Pirates Release Chemical Tanker off Somalia
Local observers confirmed that after a ransom delivery this morning the last pirate left the vessel in the early afternoon today and the vessel sailed now free from the dangerous coast.
EU NAVFOR, which had not been asked to assist in this case, also confirmed the release as did the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme.
MV THERESA VIII was seized on Nov. 16, 2009 in the southern Somali Basin, north-west of the Seychelles. The 22,294 dwt tanker has now a crew of only 28 North Koreans, since the captain of the tanker had died from gunshot wounds sustained during the hijack.
The main content of the vessel is said to be palm oil but some additional cargo was not clear and obviously has been discharged in the meantime, while the case was shrouded in secrecy. During the negotiations a conflict had also developed among pirates on board and their masterminds on land.
Already several times it was said that the negotiations had concluded and release operations were near, but until last week there was still a conflict among the captors themselves, whom the company broker had tried to divide.
Finally the owner agreed on the higher ransom demand and the delivery as well as the release went successful.
The vessel will arrive in 4-5 days at Mombasa / Kenya.
With the latest captures and releases now still at least 9 seized foreign vessels (11 sea-related hostage cases since yacht SY LYNN RIVAL was abandoned and taken by the British Navy) with a total of not less than 136 crew members (incl. the British sailing couple) plus at least 9 crew of the lorries held for an exchange with imprisoned pirates, are accounted for. The cases are monitored on our actual case-list, while several other cases of ships, which were observed off the coast of Somalia and have been reported or had reportedly disappeared without trace or information, are still being followed too. Over 134 incidences (including attempted attacks, averted attacks and successful sea-jackings) had been recorded for 2008 with 49 fully documented, factual sea-jacking cases for Somalia and the mistaken sinking of one sea-jacked fishing vessel and killing of her crew by the Indian naval force. For 2009 the account closed with 228 incidences (incl. averted or abandoned attacks) with 68 vessels seized for different reasons on the Somali/Yemeni captor side as well as at least TWELVE wrongful attacks (incl. one friendly fire incident) on the side of the naval forces.
For 2010 the recorded account stands at 27 attacks resulting in 7 sea-jackings.
The naval alliances had since August 2008 and until January 2010 apprehended 666 suspected pirates, detained and kept or transferred for prosecution 367, killed 47 and wounded 22 Somalis. (New independent update see: bruxelles2.over-blog.com/pages/_Bilan_antipiraterie_Atalanta_CTF_Otan_Russie_Exclusif-1169128.html).
Not fully documented cases of absconded vessels are not listed in the sea-jack count until clarification. Several other vessels with unclear fate (although not in the actual count), who were reported missing over the last ten years in this area, are still kept on our watch-list, though in some cases it is presumed that they sunk due to bad weather or being unfit to sail – like the S/Y Serenity, MV Indian Ocean Explorer.Present multi-factorial risk assessment code: GoA: ORANGE / IO: RED (Red = Very much likely, high season; Orange = Reduced risk, but very likely, Yellow = significantly reduced risk, but still likely, Blue = possible, Green = unlikely). Piracy incidents usually degrade during the monsoon season and rise gradually by the end of the monsoon. Starting from mid February until early April every year an increase in piracy cases can be expected.
If you have any additional information concerning the cases, please send to office[at]ecoterra-international.org – if required we guarantee 100% confidentiality.
For further details and regional information see the Somali Marine and Coastal Monitor at www.australia.to and the map of the PIRACY COASTS OF SOMALIA.
——— ecology , ecosystems, marine environment, IUU fishing and dumping, UNCLOS ————
French President Sarkozy’s Dangerous Deforestation Doublespeak (EI PRESS)
- Pledges to work to end deforestation as French company prepares to ship illegal logs from Madagascar
French President Nicolas Sarkozy last week said rich nations must do more to help fight deforestation, as he hosted a Paris conference on saving the world’s forests. Sarkozy stated defending the world’s forests demanded more aggressive funding. “Those who don’t want to do anything are those who don’t want to pay,” he said in an opening address. He reiterated his appeal for a tax on financial market transactions worldwide that could be earmarked for a global climate fund. These are good ideas, yet President Sarkozy is guilty of dangerous hypocrisy as a French company continues to threaten Madagascar’s rainforests.
As Sarkozy argued the need to stop deforestation, shipments of illegal rosewood are being readied for export in Madagascar by a French company with the tacit approval of the French government. Some 4,000-5,000 tons of rosewood will be shipped under the auspices of Delmas, according to Derek Schuurman, who has published papers on the illegal logging crisis for the Madagascar Conservation Journal and TRAFFIC. “An estimated 200-270 containers are likely to be exported in March,” says Schuurman. The French and mainstream media worldwide has largely been silent on the crisis even though it threatens Madagascar’s rainforest, people, and wildlife. Ecological Internet’s global network has already delayed, though not permanently stopped, these illegal rosewood shipments[1].
The logging crisis began in March of 2009 when destabilization following a government coup allowed loggers to enter several of Madagascar’s world-renowned parks and illegally log rosewood and other valuable trees. Tens of thousands of hectares were logged in Madagascar’s most biodiverse rainforests, which also sparked a rise in bushmeat trafficking of lemurs. Since the coup, donor nations have drastically cut their aid to Madagascar. The transitional government has turned to the illegal trade in rosewood from its national parks to retain its grip on power. The shipment is expected to leave the port of Vohemar in Madagascar on March 16-17th. Schuurman says that the ship is likely bound for China, which does not have regulations like Europe and the US against trading in illegally logged woods.
“While we hail growing realization regarding the importance of old forests, and the number of initiatives to ‘protect’ forests, very few seek to end the industrial development including industrial 1st time primary forest logging which is not only deforesting and diminishing these forests, but is also causing damage to climate, biodiversity and the biosphere, says EI President Dr. Glen Barry. “We are deeply disappointed in all groups and countries proposing ‘sustainable forest management’ of primary forests as a remedy to the climate and biodiversity crises. By definition, primary forests logged for the first time are destroyed. This is almost as bad as the Rainforest Action Network ongoing greenwashing of primary forest logging in an area two times the size of Texas.[2] ”
Notes
[1] Action Alert: Protest Madagascar’s Legalization of Rosewood Log Export from National Parks
www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=madagascar_landgrab
[2] Action Alert: Let Rainforest Action Network Know Global Ecological Sustainability Depends Upon Ending Old Forest Logging www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=ran_ancient_forest_logging
More Information at Mongabay which has broken and continues to cover the story:
news.mongabay.com/2010/0313-hance_mad.html
You can still TAKE ACTION on this matter at:
www.rainforestportal.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=madagascar_landgrab
DISCUSS RELEASE:
www.rainforestportal.org/issues/
(*) SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE From Earth’s Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet (EI)
www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
———— reports, news and views from the global village with an impact on Somalia ——————-
Does Eritrea back Somali insurgents? by WW4-Report
Sudan‘s security forces arrested a Somali insurgent leader while he was attempting to cross the border to Eritrea, the Somali news website Mareeg Online reported March 14 from Mogadishu. Muse Abdi Arale, defense secretary for the Hizbul Islam group, was reportedly arrested while trying to enter in Eritrea with money embezzled from the rebel group. Sheikh Hassan Mahdi, a senior official from Hizbul Islam, confirmed this version of events to Mareeg Online.
Led by Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, Hizbul Islam is facing a leadership crisis since the defection of Sheikh Hassan Abdulahi Al-Turki to the rival Shabab militia early this year. Last week, a senior Hizbul Islam leader, Bare Ali Bar, was shot to death in Mogadishu’s Bakara district, a stronghold of the Shabab insurgents. (Sudan Tribune, March 14)
Also March 14, the insurgent faction led by Ahlu Sunna Walajama’a signed an agreement with Somalia‘s Transitional Federal Government at a meeting in Addis Abba, capital of neighboring Ethiopia. The two sides agreed to join forces and fight against the Shabab and other factions that remain in rebellion. (Mareeg Online, March 14)
Eritrea’s government is meanwhile denying US charges that it is backing the Somali insurgents, pointing to a new United Nations report finding that Asmara’s support for the insurgency had either diminished or become less visible. Girma Asmerom, Eritrea’s ambassador to Belgium, told Voice of America: “We are not only vindicated, that is the reality and that is what we’ve been saying. And we have never ever supplied any ammunition or financial support to anybody in Somalia. So, we have been criminalized and unjustly accused for our thinking out of the box, for just simply saying that Somalis must be left alone and they should resolve their problem through their internal dynamic reconciliation conference.”
The report prepared by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia is scheduled to be presented to the Security Council this week. It finds Asmara violated a 2008 arms embargo against various armed groups in Somalia by supporting insurgents fighting the TFG, but that President Isaias Afewerki’s government appears to have scaled down its military assistance while continuing to provide political, diplomatic and possibly financial support to insurgents. Last year, the Security Council imposed arms and travel sanctions on Eritrea for allegedly supporting the Somali insurgents.
The Security Council also expressed concern in the resolution over Asmara’s rejection of the UN-backed 2008 Djibouti Agreement between Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS). Eritrea accuses the United States of masterminding the recent UN-imposed sanctions. But diplomats reportedly said Uganda, which has peacekeeping troops in Somalia, drafted the resolution after the African Union called on the Council in May 2009 to punish Eritrea over its role in Somalia. (VOA, March 14)
Reports of the indictment in New York City last week of an Eritrean national named Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed on charges of aiding the Shabab have sparked controversy. While most media sources, citing the federal indictment, name the suspect as an Eritrean, the foreign ministry in his former home of Sweden asserts that he is originally Ethiopian. As he holds a permanent Swedish residence permit, Ahmed has a right to consular help from Sweden while on trial in New York, but the Foreign Ministry says that he has yet to receive such a request. (Radio Sweden, March 10)
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We do not send pictures with these reports, because of the volume, but picture this emetic scene with your inner eye:
A dying Somali child in the macerated arms of her mother besides their bombed shelter with Islamic graffiti looks at a fat trader, who discusses with a local militia chief and a UN representative at a harbour while USAID provided GM food from subsidised production is off-loaded by WFP into the hands of local “distributors” and dealers – and in the background a western warship and a foreign fishing trawler ply the waters of a once sovereign, prosper and proud nation, which was a role model for honesty and development in the Horn of Africa. (If you feel that this is overdrawn – talk to people who lived in Somalia in the 70s and 80s and come with us into Somalia and see the even more cruel reality today for yourself!)
- and if you need lively stills or video material on Somalia, please do contact us.
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- if one doesn’t mind who gets the credit !
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ECOTERRA Intl. maintains a register for persons missing or abducted in the Somali seas (Foreign seafarers as well as Somalis). Inquiries by family member can be sent by e-mail to office[at]ecoterra-international.org
For families of presently captive seafarers – in order to advise and console their worries – ECOTERRA Intl. can establish contacts with professional seafarers, who had been abducted in Somalia, and their wives as well as of a Captain of a sea-jacked and released ship, who agreed to be addressed ”with questions, and we will answer truthfully”.
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ECOTERRA – ALERTS and pending issues:
PIRATE ATTACK GULF OF ADEN: Advice on Who to Contact and What to Do www.noonsite.com/Members/sue/R2008-09-08-2
In an effort to counter Piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the east coast of Somalia industry bodies including the International Maritime Bureau have published the Best Managment Practice (BMP) guidelines. Please click here to download a copy of the BMP as pdf.
Especially YACHT-sailors should download, read and implement the ISAF Guidelines
Merchant vessels are requested to report any suspicious activity to UKMTO Dubai (+97 1505523215 - [email protected]). NATURAL RESOURCES & ARMED FISH POACHERS: Foreign navies entering the 200nm EEZ of Somalia and foreign helicopters and troops must respect the fact that especially all wildlife is protected by Somali national as well as by international laws and that the protection of the marine resources of Somalia from illegally fishing foreign vessels should be an integral part of the anti-piracy operations. Likewise the navies must adhere to international standards and not pollute the coastal waters with oil, ballast water or waste from their own ships but help Somalia to fight against any dumping of any waste (incl. diluted, toxic or nuclear waste). So far and though the AU as well as the UN has called since long on other nations to respect the 200 nm EEZ, only now the two countries (Spain and France) to which the most notorious vessels and fleets are linked have come up with a declaration that they will respect the 200 nm EEZ of Somalia but so far not any of the navies operating in the area pledged to stand against illegal fishing. On a worldwide scale, illegal fishing robs some 10 billion Euros every year mainly from poor countries, according to the European Commission. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that 18 percent of Indian Ocean catches are caught illegally, while ECOTERRA’s estimates speak of at least 30-40 %. While the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) has no means whatsoever to control the fish looting, even the new EU regulations do not prevent the two most obvious circumventions: Fish from a registered and licensed vessel is transhipped on the high seas to an illegal vessel – often already a mother-ship with an industrial processing plant – in exchange for good payment and thereby exceeding the quota of the registered vessel several times before the “legal” vessel sails back into port with its own storage full. In the inverse of this criminal technique, called “fish laundering”, an illegal vessel – often even using banned fishing methods or ripping its catch from poorly protected fishing zones – “transships” for little money its cargo to a legal one, which, equipped with all the necessary authorisations, delivers the fish into the legal market chain – without having to spend a single dollar or minute on real fishing activities and therefore often only has cheap fun-crews, which even wouldn’t know how to catch the highly migratory tuna. Since flags under which all these vessels fly can be changed overnight and via the internet and the real beneficial ownership is hidden behind a mesh of cover-companies, the legal eagles, who try to follow up usually are blindfolded and rarely can catch up with the culprits managing these schemes. So far not a single illegal fishing vessel has been detained by the naval forces around the Horn of Africa, though they had been even informed about several actual cases, where an intervention would have been possible. Illegally operating Tuna fishing vessels (many from Taiwan and South Korea, some from Greece and China) carry now armed personnel and force their way into the Somali fishing grounds – uncontrolled or even protected by the naval forces mandated to guard the Somali waters against any criminal activity, which included arms carried by foreign fishing vessels in Somali waters.
LLWs / NLWs: According to recently leaked information the anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden are also used as a cover-up for the live testing of recently developed arsenals of so called non-lethal as well as sub-lethal weapons systems. (Pls request details) Neither the Navies nor the UN has come up with any code of conduct in this respect, while the Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Program (JNLWP) is sponsoring several service-led acquisition programs, including the VLAD, Joint Integration Program, and Improved Flash Bang Grenade. Alredy in use in Somalia are so called Non-lethal optical distractors, which are visible laser devices that have reversible optical effects. These types of non-blinding laser devices use highly directional optical energy. Somalia is also a testing ground for the further developments of the Active Denial System (ADS) Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration (ACTD). If new developments using millimeter wave sources that will help minimize the size, weight, and system cost of an effective Active Denial System which provides “ADS-ACTD-like” repel effects, are used has not yet been revealed. Obviously not only the US is developing and using these kind of weapons as the case of MV MARATHON showed, where a Spanish naval vessel was using optical lasers – the stand-off was then broken by the killing of one of the hostage seafarers. Local observers also claim that HEMI devices, producing Human Electro-Muscular Incapacitation (HEMI) Bioeffects, have been used in the Gulf of Aden against Somalis. Exposure to HEMI devices, which can be understood as a stun-gun shot at an individual over a larger distance, causes muscle contractions that temporarily disable an individual. Research efforts are under way to develop a longer-duration of this effect than is currently available. The live tests are apparently done without that science understands yet the effects of HEMI electrical waveforms on a human body.
WARBOTS, UAVs etc.: Peter Singer says: “By cutting the already tenuous link between the public and its nation’s foreign policy, pain- free war would pervert the whole idea of the democratic process and citizenship as they relate to war. When a citizenry has no sense of sacrifice or even the prospect of sacrifice, the decision to go to war becomes just like any other policy decision, weighed by the same calculus used to determine whether to raise bridge tolls. Instead of widespread engagement and debate over the most important decision a government can make, you get popular indifference. When technology turns war into something merely to be watched, and not weighed with great seriousness, the checks and balances that undergird democracy go by the wayside. This could well mean the end of any idea of democratic peace that supposedly sets our foreign-policy decision making apart. Such wars without costs could even undermine the morality of “good” wars. When a nation decides to go to war, it is not just deciding to break stuff in some foreign land. As one philosopher put it, the very decision is “a reflection of the moral character of the community who decides.” Without public debate and support and without risking troops, the decision to go to war becomes the act of a nation that doesn’t give a damn.”
————
ECOTERRA Intl., whose work does focus on nature- and human-rights-protection and – as the last international environmental organization still working in Somalia – had alerted ship-owners since 1992, many of whom were fishing illegally in the since 1972 established 200 nm territorial waters of Somalia and today’s 200nm Exclusive Economic Zone (UNCLOS) of Somalia, to stay away from Somali waters. The non-governmental organization had requested the international community many times for help to protect the coastal waters of the war-torn state from all exploiters, but now lawlessness has seriously increased and gone out of hand – even with the navies.
ECOTERRA members with marine and maritime expertise, joined by it’s ECOP-marine group, are closely and continuously monitoring and advising on the Somali situation (for previous information concerning the topics please google keywords ECOTERRA (and) SOMALIA)
—————-
The network of
ECOTERRA Intl. and the SEAFARERS ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME helped significantly in most sea-jack cases. Basically the East African Seafarers Assistance Programme tackles all issues of seafarers welfare and ECOTERRA Intl. is working in Somalia since 1986 on human-rights and nature protection, while ECOP-marine concentrates on illegal fishing and the protection of the marine ecosystems. Your support counts too.Getting what you want is not nearly as important as giving what you have. – Tom Krause
We give all – and You? Please consider to contribute to the work of SAP, ECOP-marine and ECOTERRA Intl. Please donate to the defence fund. Contact us for details concerning project-sponsorship or donations via e-mail: ecotrust[at]ecoterra.net
Kindly note that all the information above is distributed under and is subject to a license under the Creative Commons Attribution. ECOTERRA, however, reserves the right to editorial changes. To view a copy of this licence, visit creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/uk/. The opinion of individual authors, whose writings are provided here for strictly educational and informational purposes, does not necessarily reflect the views held by ECOTERRA Intl. unless endorsed. With each issue of the SMCM ECOTERRA Intl. tries to paint a timely picture containing the actual facts and often differing opinions of people from all walks of live concerning issues, which do have an impact on the Somali people, Somalia as a nation, the region and in many cases even the world.
Send your genuine articles, networked or confidential information please to: mailhub[at]ecoterra.net (anti-spam-verifier equipped).
We welcome the submission of articles for publication through the SMCM.Pls cite ECOTERRA Intl. - www.ecoterra-international.org as source (not necessarily as author) for onward publications, where no other source is quoted.
Press Contacts:
ECOP-marine
East-Africa
+254-714-747090
marine[at]ecop.info
www.ecop.info
ECOTERRA Intl.
Nairobi Node
africanode[at]ecoterra.net
+254-733-633-733
+254-714-747-090
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme
Mshenga Mwacharo (Information Officer)
+254-721-513 418 or +254-734-010 056
sap[at]ecoterra.net
SAP / ECOTERRA Intl.
Athman Seif (Media Officer)
+254-722-613858
office[at]ecoterra-international.org
N.B.: If you are missing certain editions of our updates, this can have two reasons: Either you have not white-listed our sender address office[at}ecoterra-international.org for your inbox and your server provides for censorship (beware of aol or yahoo as mailservice and barracudacentral as filter - it shows only that you want to remain dumb folded) or you do not belong [yet] to our trusted friends and supporters, who receive all updates including those with classified content. Join the network or become a funding supporter to get them all. Look up earlier public updates on the internet – e.g. at:australia.to/2010/
or go toaustralia.to/2010/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=70&Itemid=142
The many thousand mails which have to go out with each update demand a structured mailing. If you require to receive the updates with the first bunch that is sent out, please request to be placed on the priority list. Note: ECOTERRA is not responsible for the spam that sometimes appears to come from our domains. This is spoofed mail, is part of a systematic, ongoing harassment targeting many independent groups and websites. 90% of spam is sent not by people but systems, which are part of a scheme to restrict the internet. For more information see this article in The Nation or this article in Wired News.
To subscribe to or unsubscribe from this listserve – just send a mail with reference SMCM and your instruction to office[at]ecoterra-international.org
Somali Marine & Coastal Monitor
ECOTERRA INTERNATIONAL – UPDATES & STATEMENTS, REVIEW & CLEARING-HOUSE
REALITY-CHECK
Issue 344
Soomaaliyeey toosoo!
Soomaaliya Guul!
SOOBAX!
A Voice from the Truth- & Justice-Seekers, who have to stand tall between all the chairs, because they are not part of organized white-collar or no-collar-crime in Somalia or elsewhere, and who neither benefit from global naval militarization, from the illegal fishing and dumping in Somali waters or the piracy of merchant vessels, nor from the booming insurance business or the exorbitant ransom-, risk-management- or security industry, while neither the protection of the sea, the development of fishing communities or the humanitarian assistance to abducted seafarers and their families is receiving the required adequate attention, care and funding. - standing against mercantilism, sensationalism and venality as well as banality in the media - “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
The right to know the truth ought to be universal. Tom Paine warned that if the majority of the people were denied the truth and ideas of truth, it was time to storm what he called the “Bastille of words”. That time is now.”
EA ILLEGAL FISHING AND DUMPING HOTLINE: +254-714-747090 (confidentiality guaranteed) – email: somalia[at]ecoterra.net
EA Seafarers Assistance Programme EMERGENCY HELPLINES : Call: +254-437878, SMS to +254-738-497979 or sms/call +254-733-633-733 or +254-714-747090
”The pirates must not be allowed to destroy our dream !”
Cpt. Florent Lemaçon - F/Y Tanit – killed by French commandos – 10. April 2009 / Ras Hafun
NON A LA GUERRE – YES FOR PEACE
(Inscription on the sail of S/Y TANIT – shot down on day one of the French assault)
The tales of hunting will be weak!
Somali poet, singer and rapper K’naan
CLEARING-HOUSE: With Truth on Our Side – Let Transparency Prevail !
(If you find this compilation too large or if you can’t grasp the multitude and magnitude of important, inter-related and complex issues influencing the Horn of Africa – you better do not deal with Somalia or other man-made “conflict zones”. We try to make it as easy and condensed as necessary.)
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