Piracy lives on
04/10/08 20:26 Filed in: Piracy
Anxious for a speedy resolution both the United States and Russia have intervened. “This is really getting out of control,” Mohamed Osman Aden, a Somali diplomat in Kenya told the Times. “You see how many countries are involved now? These pirates aren’t going to get away with this.”
Of particular concern were rumors that the weaponry aboard the seized vessel were intended, not for Kenya, but to Sudan.
Perhaps understanding the value of the arms on board, the pirates demanded $35 million in ransom, reported the Times on Sept. 27. On September 29 U.S. Navy warships surrounded the captured Ukrainian cargo vessel. A Russian Navy warship is expected to arrive on the scene soon as well.
But piracy, as romanticized as it has been by Johnny Depp and the Pirates of Caribbean, is in reality a tale of brutality and corruption. When the U.S. and Russian navies intervened, there were reports that a hostage died and three pirates were shot to death in a standoff. The Somali bandits denied these accounts.
On September 30, the Times published a ‘pirates tell all’ expose. We are just misunderstood, the spokesperson for the pirates told the Times. We don’t consider ourselves sea bandits,” he said. “We consider sea bandits those who illegally fish in our seas and dump waste in our seas and carry weapons in our seas. We are simply patrolling our seas. Think of us like a coast guard.”
Not quite. The self-proclaimed coast guard may have lowered their price but they are still asking for at least $5 million. And unperturbed by the circling warships, the pirates are holding their ground.
A new development late last week added another wrinkle to the “prickly pirate problems,” reported the Times on October 3. Kenyan officials have arrested pirate-tracker Andrew Mwangura for piracy, Kenyan officials told the Times they want to know how Mwangura always seems to be the first to know when there is trouble brewing on a ship. Could it be because he tracks their activities?
Many have spoken out in defense of Mwangura, and have hinted that his tendency to be outspoken might have landed him in some trouble. There are other puzzling pieces to this predicament.
Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman noted the following in his article from October 3:
From the beginning, the whole story surrounding the Faina, which was hijacked Sept. 25 about 200 miles off Somalia’s coast, seemed a little suspicious. Why was the ship left unguarded in some of the most dangerous waters in the world, given its cargo of 33 tanks, 150 grenade launchers, 6 antiaircraft guns and heaps of ammunition? Why does Kenya, known for its wild animals, not its wars, need so many tanks? And if it does need tanks, why suddenly switch from British armor, which it has used for decades, to incompatible Eastern-bloc equipment?
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