Ship hijack: Hostage captain’s wife fights on

[yogi]

A very moving story. I hope that Indian government wakes up from inactivity and does something about it. Look at how quickly the US, Russian, and European navies responded to a similar hijacking of a Russian ship carrying 33 Tanks.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/I...ow/3558329.cms

NEW DELHI: Shivansh Goyal is seven and loves watching the cartoon networks. But for the past two weeks he has just flipped through news channels.

Shivansh does not speak — he was born with a hearing impairment — and this is the only way he can express his anxiety for his father, Prabhat Goyal, captain of MT Stolt Valor that was taken over by Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden on September 15.

‘‘He is used to his father not being there but the last few days have been so tense that he realizes there is something amiss, concerning his father. He is glued to news channels for a glimpse of his father,’’ his mother Seema explains. Seema’s world came crashing after a 30-second phone call from Prabhat on the evening of September 15. ‘‘It was 5.12pm. And all he said was ‘there’s a hijack. Inform everyone,’’’ she recalls.

Since then she has been fighting a lone battle on behalf of the families of the 18 Indian crew members on board the hijacked ship — running from political leaders to bureaucrats to talking to the ship’s management company. In between, she is also squeezing in time to highlight the quintessential paradox regarding the Indian merchant marine professionals that has never quite had the government’s attention. She is in the capital to muster support and mobilise the government into action. On Friday she met Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

‘‘At any given point there are one lakh Indian sailors on foreign seas, we are the largest suppliers of sailors and yet there is no system in place to ensure their safety. There have been so many such incidents in the Gulf of Aden,’’ she says. Added Captain Anshul Rajvanshi of Ebony Ship Management Company of which Captain Prabhat is an employee: ‘‘This is the 54th incident this year and right now there are 22 hijacked ships in the Gulf of Aden. Most of these ships have an 80% Indian crew.’’

Interestingly, despite such high numbers, India is neither a part of the UN Coalition Force that patrols the area nor is there any set protocol for dealing with such incidents — apparently, due to an unwillingness to ‘spoil relations’ with the transitional government in Somalia.

‘‘Since it is a Japanese-owned ship, India cannot be a party in the discussion but we will push for a representative to be sent,’’ Rajvanshi said.

Meanwhile, for the entire Stolt Valor crew, Seema has become the point man. Everyday they call her at least once and narrate stories about how they were forced to lie on the bare iron bridge of the ship at noon and how rations — enough to last just 20 days, on September 15, the day it was hijacked — are now running desperately low because the pirates too feed out of them. The pirates had initially asked for $6 million ransom.

‘‘I am here in Delhi till the time I get my men back,’’ she says — voice steeped in a steely resolve. And, she knows, no matter how eager she is for news of her husband, she has to wait for that call from the ship’s satellite phone. ‘‘People here told me that I may be risking their lives if I call,’’ she says.

[alfar]

Finally!! the ship was rescued. And guess who rescued it? Freelance Somali coast guards. I wonder what Indian government was doing? They must have been quick in taking the delivery of the men and ship once it was rescued.

Hijacked Indian ship with 13 crew members rescued

MOGADISHU: Somali gunmen acting as freelance coast guards helped rescue a hijacked Indian cargo vessel and its 13 crew members after a battle
with pirates off the country's northern coast, a Somali official said Tuesday.

Four of the pirates were captured during the shootout while another four escaped, said Ali Abdi Aware, the foreign minister of Somalia's semiautonomous region of Puntland. None of the dhow's crew was wounded

Somalia does not have a formal coast guard, but groups of heavily armed clan-based militias sometimes do the job for local authorities.

The cargo-laden vessel was en route to Somalia from Asia when it was seized over the weekend, said Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur.

The attack came despite increased international cooperation to crack down on pirates in Somali waters.

"It shows that the momentum is still there, the attacks are still continuing in this key shipping route,'' Choong said, adding that the bureau has issued a warning for ships to maintain a strict watch.

The hijacking raised the number of attacks this year in Somali waters to 74. A total of 30 ships have been hijacked, and nine remain in the hands of pirates along with nearly 200 crew members, Choong said.

Momentum has been growing for coordinated international action following the Sept. 25 hijacking of the Ukrainian ship MV Faina, which is carrying tanks and other heavy weaponry.

Warships from several nations are surrounding the ship to prevent any attempt to unload it. A Russian guided missile frigate is en route amid speculation that it could use force to end the standoff.

Russian Navy spokesman Capt. Igor Dygalo refused to comment on the speculation. He said the Russian ship may coordinate its action with other foreign vessels, but wouldn't give further details.

NATO has sent warships to the area to help US. navy vessels already patrolling the region. India also announced it will send warships to the area, and several European countries have said they would launch an anti-piracy patrol.

Some naval commanders are also suggesting shipping companies hire private security firms to counter possible hijackings.

Somalia, which has not had a functioning government since 1991, has been impoverished by decades of conflict, and piracy by Somali gangs has emerged as a lucrative racket that brings in millions of dollars in ransoms.

[yogi]

The crew comes back safely, after Japanese firm paid the ransom.

(CNN) -- Five Indian sailors who were among the crew of a Japanese-owned cargo ship hijacked by pirates and held for two months before a ransom was paid said Monday their captivity was "total desperation." "I wish that no one else ever has to go through this -- (hijackers) are not human but rather animals," said Alister Fernandes, one of the sailors, at a news conference in Mumbai, India. They arrived in Mumbai on Monday after several days of rest and medical and psychological treatment following the release of their ship on November 16. The Stolt Valor, a chemical tanker, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen on September 15 and was one of several vessels hijacked in recent weeks by pirates.

Navies from various countries including the United States and India have sent warships to the area in an effort to protect cargo ships and thwart the growing wave of pirate activity off the Horn of Africa. Authorities blame many of the attacks on pirates based in Somalia. The Stolt Valor and its crew of 22 -- 18 of them Indian -- were released after the Japanese firm that owns the ship paid a $2.5 million ransom, according to CNN-IBN, CNN's sister network in India. The sailors were generally in good health when they were released, but according to the five who spoke publicly Monday conditions aboard the Stolt Valor were severe and they lived for two months in continual fear of being killed by the pirates.

"We were always ... all 24 hours we were on gunpoint," said Fernandes. "We were all staying on the bridge (in the) navigation area. All 22 crew members were sleeping there, eating there. Only for shower and all, only two people were allowed -- two people will go, then they come up, two (more) people will go." Another crew member, Naved Burandkar, said the hijacking occurred when pirates came behind the Stolt Valor on a boat and fired rocket-propelled grenades. "They were continuously firing (at) our ship," he said. "They boarded our ship. They were firing ... nobody was going to understand what's happening so you can imagine what the situation was there." Relieved friends and relatives showered the five men with flower petals when they arrived in Mumbai, and some relatives sobbed as they hugged the men to welcome them home.

Pirates have attacked more than 90 vessels off East Africa so far this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center, which monitors piracy around the world. The attacks have increased in recent weeks, the PRC says. Kenya's foreign minister said last week that more than $150 million has been paid to pirates around the Horn of Africa over the past 12 months, and the money is encouraging pirates to continue their attacks. "That is why they are becoming more and more audacious in their activities," Kenyan Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula said. At Monday's news conference in Mumbai, the chairman of the National Union of Seafarers of India called on the United Nations to send peacekeeping patrols into the waters off Africa and to coordinate efforts already under way by various nations.

"The U.S. is there, UK is there, France is there, but they are very particular about the nationality of the crew on board (hijacked ships)," said Abdul Ghani of the Indian seafarers union. Referring to the two-month holding of the predominantly Indian crew of the Stolt Valor, he added, "That's the reason in this instance it was the demand of our union and also the industry that the government of India should send its Indian navy, which the government finally has sent."