and option to resolve this dispute with the Somali group.”
The DFA appealed to “the sense of responsibility of the media in the shipowners’ efforts to protect the Filipino seafarers and their ship, taking into account the duties of journalists to inform the public.”
Early April, it called the hostage-taking as false after it could not confirm that it ever occurred despite news about it breaking out.
At the time, the DFA pointed out, the Philippine Embassy in Kenya, which has jurisdiction over Somalia, had reported that no such incident occurred.
The embassy’s charge d’affaires, Bernarditas Muller, said the mission contacted Joe Gordon of the United Nations field security coordination office in Somalia, who informed them that his office received no reports of a hijacking.
Muller added in her report made also at the time that the Nairobi media also had no reports on the alleged hijacking.
The hostage-taking was brought to attention after the wives of 19 of the Filipinos appealed on television also yesterday and asked the government to help in securing their release.
According to the women who were able to talk to their husbands, the captives are only being allowed to eat once a day as supplies of food and water have dwindled.
The armed group initially demanded $450,000 for the release of the captives but was raised to $1 million and then reduced to $500,000.
In an April 3 report, the Agence France-Presse said a dozen heavily armed pirates had hijacked the UAE-registered oil tanker along with 19 Filipino crew off the coast of Somalia, quoting an international piracy watchdog.
“Twelve pirates armed with machine guns, AK47 rifles and sidearms boarded the tanker off Mogadishu (Somalia’s capital) during daylight,” Noel Choong, head of the Piracy Reporting Centre of the London-based International Maritime Bureau, told AFP.
Choong said the tanker earlier discharged its cargo at Mogadishu port and was hit on March 29 after leaving port.
Maritime officials identified the ship as “Lin 1.”
Choong said the pirates are holding the ship off the coast of Somalia and are demanding “a huge sum of money” from the owners for its release.
He added the international coalition forces consisting of US, British and Dutch warships that are helping to police the area have been informed of the hijacking.
Choong said the pirates were holding the ship inside Somalia’s territorial waters and this could pose a problem should the foreign ships want to intervene.
Since March 15, 2005, he added, pirates have hit 40 ships off Somalia but many more attacks have gone unreported.
Choong urged ship captains to keep their vessels at least 200 km (125 miles) away from Somalia’s coast to avoid pirate attacks. “The pirates are armed and they will not hesitate to fire to stop ships,” he warned.
In an earlier incident, pirates fired at a UN food aid ship in an attempt to hijack it.
They had hijacked an Indian ship, the Bhakti Saga, last Feb. 26. Its 25 crew were only freed last March 29.
The waters around Somalia are among the most dangerous in the world, with heavily armed gangs prepared to venture far offshore to attack vessels.
The Somali coast had in recent times been the center of many unfortunate incidents.
It is among the most dangerous coastlines in the world.
Also last March, pirates unsuccessfully attempted to hijack two US Navy ships that were patrolling Somali waters and surrendered only when the ships returned fire, killing one and leaving five others seriously wounded.
Three wooden Kenyan boats had been seized in the same waters a week prior to the US Navy incident, although they were later returned after some negotiation.
A total of 35 vessels passing through or fishing in the territorial waters of Somalia were hijacked or attacked last year alone.
Somalia is itself a lawless country, with no effective government, “ruled” mainly by groups of warlords.
The United States and the Netherlands have naval forces in nearby waters, which still does not deter hijackers.
Michaela P. del Callar and AFP
Source: The Daiy Tribune, June 1, 2006
