Pirates of the Somalian coast :: New Age Xtra

This article was originally published in New Age Xtra on December 17, 2010

Pirates of the Somalian coast

Syed Tashfin Chowdhury traces the history Somalian pirates and the state of piracy at sea around the globe to find out what it means to the 26 hostages on board the MV Jahan Moni

The 25 crew members and the family of one of them, on board the Bangladesh-flagged ship, MV Jahan Moni, are claimed to be ‘safe’ by the ship’s operating company, Brave Royal Shipping Management Limited on December 12, almost a week after the ship was hijacked from the Arabian sea by Somali pirates.

The ship went missing on December 5 from the Arabian sea, off the coast of India, with the crew members. The ship, carrying around 43,150 tonnes of nickel, was sailing towards Greece from Indonesia through the Suez Canal.

According to Meherul Karim, general manager of Brave Royal, the ship had anchored at the Singapore port for refuelling before heading for Greece, shipping ministry officials said.

On December 6, Brave Royal informed the media and concerned departments that a message was sent around 3:30pm from the ship’s security cell on December 5. The message stated that the ship was under attack from pirates.

Karim informed that although the same message was received a second time on 4:30pm from the ship and the communications were maintained till 5:30pm, the company officials ‘lost all communication since then’ from December 5.

Three days later the ship was located through satellite pictures sailing toward the Somalian coast.

At the time, an English daily reported that family members of the 26 hostages were listlessly scared. Mother Shahanara Begum of Abu Naser Mohammad Abdullah Mazumder, chief officer of the ship, had urged the government and Brave Royal authorities to do all that is necessary to free the hostages from the clutch of the pirates.

Similarly, Bilkis Rahman, mother of Engine Cadet Md Shahriar Rabbi, urged officials to take steps for rescuing Rabbi, as he is the only bread earner of the family with his father afflicted with cancer and only brother physically challenged.

The ship’s master Farid Ahmed’s wife Shaila Farid, who resides in Mohammadpur of Dhaka, has reportedly been bedridden ever since the news struck her.

The rest of the 26 hostages include Chief Engineer Matiul Mawla, his wife Rukhsana Gulzer, Second Engineer Mohammad Main Uddin, Deck Fitter Md Idris, Engine Fitter Md Mohiuddin, Electrical Engineer Sahabul Alam, Md Fakhrul Islam, Fireman Md Elias.

Also held are Bosun Mohammad Ruhul Amin, Steward Md Rabiul Islam, AB Seaman Abdul Fattah, Md Kibria Ahmed, Second Officer GM Noor-E-Alam, Third Engineer Subrata Kumar Mondol, Third Officer Md Kamrul Hossain, and Deck Cadet Md Shariful Islam among others.

Immediately after the incident, Rear Admiral Bazlur Rahman, director general of the Bangladesh Shipping Department had told the AFP that his ‘department has contacted a British anti-piracy office in Dubai for help as well as a regional anti-piracy office in Singapore and the Indian coast guard.’

On December 7, Rahman was quoted by Reuters as saying, ‘We have sought help from anti-piracy teams in Dubai and Singapore, and Indian coast guards.’ However, Rahman did not receive the calls of this correspondent despite repeated attempts to reach him over cell phone on the issue.

Right after the news was covered by all dailies on December 6, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan had assured that they ‘want to rescue all the crew members and the ship by negotiating with them,’ although it may take a few days as the ship was yet to reach the coast. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni had made similar promises on the day.

But, when Khan was asked about the status of negotiations by the Deputy Speaker Col (retd) Shawkat Ali on December 9, he declined to comment on it.

Also, when contacted, Mohammad Shahjahan, owner of MV Jahan Moni told New Age on December 10 that he was lobbying for state level steps to rescue the ship and its crew while also adding that he wrote letters to the concerned ministries seeking state level intervention and support in this regard.

Considerable progress was made on December 12 as Brave Royal, through a press conference, informed that the pirates have contacted them from Somalia. Shahjahan shared that he talked twice with the pirates, at around 2:30pm and 7:00pm, during when he also had a chance to talk to the captain, chief engineer and his wife.

‘Twenty-five pirates have taken control of the ship,’ said Shahjahan. The chief engineer and his wife had also informed him that all the hostages were ‘safe and being held inside a single room on the ship’s bridge’. The company officials also mentioned that the ship’s position remains unchanged till afternoon of December 12.

On December 13, Shahjahan told New Age that he came to know about the demand for

$ 9 million in ransom through the crew whom he had talks with over phone. He admitted that the ring leader of the pirates had contacted him again at 2:00pm on Monday but declined to elaborate on the talks over phone.

On the same day, Karim informed New Age that 50 armed Somali pirates were staying on board to keep the vessel and its crew hostage. The ring leader of the pirate group did not disclose his name and just allowed the crew to talk with the owner of the ship and their family members over phone for the first time on Sunday, Karim said.

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As the fate of the 26 hostages hang in the balance, the incident has shaken many in the country. Although, it is the first-ever widely reported instance of maritime piracy in Bangladesh, shipping companies and their crews from varying nationalities have been affected in various ways by the crisis over the past decade around the world.

Such cases include the collision between Ocean Blessing, a container ship, and the hijacked tanker Nagasaki Spirit in the Malacca Straits on September 19, 1992. After boarding the Spirit, pirates set the ship on autopilot and left with the ship’s master as their hostage.

While on autopilot, the ship collided with Ocean Blessing at full speed resulting in a fire and the subsequent death of all sailors on Blessing. Only two survivors were rescued from the blazing Spirit, where the fire lasted for six days. The fire on Blessing blazed till six weeks.

The American luxury liner, The Seabourne Spirit, was attacked by pirates in November 2005 off the Somalian coast. A crewmember was injured after being hit by shrapnel.

While near the coast of Somalia, Danica White, the Danish bulk carrier, was wrought by pirates in June 2007. Despite an attempt to rescue the crew by firing warning shots, the USS Carter Hall was not able to follow the ship into Somali waters.

In April of the next year, pirates seized Le Ponant, the French luxury yacht, along with its 30 crew members off the coast of Somalia. The crew were released after payment of ransom. The French military later captured some of the pirates, with support of the provisional Somali government.

A 2009-study on maritime piracy by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), also cites the case of the two US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama and MV Liberty Sun which were attacked by Somali pirates in April 2009. While Alabama was hijacked by the pirates, the Sun was attacked.

The two ships were engaged in delivering food assistance off the South-east coast of Somalia.

Although the crew took back control of Alabama, the pirates fled with the Captain Richard Phillips on a lifeboat. US Navy SEAL snipers shot three pirates on April 12, 2009 and rescued Phillips.

However, Alabama was again attacked in November 2009 while again carrying food assistance near the same route. The crew were able to fend the pirates this time.

The International Maritime Bureau (IMB), under the International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Services, has claimed around 196 reported incidents of piracies around the world during the first two quarters of 2010. The number was 240 in 2009 including 31 vessels hijacked, 48 vessels fired upon and 70 vessels boarded.

The IMB mentions: ‘During this period, one crew member was killed, 597 crew members were taken hostage and 16 were injured. The use of firearms including rocket propelled grenades was particularly marked in the waters off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden. Attacks in this region and in the Red Sea represent more than half of the incidents reported over the past six months.

The coast of Somalia remains particularly vulnerable with 100 pirate attacks in 2010, including 27 hijackings.’ The data was listed till August, 2010.

According to the European Union Naval Force site, including the MV Jahan Moni, the pirates are currently holding 23 vessels, with 547 hostages.

The UNODC study mentions that although 21^st century piracy began from the South China Sea and in the Malacca Straits, peaking to ‘around 350 to 450 reported attacks during the period 2000-2004’, it dropped to a half in 2005. The study attributed this to the ‘effective and coordinated international action against the pirates’.

However, piracy again escalated around 2008-2009 near the coast of Somalia. According to a 2005-article published in Foreign Affairs, maritime piracy has resulted in estimated losses of around US $13 to $16 billion annually worldwide.

A fact sheet on international maritime piracy by the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the United States Department of State have asked American citizens travelling by sea to be cautious in the Gulf of Aden, Venezuela, Straits of Malacca and Malaysia.

The UNODC study also mentions the Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, the waters along Bangladesh and the South China Sea as the high risk areas although half the global piracy attacks were ascribed to Somali pirates in 2009.

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Unlike pirates in other parts of the world, the Somali pirates have developed on-land sanctuaries from where they initiate their attacks. The pirates seem to be at home with technology, as the UNODC study describes, ‘crews of some hijacked vessels have said that the pirates appear to know everything about the ship on boarding, from the layout of the vessel to its ports of call. Calls made by pirates from their satellite phones from captured ships indicate an international network.’

In a press release, dated July 17, 2010, IMB Director Pottengal Mukundan pointed out that since October 2009, many reported attacks have occurred up to 1,000 nautical miles off Mogadishu, the Somali capital. He added that attacks originating on the Somali coast are predominantly dependent on mother ships, which enable small pirate boats to attack ships on the high seas.

These skiffs or small boats get into operation as soon as they find a target in the sea or  they are pre-informed about large consignments being carried by a ship or ships through the Gulf of Aden or other areas near the Somali waters.

The attackers, usually armed with AK47s and rocket propelled grenades, can shoot at target vessels to make it stop so that they can get on board. Once captured, the pirates imprison the crew, rob them off their belongings, ransack the cargo and then take it to the Somali coast before contacting the vessel’s owners for the ransom.

There were also instances when the hijacked vessels were used to pirate other ships on the sea.

While the average time for holding hostages were around two months during the first part of 2009, this also varied from six days to six months. While negotiations are usually conducted between the pirates and owners or operators of the ship, at times a third intermediary is also used.

Ransoms are paid in cash, directly transported to the pirates by air, by parachuting the ransom or even paid to a trusted third party. ‘Upon receipt of the money, the pirates release the hostages and usually leave separately to avoid tracking and capture,’ says the UNODC study.

It further quotes a convicted pirate that a single armed pirate can make anywhere between US $ 6,000 to 10,000 per haul from a $ 1 million ransom. The amount increases if the ransom is higher.

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The increase in piracy has led to more concerted efforts from nations, which is encouraging in the current scenario.

A recent report around November this year on piracy in the East African, an African newspaper, reported that the US, UK, Europe, China, India and several other countries’ joint naval operations in 2008 had some success in its bid to protect the 25,000 ships, which transit through the Indian Ocean sea lanes each year and carry much of the world's trade and energy supplies. Only recently, ‘German and UK naval forces rescued the Beluga Fortune and its 16 crew and the Danish navy's Esberne Snare also destroyed a pirate mother ship’, it reported.

Another article, titled ‘Combating Maritime Piracy’ by Stephanie Hanson, also suggested the use of onboard deterrents, regional anti-piracy patrols and establishment of a Somali coast guard besides joint naval deployments to combat maritime piracy.

In the report, Hanson also stresses the need of a stable state to stop piracy in the long run while pointing out that piracy stopped completely in Somalia while being under the control of the Islamic Courts Union in 2006.