'How pirates hijacked us'

2005-10-06 11:47

Nairobi - The captain of a United Nations-chartered ship described how 15 gunmen in speedboats took control of the vessel in 15 minutes and held it for 100 days along Somalia's coast, absconding with money but leaving most of its cargo of food intact.

Crew members aboard the MV Semlow said they were on a mission to deliver food to Somalia's tsunami victims when speedboats pulled alongside the ship on June 27 and opened fire.

Captain S Mahalingam, a Sri Lankan, said within minutes, 15 gunmen had climbed aboard the ship and taken command of the vessel, which is registered in St Vincent and the Grenadines. The pirates demanded that he open the safe before they ransacked the crews' quarters and took anything of value.

Then came the most frightening part for Kenyan crewman Patrick Ogudu, an interrogation of sorts by the nervous pirates.

A scary experience

"The question that scared me the most was when they wanted to know the religion of the people on the ship," said Ogudu, himself a Christian, while standing on the bullet-scarred bridge. "I decided to name myself Abubakar, to be in a safe position."

But as the days passed and the pirates and crew reached an uneasy understanding, Ogudu said he never saw the pirates pray. The only time they appeared to care about Islam was when Ogudu moved a Qur'an without washing his hands first.

The gunmen were freelance militia men, members of one of Somalia's many criminal gangs who depend on hijacking and kidnapping for money.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then turned on each other, transforming this nation of seven million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.

Some of those militias specialise in setting up toll stations on important roads, others hire themselves out as bodyguards. The young militiamen on the MV Semlow were pirates and they had obviously done this many times before.

Hijackings a frequent occurrence

The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) has warned most mariners to stay away from Somalia's coast because of the dozens of hijackings that have taken place over the years. The IMO considers the waters among the most dangerous in the world.

But this hijacking was different: It was the first time a UN ship had been taken while on a humanitarian mission to Somalia.

The United States and North Atlantic Treaty Organisaton (Nato) have a maritime task force permanently based off the Somali coast and have intervened several times in the last year to save ships under attack by pirates, but they are not allowed to operate within Somalia's territorial waters, and therefore could not help the MS Semlow.

Somalia's 3 025km coastline is the longest in Africa.

The World Food Programme (WFP) suspended food aid to Somalia on July 4 and refused to pay a ransom demanded by the pirates, which they called a fine for violating Somali law. At one point, the gunmen declared themselves to be Somalia's coast guard, though a new transitional government trying to take charge of Somalia disowned the gunmen.

In August, the WFP resumed food aid to the millions of Somalis who depend on the organisation for food. The WFP was depending on clan elders to negotiate the unconditional release of the ship, the captain, the Tanzanian engineer and the eight Kenyan crewmen.

Negotiating with the hijackers

On September 14, they thought they had secured a deal for the ship's release, but the pirates apparently decided at the last minute to demand another ransom and instead use the MS Semlow on September 23 to seize an Egyptian ship carrying cement, the MS Ibnu Batuta.

After more negotiations, and after the MS Semlow ran out of fuel, the hijackers eventually allowed the MS Ibnu Batuta to tow the MS Semlow to the port of El Maan. Along the way, the gunmen left the ship by speedboat and the ships were free, with most of the MS Semlow's 937 tons of rice still on board.

The WFP confirmed on Wednesday that the ship was indeed safe and the food was being unloaded in El Maan, after which the ship would sail for Kenya.

When the captain was asked whether he had ever seen pirate before in his 20-year career, he laughed out loud. "You think it is a frequent occasion?"

But in Somalia, pirates indeed strike on a regular basis. Another group of Somali gunmen seized 48 Asian fishermen and three vessels near the southern Somali port of Kismayo on August 15. They are still being held hostage.

- AP