Status of not yet resolved Maritime Incidences off Somalia

STATUS OF NOT YET RESOLVED MARITIME INCIDENCES OFF SOMALIA (ecop-marine)

Last update: 07. November 2011

MV INFINITY MARINE and MV REEF AZANIA
We also had listed the two vessels in question as dead ships since 2007, because we had earlier been informed with similar assumptions as stated hereunder by UKTMO.
However, we have received written communication from India, which did state – after interviewing released seamen – that Indian seafarers, who knew the ships in question when they were active, had revealed that the ships had been seen off Harardheere/Hobyo and/or Eyl in Somalia. We since tried to establish contact with the sender and the source of the information and await response. MV Reef Azania went missing with two Indians among 14 crewmembers, followed by MV Infinitymarine with 16 Indians on board.
Since it is not uncommon that vessels allegedly gone under at the high seas, also in cases involving insurance fraud, re-appear in these coastal areas, we keep these two cases on the watch-list.
David Bancroft, Commander Royal Navy UKMTO, however, wrote: We do not keep a track of missing vessels unless pirated. However we did deal with the Reef Azania and Infinity Marine back in 2007. We were contacted on numerous occasions by various Indian government depts wrt to these ships and always replied that the ships foundered in bad weather with the loss of the ship and crew.
Yet again, and hopefully for the final time, we can confirm that we class both ships as lost, Reef Azania lost in the Indian Ocean and Infinity Marine off the Coast of Somalia between the mainland and Socotra. Both vessels were lost in bad weather and have absolutely no piracy connection whatsoever.

INDIAN NAVY SINKS FISHING VESSEL AND KILLS CREW
A ship sunk by the Indian navy as a pirate vessel actually was a trawler out of Thailand, the boat’s owner said Tuesday. The Indian navy sank it off Somalia’s coast last week after wrongly assuming it was a pirate “mother ship”. Sixteen sailors were aboard FV EKAWAT NAVA 5 [aka EKANAVAT] when it was sunk by the Indian navy — one crew member was found alive after six days adrift in the Gulf of Aden, one was confirmed dead and the rest are missing. India’s navy reported the INS Tabar fought with a pirate “mother vessel” in the gulf on Nov. 18, 2008, setting the ship afire and leaving it to sink. However, Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, owner of the vessel, said the ship was a trawler he owned and it was being hijacked by pirates when it came under naval attack. Wicharn said he learned the true fate of his vessel from a Cambodian crew member who survived the gunfire and drifted in the ocean for six days before he was plucked to safety by a passing ship. The sailor was recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said. Wicharn said his ship made a distress call on November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The company had then reported that one of its fishing vessels went missing in the Gulf of Aden on November 18, the day the Indian Navy destroyed a pirate vessel. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then. Indian authorities said that their ship took action against the vessel because it threatened to attack the Tabar. But according to the owner, the sole survivor, a fisherman from Cambodia, stated: “The sunken ship which the Indian navy claimed was a ‘mother ship’ of pirates was not the ‘mother ship’ at all,” he said. “The pirates wanted to take our ship to Somalia.” The Indian Navy’s celebrated attack may not have gotten any pirates at all: The two fast skiffs escaped into the dark. Except for the one survivor in hospital in Yemen and one confirmed dead sailor, the fate of the other 14 members of the crew is unknown. The Indian Navy and Indian authorities have denied claims that its warship, INS Tabar, sunk a Thai trawler mistaking it to be a pirate mothership. This issue was a huge embarrassment for the Indian Navy. There are reports that the Indian Navy could have made a big mistake. At naval headquarters in New Delhi the optimism generated by the Tabar’s action is also tempered by a concern over how the Indian Navy will fit into the increasingly complex naval grid in the Gulf of Aden. The presence of so many warships from all over the world will invariably lead to “snooping” – efforts to assess the potential of battleships and record radar and communication signatures of different navies, the Indians fear.
On 25th November 2009 Thailand officially officially protested abolut India’s sinking of the Thai fishing vessel, which left one crewman killed, one rescued and 14 missing.
What has not yet been clarified are clear answers to the questions:
a) How could the Indian naval vessel not have heard of the situation of the fishing vessel in distress, when it already had been earlier approached by a British warship, which turned away after realizing that the vessel and crew were commandeered.
b) Was the fishing vessel actually used to smuggle weapons and explosives and the “pirates” were the escort commando? The huge explosion, which was caused after the Indian navy fired on the ship could only have been caused by either a serious missile or torpedo fired into vessel or by a cage of weapons and explosives on board, which would have had to be much, much more than what pirate gangs usually carry.
c) WHY UNTIL TODAY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT HAS NEITHER APOLOGIZED TO THE FAMILIES NOR OFFERED COMPENSATION FOR THEIR LOSS.

MS INDIAN OCEAN EXPLORER and S/Y SERENITY, MV RIM – presumed sunken by pirates, but wrecks not positioned and secured. Both vessels from the Seychelles were said to have been involved in drug-smuggling activities prior to the sea-jacking.

Mystery still surrounds the action of the Indian Navy on 28th May 2009 – 225 nm east of Aden.
- Indian Navy if not acting irresponsibly believes at least not to be accountable -
As we reported earlier and in the meantime has transpired as correct, fact is that the French Navy did the mopping up after the Indian helicopter and commandoes from an Indian warship INS Talwar on naval escort had shot up a gang of Somalis, who allegedly tried to board Norwegian owned and Liberia-flagged MV MAUD, manned by an Indian crew. The Indian navy thereafter disappeared from the scene – claiming other duties – and left the cleaning to the French. “The French navy handed two dead bodies and two pirates over to us this morning,” confirmed yesterday Puntland’s security minister, Abdullahi Said Samatar. Earlier, official reports from the Indian Naval headquarters and the Government of India spoke of at least 8 Somalis, who had launched the attack. But the French delivered only two dead and two survivors to Puntland, while 2 injured were taken to Djibouti, which makes six.  So – where are the at least 2 missing others? Unless the Indian Navy can proof otherwise their score stands at 4 dead (only two bodies recovered), 2 seriously injured, 2 survivors handed to Puntland. Was the Indian Navy again “threatened” like in the case of FV EKANAVAT NAVA 5, which the Indians blew out of the water together with its innocent crew. The report issued by the Indian Government must also seen as at least questionable in one other respect, because so far no proof could be provided that the gang actually had Katyusha (reported as Katysusha) rockets (which would be M13 or similar rockets for the Katyusha rocket launcher) with them, as the reports claimed. Though such Soviet-era military remnants still do exist in Somaliland and Somalia and are used e.g. by Hizbullah, photographic evidence from the equipment this Somali gang had (AK 47s etc.), did not proof the allegations of Katyusha rockets having been on board. It is more likely that there was the notorious Russian RPG-7 on board. Though the weapons-escalation of which we warned already much earlier still must be taken serious (but would refer to other, more modern equipment, which can easily be used from skiffs) correct reporting , which is essential if the coalition navies together with the Somali governance want to have any pro-active impact to curb piracy of merchant vessels, is obviously not the most proficient quality of the Indian navy. And the code of conduct of the Indian navy becomes not only more and more questionable, but is feared to trigger a change in the conduct of Somali buccaneers, leading to outright war on the seas with much heavier equipment than what we have seen so for on the Somali side and with no more restrains. INS Talwar’s crew should be called home for training, if the Government of India wants to avoid further inhumane and out-of-bound incidences.

FV WIN FAR 161 – The freed vessel returned under mainland China’s naval escort back to Taiwan, but an independent investigation into the death of at least one Chinese and one Indonesian sailor as well as into the involvement of the ship in the attack on US-flagged container vessel MV MAERSK ALABAMA has not yet been completed, while Hsieh Long-yan, president of the ship’s owner Win Far Fishery, continues to be elusive and evades questions asking e.g. why he lied to the Foreign Minister of Taiwan and why he didn’t facilitate relief and medical support for the crew during many month. Due to this neglect sailors died.

FV AL MAHMOUD 2 : Seized December 24, 2009, in the Gulf of Aden (GOA). Yemen-flagged fishing vessel with 16 crew.

FV AL-SHURA (AL-SHUVAL?) : Seized after February 20, 2010 and most likely on 25th February with one of 9 the Yemeni sailors being killed by the Somali pirate-attackers. Allegedly the pirates now left the FV AL-SHURA and the dhow was returned to her owner, but independent confirmation is still awaited from Yemen. A similar dhow named AL-SHUVAL was said to have be moored off Garacad at the North-Eastern Indian ocean coast off Somalia until recently and was observed at Dhanaane and then moved away. The vessel is now missing and as such confirmed by Yemeni authorities.

MSV ABDUL RAZAK: Seized before February 23, 2010 and after 17 November 2008 (latest contact). The 40m ship with 9 crew of Indian nationality was captured by Somali sea-shifta. on her way from Kandala to Dubai. No information concerning the condition of the crew available.
So far the vessel had been reported only as missing or lost at sea by the owner.
Reportedly a 7 men gang of sea-shifta from Garacad, a notorious pirate den at the Indian Ocean coast of North-Eastern Somalia, is/was commandeering the vessel.
Latest informations indicate that the vessel was already misused as pirate mother-ship far off in the Indian Ocean. An intensive search by ECOTERRA Intl. along the coast revealed that it is at present not at the Somali coasts.
Upcoming information says that it might have been involved in an encounter with a French or Indian naval vessel at the end of February 2009. It apparently sunk near the UAE and all crew are said to be dead. The Indian officials have denied any contact with MSV ABDUL RAZAK.

1 YEMENI BOAT : Missing since 11. January 2010 from Warsha Island in Alaraj area in Yemen’s province of Hudaida (not yet counted on list of pirated vessels – but mentioned here as alert). Originally two dhows had gone  missing on the same day, but one – MSV AL HADRAMI 73  – was found by EU NAVFOR with the vessel abandoned and the crew missing, which apparently had left the vessel with a skiff because the engine had broken down. The vessel was towed back to Yemen and handed over to the owner on 20th February.

Legal Dispute: MV LEILA – The Panama-flagged but UAE owned Ro-Ro cargo ship of 2,292 grt with IMO NO. 7302794 and MMSI NO. 352723000 , is held at the Somaliland port of Berbera since September 15, 2009 at gunpoint and under a court order in a legal dispute between Somaliland authorities, cargo owners and the ship-owner. Somali company Omar International claims cargo damages caused by fire on MV MARIAM STAR who caught fire on the upper deck while at Berbera port in early September of 2009. MV MIRIAM STAR – a fleet-sister-ship – is likewise still at Berbera. Though difficult, all the expatriate crew could with the assistance of ECOTERRA Intl. be freed and repatriated. MV MARIAM STAR STILL POSES A GRAVE ENVIRONMENTAL AND SAFETY HAZARD. Meanwhile MV LEILA plies again the route UAE to Berbera, but the rescued crew of the vessel, which had so horribly been abandoned, hasn’t seen a penny from their former employee. A warning to all seafarers concerning this company is certainly appropriate.

The attack by the Norwegian naval units in their commando boats against the dhows, who had not been linked to any wrongdoing,  happened within the 12nm zone, in violation of the international laws as well as the UN Security Council resolutions, whose even latest ill-set versions require a consent by the Somali government – and thereby parliament – for any action, which any foreign navy would undertake against Somalia or Somali people within Somali territory. Such consent has never been given to the Norwegians -  even not by any of the weird legal constructs the European and other navies entangle themselves with in the moment. Interestingly the European naval mission ATALANTA this time calls the Norwegian naval contingent a part of EU NAVFOR, the hastily assembled joint European naval force, while Norway is not even a member state of the European Union (EU). Therefore also the fraudulently provided covering agreements for naval operations in Somali waters do not provide any cover for this outright murder, because they were signed without the knowledge of the Somali parliament in a clandestine meeting.
An outcome of any investigation is still expected.

MV RIM – The mysterious cargo-ship MV RIM destined for the scrapyards in India was seized on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 01h31 AM . The North-Korean-flagged, originally-Libyan owned general cargo vessel MV RIM, after it had been repaired for this last trip with significant costs , was captured – en route from Eritrea to presumably Yemen  – in the north-western Gulf of Aden just south of the Yemeni coast, while it was already expected by another armed private vessel as escort. Though the coalition ship USS PORTER working closely with EU NAVFOR and a helicopter from USS FARRAGUT, both of CMF CTF 151, confirmed on February 02, 2010 that the RIM had been hijacked, EU NAVFOR headquarters declined to confirm to Somalia’s anti-piracy envoy that report  – only to report it then a day later as captured on 3rd February.
EU NAVFOR finally confirmed that the vessel was sea-jacked to the north of the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC), was not registered with MSC HOA and has had no communications with UKMTO, the British operation in Bahrain.
The relatively small coastal cargo ship of 4,800 tonnes is still listed in the ship registers as being owned by White Sea Shipping of Tripoli in Libya, while in reality it was allegedly already managed by Sea Force Maritime Co from Constanta – Romania owned by a Syrian off-shore company for her last cargo trip with a load of fine clay and with a final destination at the scrapyards in India. Reports that it actually was carrying weapons destined for the Yemen rebels persisted.
Her crew comprised of 10 men – 1 Romanian and 9 of Syrian nationality and an actual crew-list had been obtained, though the Romanian authorities had neglected an official request. The vessel and crew, however, were neither covered by an ITF Agreement nor an appropriate insurance.
The ship was at first commandeered to the Somali Gulf of Aden coast near LasKorey where it encountered Puntland forces and the pirates exchanged fire with them. Then it sailed around the tip of the very Horn of Africa to Garacad on the Indian Ocean side.
The vessel thereafter had been moved from Garacad – because local elders tried to interfere – to Kulub, where it was held for a longer period 5.3 nm off the shore at the North-Eastern Indian Ocean coast of Somalia. Negotiations between the pirates and the owners as well as a Lybian group had commenced, while nosy naval vessels nearby drew in one case fire from the pirates. Numerous sidelines opened by Somali brokers make the case difficult. The captors had threatened to kill the captain if their ransom demand - reported elsewhere as $3million – would not be fulfilled and later rumours were spread that the pirates had in mind to kill all crew and sell their organs. If rational, the reason for the high demand for a ship which was on her last leg to the scrapyards can only be found in the cargo, which – if really only clay, as stated by the owner – also wouldn’t make sense to request large sums.
The crew was held on the vessel during the last period near Ilfoshe in the vicinity of Kulub, while Lybian and Puntland sidelines competed for a long time to get hold of that ship. Allegedly even the Libyan ambassador to Ethiopia got involved form Addis Ababa.
Somali sources stated that the transported weapons had been offloaded earlier, because those who were negotiating for the release had realized that the vessel – freed together with the weapons – would never be able to deliver them to Yemen as initially arranged.
Before the crew of the vessel managed to overpower six pirates on board and to sail free at 10h10 local time on 02. June 2010, a serious shoot-out between two rival pirate groups involved in the case of sea-jacked MV RIM left 9 Somalis dead,
After the crew had killed five of their captor-guards directly off the Indian-Ocean coast of North-East S omalia and threw them overboard, the sixth went overboard alive after he had hidden himself under deck and was possibly killed too. A seventh Somali a boy of 14-15 years named “Ahmed”, who had been forced to work as cook and guard, was hailed to have smuggled the three AK47 for the killing spree on board. The killing of the Somalis was led by the only Romanian national on board: Virgil Teofil Cretu, who was said to have been a 34 year-old coxswain on his first maritime job. Other sources say that he had military training and was actually the supervisor of the crew for the Romanian/North Korean “shipping outfit” with Libyan links – with the duty to keep the Syrian captain and crew under guard and on track.
However, the Spanish frigate SPS VICTORIA (F 82) under EU NAVFOR Command , guarded the MV RIM at first against a pursuing ship the MV VOC DAISY, which was commandeered by other pirates in an attempt to re-capture the cargo vessel after the killing of the guards, and the Dutch warship JOHAN DE WITT pulled the vesse l, whose engines had stalled, from the scene and gave medical assistance to the 3 crew including to Mr. Cretu who had been injured in the shoot-out.
After reaching safer waters EU NAVFOR Force Commander, Swedish rear Admiral (LH) Jan Thörnqvist then decided to keep the crew and the Somali boy “Ahmed” on the Royal Netherlands LPD-Ship HNLMS JOHAN DE WITT (L801) , which as amphibious transport ship under commander Captain Ben Bekkering and also had Maltese soldiers from what is called a Vessel Protection Detachment on board, and to cut the lines to MV RIM after several times the lines broke in heavy weather. Thereby the vessel MV RIM and its cargo were abandoned south of Ras Hafun without calling a salvage or other rescue vessel and a grave situation posing serious risks to shipping was created by the navies. Though heavy weather and the breaking of several towing lines made the case a difficult one, it must be stated, h owever, that to produce an environmental as well as shipping hazard though cutting MV RIM loose is certainly not the mandate of navies paid by European taxpayers. The shipowner must be happy, because the naval action even saved him the costs to break the ship up in the Indian scrapyards, though the disposal of rotten vessels is still cheaper there than anywhere else but is also posing environmental hazards. Last known position of MV RIM on 5th June 2010 at 16h34 UTC was 09°44’0N and 051°32’3E drifting at 0.9 knots/hr in direction 032 degrees.
The 10 men from MV RIM were brought by the Dutch warship to Djibouti and released there on 10. June 2010, but the final fate of “Ahmed” is unknown to date. He left the Dutch warship Johan de Witt alive and well fed, medically looked after and was neither dumped in Somalia nor Djibouti as some media suggested. The Dutch Defense ministry states that he was taken to Yemen, to a refugee camp, because a return to Somalia was deemed to risky, for fear of reprisal attacks. Ahmed himself indicated that he didn’t want to be brought back to Somalia, says the ministry, which couldn’t confirm his age. Since the refugee camps in Yemen are ‘open’, Ahmed in theory could already just have left it. It is a shame that none of the governments directly concerned by the case of MV RIM could provide a better reward for him.
An official investigation has apparently neither been launched in Romania, Syria, North-Korea , Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Spain or in the Netherlands, nor by the EU or the US. Recently WikiLeaked U.S. embassy cables, however, describe such vessels being involved in a rather suffisticated weapons-smuggling racket.

MSV AL-BARARI : Seized on March 31. The small Indian trade boat with 11 crew was reported by some media as captured after it left Mogadishu. But the owner confirmed to DG Shipping in Mumbai that his vessel is sailing free. It was still carried by some media until 30. November as sea-jacked, but based on the reasons given above never was listed by ECOTERRA Intl.. However, we await clarification from the Indian government why this vessel is not restricted from sailing into these waters since it is one of those firmly instructed to follow the maritime directive issued by the Indian government. It seems that the Indian government is not really enforcing their ban.

2 YEMENI FISHING VESSELS : Two Yemeni fishing vessels were seized by presumed Somali sea-gangs during the week 09th to 16th April in the Gulf of Aden. The Yemeni coastguard did not specify the name of the vessels and only reported in one case the crew as comprising of three Yemeni nationals. Recent reports saying that the dhows might have returned to Yemen were officially not yet confirmed. However, Yemeni authorities have prosecuted some Somalis, which apparently had a connection with the abduction of these two vessels.

WHY WAS ITALO-INDIAN COLLEGE SHIP LEFT AS NAVAIGATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARD?

MV RAK AFRIKANA : Seized April 11, 2010. The general cargo vessel RAK AFRICANA (IMO 8200553) with a dead-weight of 7,561 tonnes (5992t gross) was captured at 06h32 approximately 280 nautical miles west of Seychelles and 480nm off Somalia in position 04:45S - 051:00E. The captured vessel flies a flag of convenience from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and has as registered owner RAK AFRICANA SHIPPING LTD based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and an office in the Seychelles, while industry sources said the beneficial owner was from China. AL SINDBAD SHIPPING & MARINE from Ras al Khaimah (UAE) serves as manager. After the delivery of a ransom 26 seamen (11 Indians, including the captain, the second and third officer, as well as 10 Tanzanians and 5 Pakistanis) abandoned the vessel, because it allegedly couldn’t sail and first a Spanish and then an Italian warship took the crew – only to deliver them for further transport onto likewise released MT YORK for travels to Mombasa in Kenya. The crew is safe, but the vessel is not.
- more background – see our previous updates on 09. and 11. March 2011
MV RAK AFRICANA was held at position 0435N 04804E , which is just south of Ceel Gaan at the coast of Harardheere District, when the ransom was delivered, the pirates abandoned the ship and the crew said they couldn’t move the vessel out to sea. On March 9, marine authorities received a distress call from the vessel stating that they were taking on large amounts of water due to what was described as a “hole in the hull,” hours after the vessel had been released from pirate control. The EU-NAVFOR Spanish warship SPS Canarias was immediately sent to assist the stricken vessel and was later joined by the Italian warship ITS Zeffiro, which arrived first and carried out the rescue operation. Some 25 crewmembers abandoned the RAK Afrikana and took to the lifeboats. The crew were rescued by Rigid-Hulled Inflatable Boat (RHIB) from the Italian warship shortly afterward. The master of the vessel stated that the ship was expected to sink soon.
Apparently at first a tug-boat was called to pull the vessel, but it was later cancelled and the Spanish and Italian warship ITS Zeffiro , which had assisted and watched the ransom transfer, took on the crew, which was later transferred to likewise released MT YORK – thereby the sailors reached Mombasa in Kenya safely.
Though it was said the vessel would take on water through a big hole in the hull and observers wondered how this could be, since the vessel had been floating fine through all these month of being held hostage, the vessel didn’t sink as predicted by EU NAVFOR.
Somalia has now to deal with a ship-wreck at its beach and the environmental pollution just north of the spot where the crew had abandoned the ship. Observers from Handulle (Xandulle) say the cargo is still on board.
Why the European warships didn’t pull the vessel is not explained and leaves many questions to be followed up by the insurance, the Italian government as well as the Somali governance of the area where the vessel will cause serious damage to the marine ecosystem.
The vessel is as ghost ship drifting unattended along the Somali coast. She is slowly going down, observers reported at the end of March and stated: “We can not say yet where she will find her last spot – all is depending on wind and currents and time.”
ECOTERRA Intl. meanwhile called on the shipowner, the navies and the Italian, Indian and United Arab Emirates governments, who had used the vessel jointly for cadet training  to salvage the vessel and pull her off the coast and into a safe location.
“We can not tolerate that pirates and irresponsible shipowners let the vessel pollute our coast and use the opportunity to get rid of an old ship,” said Dr. Abdulkadir Salad Elmi from ECOTERRA-Somalia. The biologist also wonders why the owners of the cargo do not cry foul, since it is reportedly still on the vessel. “Or is it all an insurance scam and an understanding between pirates and shipowner – with the navies just as bystander or possible accomplice?” he asks and continued: “They had time now since 9. March 2011 to pull the vessel and it is even still possible now to salvage the ship, so why the owner did since three weeks not call a tug-boat from Mombasa or found other means?”
Dr. Elmi speaks also on behalf of the Somali communities whose coastal stretch, ecosystem and livelihood would be ruined with the pollutants in form of oil and other substances from the vessel, if it is not pulled away.
But the IMO, who should have become active, seems to shy away from its duties, while the UAE’s rocky statelet of Ras Al Khaimah, where the owner of thois vessel resides, is now being branded a rogue state.
According to security analysts, the regime presents an international security threat because the kingdom is allowing the shipment of weapons, including nuclear weapons parts, drugs and blood diamonds as well as military personnel and terrorists from al-Qaida and other networks.
Last observations revealed that ill-fated and abandoned MV RAK AFRIKANA, left or even instigated to sink, is now, after more than 3 week from the day when the crew left the vessel clandestinely and then stated that she would sink within hours, has gone down very low, but still the superstructures were visible over the first weekend in April at position 0435N and 04804E, which is south of Ceel Gaan at the Central Somali Indian Ocean coast. It seems now at the beginning of May that the vessel is grounded in position 04336N 048017E and still the superstructures are clearly visible.

QUESTION ASKED HERE:
THE COWARDS OF LABAD
WHOSE NAVY KILLED 4 AND INJURED 5 SOMALIS AT THE BEACH OF LABAD ON 24. OCTOBER 2010 ???
NAVAL COMMANDS ADMIT THE INCIDENT, BUT DO HIDE WHICH NAVY WAS INVOLVED.

ANSWER PROVIDED:

THE COWARDS OF LABAD (ecop-marine)
WHOSE NAVY KILLED FIVE SOMALIS AT THE BEACH OF LABAD ON 24. OCTOBER 2010 ?
Incident Date: Sunday, October 24, 2010 early nightly hours
Location: off Labad (about 30 kilometers from Hobyo at the Central Somali Indian Ocean coast)
Casualties 4 Somali Nationals killed instantly
Wounded: 3 Somali Nationals (one died later)
Small Somali Boat destroyed during the attack
Situation: Not a hostage situation, assumed preparation by Somalis to go out on the sea in their boat.
According to the navies a pirate group had prepared to go hunting and shot first at 2 RHIBs with unidentified naval commando units from a nearby warship when they came close for inspection.
Their chopper was called in and returned fire with some heavier stuff.
The “pirates” were at the beach, one missile (most likely fired as deterrent rather than on target) hit a rock and caused the casualties.
The navies said bluntly:

A spokesman for the Combined Maritime Forces says the patrol was shot at
during a routine mission and returned fire. He did not report any casualties.

It was said earlier:

The chopper flew from a military ship off the coastal area and it fired a
missile after the pirates opened fire on it
The missile hit a rock and exploded causing the casualties.
The European Union’s anti-piracy mission on Monday denied that one of its
helicopters was involved in a clash with Somali pirates in which four people
were killed.

“That helicopter does not belong to EU NAVFOR,” Lieutenant Colonel Per
Klingvall, spokesman for the EU naval force, told AFP.

During that day the Turkish Navy under Rear Admiral Sinan Ertugrul was at the helm of Combined Task Force 151 (CTF-151), the multi-national counter-piracy mission of the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) and Commodore Gregory Sammut of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) held command of Combined Task Force 150 (CTF-150).
Requests for clarification were answered by Jeremy Olver, Lieutenant, Royal Naval Reserve, Deputy Media Operations Officer, United Kingdom Maritime Component Command (UKMCC), Bahrain.as Assistant Public Affairs Officer, Combined Maritime Forces by stating bluntly: “Combined Maritime Forces’ rules of engagement are established in accordance with international law. As such, units and personnel attached to Combined Maritime Forces are permitted to act in self defence. We do not comment on specific incidents.”
Since January 2005, the UK’s Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) has given the public a general right of access to all types of “recorded” information held by public authorities – not only government departments, local authorities and other public bodies, but also schools, colleges and universities, and private entities wholly or largely owned by a ‘public authority’. Naval Reservist Olver might not know this. But who controls him?
Thereby it must be noted that the CMF is a non-legal entity – a nobody to be precise – a naval club without any rights per se, which only can make funny statements concerning its existence, like:
“Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) is an [sic!] multi-national naval partnership, which exists to promote security, stability and prosperity [prosperity on water???] across 2.5 million square miles of international waters in the Middle East, which encompass some of the world’s most important shipping lanes.” – see: http://combinedmaritimeforces.com/about/  - BUT LET LOOSE, THEY BECOME DEADLY KILLER VIRUSES !
They must believe that they can even “walk on water”.
Many more details have transpired since the incident took place and we guess that it must have been an action carried out by U.S.American naval forces on USS OSCAR AUSTIN, which was sailing there at that time under national (USA) control.
The camouflaging “let’s-change-the-hat”-game is common among the navies who sail under EU or NATO if kudos are believed to be dished out, but keep to their own flag and secrecy if something goes wrong.
How about coming out with a clear voice, commander of USS OSCAR AUSTIN ?

CLARIFICATION AWAITED:
INDIAN AUTHORITIES WERE REQUESTED TO STOP THIS BLOCKADE-BREAKING SMUGGLER
ALERT: ILLEGALLY OPERATING VESSEL WITH CRIMINAL RECORD IN SOMALI WATERS
Further reports on action awaited from the Governments of India and the United Arab Emirates.
MSV SEA QUEEN, the Indian-owned and registered but UAE flagged motorized merchant Dhow was at first also by naval sources reported as having been captured again outside Kismaayo in Southern Somalia on 23. October 2010. But Mr. Jagdip Ayachi, who operates as the vessel’s handler out of the United Arab Emirates and sometimes also poses as the owner of the Dhow maintains that it is not under duress in the moment.
According to reports the charcoal-laden ship had been attacked by two skiffs at 10h11 local time (13h11 UTC) on 23. October 2010 and observers stated that the Indian flagged Dhow SEA QUEEN (MSI Number: 419956127) was loaded with charcoal in position 00.23.13S/42.35.58E, outside Kismaayo, when it was pirated by a gang arriving in 2 skiffs. Thereafter the latest position of MSV SEA QUEEN was at 16:19:36 (UTC) on 23OCT10 at position 00.24.48S/42.38.29E.
The fact that she then was heading from 00.23 to 00.24 South (both positions already south of Kismaayo and with course towards the Kenyan border) could be an indication that they are involved in some other business all-together and that it might not be a sea-jack but a taxi-ride or some other purpose behind it, like weapons- or precious-stones-smuggling, transport of Al-Shabaab fighters to these islands there or similar clandestine and illegal activities.
Since that vessel and crew were taken already in April in a flurry together with other blockade breaking Dhows. which probably also resembled a quarrel or fall-out among certain players, it could very well be something like that this time too. But for the moment we presume that this specific blockade-breaker is doing illegal business together with Somali criminals.
This vessel clearly not only violates the legal regulations of the transitional federal government (TFG) of Somalia, which clearly stipulate that Kismaayo is not a port of entry for foreign flagged vessels and obviously is a crime-ship since it exports illegally charcoal from Somalia, but since it is also fact that the vessel has a registration issued by the Indian Government it violates blatantly and persistently the ban imposed at the beginning of the year on all Indian registered merchant dhows which clearly rules that it is not permitted for any of these vessels to ply the waters south and west of a line joining Salalah (Oman) and Malé (Maldives).
If the Indian government as well as the authorities now still will do nothing to once and for all stop the criminal activities of this vessel MSV SEA QUEEN, it will become obvious that they protect these blockade breakers, smugglers and thieves and thereby aide the dealings of organizations like the Al-Shabaab, which is officially listed as a terrorist group, because without their colluding consent the vessel never could have even entered Kismaayo in the first place.
Kenyan security organs have now been informed about this vessel and the government of the United Arab Emirates was urged again to finally forbid the import of illegal charcoal exports from Somalia, which at least would show that the UAE recognizes the laws of Somalia and assists Somalia in their enforcement.

WHO SUNK FV SIRICHAI NAVA 11 SEEMS CLEAR NOW, BUT HOW?
It still has not been officially declared, which naval ship took the captured fishing vessel from Thailand on 03. November 2010 under fire in the Gulf off Aden and sunk it, as we earlier reported.
But credible reports from Yemen indicate now that it was actually the Yemeni maritime security forces, who sunk the Thai-owned, allegedly Yemen-cross-flagged FV SIRICHAI NAVA 11,  but they didn’t rescue the survivors.
Of the 10 Somali attackers, two had left in a skiff prior to the attack, according to the survivors, while 8 are presumed to be dead.
The Thai Navy logistics ship, HTMS Similan left its station in the Gulf of Aden to transfer the injured crewmen of the fishing boat to hospitals in Oman, 400 miles away, according to Rear Admiral Chaiyot Sunthoranak, Commander of First Royal Thai Naval Area Command, Somali Pirate Suppression Fleet.
According to sources from the crew of the fishing vessel, the boat was attacked by armed pirates, approximately 70 miles from Xabo City, on the Somali coast, [thereby clearly illegally fishing inside the Somali EEZ] at 16h00 local time on 7. November - as reported by the Pattaya Daily news. Naval reports, however had earlier stated that the fishing vessel was already captured on 02. November 2010 at 12h37 UTC (15h37 local time) in position 13:31.42N – 048:19.16E, Gulf of Aden. This also goes along with the report that the Yemen naval forces engaged the ship on 03. November 2010.
The 23 (15 Cambodians and 8 Thai) surviving crewmembers of the fishing boat were later given first aid by HTMS Pattani and then transferring to HTMS Similan and then to Oman
SERIOUS CHEMICAL INJURIES
Several of the injured seamen were reported to have sustained chemical injuries: Mr. Phraison Thongsuk [28], a Thai national, and Messrs Sinkhahon [28] and Soimao [28], both Cambodian nationals, had been burnt and also had severe chemical wounds covering their bodies, causing extensive parts of the skin to be destroyed. Two other Cambodian nationals, Messrs Sineehol [19] and. Niapong [43] had swallowed massive amounts of sea water contaminated with chemicals that had burnt their throats, causing their mouths to swell and also injured their stomachs. Why so many chemical injuries are reported, by wich means and how the attacking Yemeni naval forces did sink the ship is still not yet clarified.
All the severely injured were then sent to HTMS Similan to be transferred to Oman for treatment. Other seamen with minor injuries were recovering in HTMS Similan and were being well taken care of by a team of doctors and nurses from the Navy Medical Department.
The Coordination Centre at Salalah Naval Base, Sultanate of Oman, co-operated with the Thai Embassy in Oman’s request for permission for the injured to enter the country. The Sirichai Fishing Company had also been contacted with the news that their crewmen had been sent to the Salalah City Hospital for treatment. Rear Admiral Chaiyot Sunthoranak told press that the Sirichai Fishing Company had expressed their concern about their crew, promising them compensation (but see the NEWSWEEK or our previous report concerning that company).
While most crew members and one Yemeni policeman were rescued as they were floating in the waters by the Thai naval ship, at least 1 Thai sailor from the crew and four of the five Yemeni policeman, who had served as guard on the vessel, are missing.
STILL NEITHER EU NAVFOR, NATO, U.S. NAVY, THAI NAVY, YEMENI COASTGUARD OR ANY OTHER OFFICIAL CHANNEL HAS STATED THE FULL TRUTH – while local observers believe that NAPALM was used in the attack.

Indian Boat with Five Fishermen Goes Missing in Arabian Sea
A fishing boat with five fishermen on board has gone missing in the rough sea, 160 nautical miles from the Okha port of the district, police said on 16. November 2010. A complaint registered with the marine police station of Okha said that contact with the boat that had gone for fishing was lost from Sunday.The sea has been rough for the last few days and the state government had warned fishermen not to venture into the ocean.The police along with Coast Guard has began search for the missing boat and fisherman.

DUTCH NAVY BOTCHED ATTACK AGAINST HOSTAGE VESSEL
The attack targeted the pirates on sea-jacked Taiwanese fishing vessel FV TAI YUAN 227 (aka JAPAN 555, exaka MALAYSIA 618) during Friday afternoon, 21. January 2011.
The last official observation of that vessel was at 06h22 UTC on 16. January, when the FV TAI YUAN 227, which sports now the newly painted name JAPAN 555 was observed with two skiffs in position Latitude: 19°47N and Longitude: 063°25E sailing with a speed of 6kts and course of 207 degrees.
The fishing vessel arrived then on 27. January 2011, back in Somalia south of Garacad at the North-Eastern Somali Indian coast with wounded pirates on board, who reported that they were attacked by a navy. Some first spoke of the Malaysian Navy but some said the Dutch navy had attacked.
Local observers saw one seriously injured Somali pirate with a bullet wound in the abdomen. Two pirates went reportedly missing during the battle with the naval soldiers, and 4 were wounded. What happened to the pirates who were lost in the battle at sea is not known and also any casualties on the side of the naval troops has not transpired and was not reported elsewhere. During the attack the buccaneers had packed the crew into the lower compartments of the vessel.
Latest reports from Taiwan even spoke of some crew members having escaped during the clash, but this was so far not confirmed, neither from Taiwan nor from the naval commands who so far remain mum.
“It is not the first time that they have lied, but bad all the same,” a journalist stated back then when the Defence Ministry of the Netherlands for a long time denied that one sailor had been killed and one Somali had been wiped off the MV MARATHON during a blotched attack by a combined force of a Spanish and a Dutch naval vessel on the sea-jacked merchant ship in 2009. They knew which vessel they attacked and how the whole story was, so why not reporting openly and transparent?
The public, including the families of the hostage crew deserve and demand to be informned if innocent hostages are endangered by naval trial&error-operations.

DUTCH NAVY DISCARDS KILLED SOMALIS LIKE RUBBISH INTO THE SEA
One of the sea-jacked Iranian fishing vessels with the registration number 4/3739 was set free on 01. April 2011 by the Danish navy wounding three Somalis while operating under NATO. At the same time the Dutch “liberated” another vessel, MSV HORMUZ (aka URMUZ), which had been seized January 21, 2011 with killing two Somalis and wounding five. In both cases – after repairs – the vessels could sail off, while the two dead Somalis were dumped by the Dutch into the ocean, which caused widespread uproar in Somalia and internationally. The Somali families of two shot Somalis still seek redress.
According to a naval statement issued by the Danish Government the four dead pirates “were buried at sea according to NATO procedure and Muslim tradition”.
NATO did not confirm that such a NATO’s procedure would exist.
Already several lawmakers in Mogadishu have openly protested and stated that just dumping the bodies of killed Somalis to the sharks is neither Muslim nor Somali tradition. They demanded that all those Somalis killed by the navies on the waters must be brought back to Somalia for the purpose of proper investigations and not at least a decent and appropriate burial.
In Nairobi, Somali member of parliament Hon. Awad Ahmed Ashareh expressed dismay about the case and announced an official demarche followed by a full investigation. He already stated that the disposal of the killed Somalis on the sea is unacceptable and accused the Danes to have violated International and national law in their numerous attacks, of which many happened directly at the Somali coast.
The Danish navy then also dropped the arrested Somalis including the wounded to the Seychelles, who have become their vassal in prosecuting pirates.

MYSTERY END OF YEMENI VESSEL USED AS PIRATE LAUNCH (ecop-marine)
Reports from Somalia have filtered through stating that MV SOCOTRA 1 and almost all people on board went under near the Seychelles. Families close to pirates and those of Somali passengers on board reported that the vessel was used as a refugee ferry and piracy launch at the same time when it came under naval fire near the Seychelles.
When the pirates on board returned heavy fire, the so far unidentified naval vessel backed off only to then pound the ship with artillery from afar, causing the vessel to sink. Reportedly no attempts were made by the navy to rescue any of the crew or passengers. Only a few men are said to have escaped in a skiff. In an earlier incident the coastguard of the Seychelles admitted that they didn’t bother to take survivors on board after they shot up a small pirate vessel. Allegedly 39 persons died with the sinking of MV SOCOTRA 1, but it is believed that the reports are not mixed up with the accidental sinking of an overloaded Tanzanian ferry three days later, on 09. September, killing nearly 200 passengers.
However, so far none of the navies has reported, confirmed or disputed the incident involving the Yemeni vessel.
BACKGROUND: (ecop-marine)
MV SOCOTRA 1 : Seized December 25. 2009. The vessel carrying a food cargo for a Yemeni businessman and bound for Socotra Archipelago was captured in the Gulf of Aden after it left Alshahir port in the eastern province of Hadramout. 6 crew members of Yemeni nationality were aboard. Latest information said the ship was commandeered onto the high seas between Oman and Pakistan, possibly in another piracy or smuggling mission. 2 of the original crew were reportedly held on land in Puntland for some time. That the vessel was still missing and/or working as pirate ship, was confirmed by Yemeni authorities. Allegedly wrecked under naval attack near Seychelles on or around the 07. September 2011.

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For further details and regional information see the Somali Marine and Coastal Monitor and the updated map of the PIRACY COASTS OF SOMALIA. See the archive at www.australia.to and news on www.international.to

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ECOTERRA Intl. is an international nature protection and human rights organization, whose Africa offices in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania also monitor the marine and maritime situation along the East African Indian Ocean coasts as well as the Gulf of Aden. ECOTERRA is working in Somalia since 1986 and does focus in its work against piracy mainly on coastal development and pacification.

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