Hijacked tanker crew 'safe'

2007-11-02 08:08

Manila - The Filipino captain of a Japanese tanker seized by pirates off Somalia's coast has reconfirmed that the 23 crew members are safe, and the hijackers still have made no ransom demands, says a Philippine official.

Restituto Bulilan phoned Japanese company Dorval Kaiun KK, the owner of the hijacked chemical tanker, on Thursday, said Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos.

According to Conejos: "The captain of the kidnapped ship was able to contact the principal (the owners) in Japan to inform them that the crew is being treated well and that they are all safe."

The Golden Nori was hijacked on Sunday, off the Somali coast carrying 23 crew - nine Filipinos, two South Koreans and 12 Myanmar citizens - and loaded with a chemical shipment headed for Europe.

'Nobody aboard the boat was harmed'

The latest confirmation of the crew's safety backed up information given to their families on Wednesday, said Conejos.

Josefina Villanueva - the sister of the crew's Filipino supervisor, 48-year-old Laureano Villanueva - said in Manila on Thursday that the pirates let Bulilan call his wife and relayed the message that "nobody aboard the boat was harmed".

"The pirates are still on board with the crewmen. They cannot leave," said the supervisor's sister, citing information provided by the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

Conejos said: "For us, that is the most important thing - the condition of the crew."

Redentor Anaya, vice-president for operations of SeaCrest Maritime Management Inc, which recruited the Filipino crew for the Golden Nori, said the captain called the Japanese ship owner on Wednesday, the same day he called his family in the Philippines, to say they were all safe.

Destroyer fires at pirate boats

Anaya said: "The crew are OK, so far, but we don't know what the demands of the pirates are." Conejos also said he knew nothing about a ransom.

The foreign affairs undersecretary said: "There was no information about that." Anaya said his company had had no direct contact with the crew.

On Sunday, a United States destroyer fired at and destroyed two pirate boats tied to the Golden Nori, which was loaded with highly flammable benzene, and the US Navy had been tracking it since.

Conejos earlier said the Philippine government was "doing everything" to save the crew, but that there had been no direct contact between Manila and the pirates.

"The problem is that there is no central government in control (in Somalia)," he said.

After 16 years of violence and anarchy, Somalia was now led by a UN-backed transitional government battling to establish authority and challenged by an Islamic insurgency.

- AP