Pirates will fight for $20m
2008-10-03 08:05
Mohamed Olad Hassan
Mogadishu - Somali pirates holding a hijacked arms ship have said they will not release it for less than $20m and warned they will fight back against any commando-style rescue attempts.
A half-dozen US navy warships have surrounded the Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina, which was seized on September 25 off the central coast of Somalia as it transported 33 Soviet-designed tanks and heavy weapons to a Kenyan port.
"We would never reduce the ransom," pirate spokesperson Sugule Ali told the Associated Press in a satellite telephone interview from the Faina on Thursday.
The Somali government on Wednesday authorised foreign powers to use whatever force is necessary to free the ship from the pirates.
Asked about fears that a foreign country might attack - as French commandoes have done in the past to free hijacked ships - Ali insisted his pirates will fight back.
"That will never happen again," said Ali, sounding calm and relaxed despite US helicopters buzzing overhead. "Anyone who tries to attack us or deceive us will face bad repercussions."
The pirates and the shipping company have been negotiating over the $20m ransom demand.
'We only need the money'
Ali also distanced himself from a leader of Somalia's Islamic insurgency, who reportedly said on Thursday the weapons would help his cause a lot and has urged the pirates to destroy the arms ship if they are not paid.
"We have nothing to do with insurgents or terrorist organisations, we only need money," Ali said, adding that a plan was in place to release the ship and its surviving crew of 20 once the pirates had received the ransom. One crew member has died of a suspected heart attack.
Moscow has sent a warship to protect the few Russian hostages on board the Faina, but it will take several more days to arrive. The Russians have used commando tactics to end several hostage situations in the past, but scores of hostages have died in those efforts.
The hijacking off Somalia's lawless coast has highlighted how the country's increasingly brazen pirates are drawing the concern of global superpowers.
On Wednesday, at least eight European Union countries offered to form a new force to help protect the vital shipping lanes off Somalia - a move that the US Navy has welcomed.
The Bahrain-based spokesperson of the US 5th Fleet, Lt Nathan Christensen, said the Navy received reports of three failed pirate attacks on ships on Thursday in the Gulf of Aden, north of Somalia.
Final destination still in dispute
Some 26 ships were hijacked on the notorious African waters this year.
Pirates off Somalia's lawless coast have raked in up to $30m in ransoms this year alone, a London-based think tank reported on Thursday.
The report found that the millions being earned by pirates in ransom were being funnelled into the war between the shaky Somali government and the Islamic insurgents.
The final destination for the Faina's weapons is still in dispute. Kenyan officials claim the weapons are for their domestic use, but American defence officials, Western diplomats and a Kenyan maritime official have said the weapons were intended for southern Sudan.
The Kenyan maritime official, Andrew Mwangura, was arrested late Wednesday and charged with making inflammatory statements. He was the first official to say the weapons were intended for Sudan.
Kenya has been embarrassed by claims the arms were headed to Sudan because it helped broker an end to Sudan's north-south war in 2005.
- AP