Ship pirates celebrate Ramadan
2008-10-01 14:28
Mogadishu - Brazen Somali pirates said they celebrated a Muslim holiday aboard a hijacked freighter and denied reports that three comrades were killed in a shoot-out on the vessel, which is carrying battle tanks and other weaponry and is under the close watch of a half-dozen US warships.
The pirates are demanding US$20m in ransom for the Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina, which they boarded on Thursday in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast. There was a crew of 21 Russians and Ukrainians aboard, but one has since died.
The hijacking of the ship - laden with 33 Soviet-made T-72 tanks, rifles and heavy weapons that US defence officials have said included rocket launchers - was the highest-profile act of piracy in the dangerous waters off Somalia this year.
The US Navy has said it wants to keep the arms out of the hands of militants linked to al-Qaeda in impoverished Somalia, a key battleground in the war on terrorism.
Three pirates dead?
An official in Washington had reported that he believed a shoot-out among the pirates left three of them dead. But the Pentagon had not confirmed the report by late Tuesday.
A spokesperson for the pirates said on Tuesday the shoot-out report was false.
"We are happy on the ship and we are celebrating" Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, spokesperson Sugule Ali told The Associated Press by satellite telephone. "Nothing has changed."
"We didn't dispute over a single thing, let alone have a shoot-out," Ali said.
Attempts to contact him later on Tuesday failed. A man answering his phone said Ali was "very tired" and was asleep.
The vessel, anchored off the central Somali town of Hobyo, is surrounded by US warships and helicopters. Moscow has dispatched a warship to the scene to protect the lives of the Russians aboard the captive vessel.
Piracy is a lucrative criminal racket in the region, bringing in tens of millions of dollars a year. There have been 24 reported attacks in Somalia this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
US officials said 40-50 pirates were involved in the hijacking, but only about 30 were on the ship itself.
Food and water allowed
US Navy officials from the 5th Fleet said they have allowed the pirates to resupply the ship with food and water, but not to unload any of its military cargo.
The US fears the armaments may end up with the militants who have been waging an insurgency against the shaky, UN-backed Somali transitional government since late 2006, when the Islamic fighters were driven out after six months in power. More than 9 000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the Iraq-style insurgency.
American military officials and diplomats say the weapons are destined for southern Sudan. But Morrell said: "We take - and have no reason not to take - the president of Kenya at his word when he expressed to the president of the United States yesterday that this shipment was bound for his government, which is ... a peaceful government with legitimate self-defence needs."
Russian media reported that a man identifying himself as the first mate, Vladimir Nikolsky, said the freighter's captain, Vladimir Kolobkov, had suffered from heat stroke. The ITAR-Tass news agency said Kolobkov died of a stroke Sunday, and that the vessel has a crew of two Russians, 17 Ukrainians and one man from Latvia.
The Latvian Foreign Ministry said that man was a "non-citizen," a term usually denoting an ethnic Russian who has not obtained citizenship.
- SAPA