Somalian pirates-a different perspective

[JavaBuc]

I thought they had rotating warlords for the last couple decades. None of them stay in power long enough to be considered a stable government.

They have a "government" now but I don't think it amounts to much. They basically control whatever room they are in at the time.

That's pretty much accurate.   Africa in general is a disaster, but Somalia is perhaps the worst.   All of central Africa is a complete mess.   I've been to central africa many times (not sudan, but chad, congo, angola, etc), and those people have no common sense of decency or desire for civilized fairness.    Greed and corruption are the only respected ways there.   And if things aren't going their way, they form a rebel group to get their way.   It's too bad the Brits didn't colonize all of africa rather than just south africa.   The native africans themselves can't ever get their act together.    I doubt they ever will by themselves.   

[Boid Fink]

I thought they had rotating warlords for the last couple decades. None of them stay in power long enough to be considered a stable government.

They have a "government" now but I don't think it amounts to much. They basically control whatever room they are in at the time.

That's pretty much accurate. Africa in general is a disaster, but Somalia is perhaps the worst. All of central Africa is a complete mess. I've been to central africa many times (not sudan, but chad, congo, angola, etc), and those people have no common sense of decency or desire for civilized fairness. Greed and corruption are the only respected ways there. And if things aren't going their way, they form a rebel group to get their way. It's too bad the Brits didn't colonize all of africa rather than just south africa. The native africans themselves can't ever get their act together. I doubt they ever will by themselves.

Somalia is a shidthole.

All of us be grateful we were not born there, or the Congo.

[JavaBuc]

Name one place in all of africa that is governed by native africans that isn't a craphole (other than the northern tip that includes morocco, tunisia and egypt - if you ask an egyptian if he is african, he will say "No, I am egyptian"   if you ask a moroccan if he is african, he will say 'no, i am morroccan"  if you ask tunisian if he is african, he will say "No, i am tunisian" - it's the ones who consider themselves african who are the problem - chad, angola, nigeria, congo, sudan, somalia, etc).    I have yet to find one of those countries who can come even close to getting their act together.  I guess the best might be Cameroon and Ghana.   Most of them are completely useless.   That entire continent south of morocco and north of south africa needs to be taken over by some other country like the usa or england.    If we let them flounder around the way they are, they'll eventually be a problem for the entire world - like Somalia has become with it's pirates.

[Morgan]

I'm embarassed that our gov't and military can't find a way to make this region safer for these commercial boats. 

[JavaBuc]

Why does it have to be our government?   Most of those aren't our ships.

[Morgan]

Who cares about other ships?  - I'm talking about ships from America.

[Skull and Bones]

05 March 2005
Europe's Nuclear & Toxic Waste Scandal in Somalia: Radiation Threatens East & Horn of Africa
 
The same Times of London article on the deadly man-made wastes now unleashed in Somalia was filed from Johannesburg, South Africa by Jonathan Clayton. All or virtually all these nuclear and other poisonous wastes were shipped into Somalia from Europe.

At $8.00 a ton (eight bucks) European companies illegally dumped lethal, poisonous and radioactive wastes that would've cost as much as $1,000 a ton (a thousand dollars per ton) to dispose of in the white, northern world.

Much of this story traces back to a Somali "leader" named Ali Mahdi - also as Ali Mahdi Mohamed -  who in the early 1990s "controlled north Mogadishu and worked closely with the UN..."

The Times article claims that this Ali Mahdi has always refused to discuss his role in dumping nuclear and toxic waste in Somalia for profit. Just as importantly -- where is Ali Mahdi now, and - since authorities already know about this scandal - why isn't he in jail?

But also, a report by Italy's parliament has already confirmed many of the dumping allegations. Quoting from the Times: "Initial reports indicate that the tsunami waves broke open containers full of toxic waste and scattered the contents. We are talking about everything from medical waste to chemical waste products,� Nick Nuttal, the Unep spokesman, told The Times.

 
 
“We know this material is on the land and is now being blown around and possibly carried to villages. What we do not know is the full extent of the problem.�

"Mr Nuttall said... a UN assessment mission ... recently returned from [Somalia] which has had no government since 1991, reported that several Somalis in the northern areas were ill with diseases consistent with radiation sickness. “We need more information. We need to find out what has been going on there, but there is real cause for concern,� he added. “We now need to urgently send in a multi-agency expert mission, led by Unep, for a full investigation.�

"An initial UN report says that many people in the areas around the northeastern towns of Hobbio and Benadir, on the Indian Ocean coast, are suffering from far higher than normal cases of respiratory infections, mouth ulcers and bleeding, abdominal haemorrhages and unusual skin infections.

“The current situation along the Somali coastline poses a very serious environmental hazard not only in Somalia but also in the eastern Africa sub-region...�

"Local warlords, many of them former ministers in Siad Barre’s last government, received large payments from Swiss and Italian firms for access to their respective fiefdoms.

"Most of the waste was simply dumped on remote beaches in containers and leaking disposable barrels.

"Somali sources ... say ... the dumped materials included radioactive uranium, lead, cadmium, mercury and industrial, hospital, chemical and various other toxic wastes. In 1992, Unep said that European firms were involved in the trade, but because of the high level of insecurity in the country there were never any accurate assessments of the extent of the problem.

"In 1997 and 1998, the [excellent] Italian newspaper Famiglia Cristiana, which jointly investigated the allegations with the Italian branch of Greenpeace, published a series of articles detailing the extent of illegal dumping by a Swiss firm, Achair Partners, and an Italian waste broker, Progresso.

"The European Green Party followed up the revelations by presenting to the press and the European Parliament in Strasbourg copies of contracts signed by the two companies and representatives of the then “President� � Ali Mahdi Mohamed � to accept 10 million tonnes of toxic waste in exchange for $80 million (then about £60 million). ..."

 
 

[Skull and Bones]

Mystery surrounds hijacked Iranian ship
By Nick GraceSeptember 22, 2008 12:20 PM
 
The MV Iran Deyanat. Photo from Maritime News Russia.
 


Written by Nick Grace & Abdiweli Ali, Ph.D.

A tense standoff is underway in northeastern Somalia between pirates, Somali authorities, and Iran over a su**CENSORED**ious merchant vessel and its mysterious cargo. Hijacked late last month in the Gulf of Aden, the MV Iran Deyanat remains moored offshore in Somali waters and inaccessible for inspection. Its declared cargo consists of minerals and industrial products, however, Somali and regional officials directly involved in the negotiations over the ship and who spoke to The Long War Journal are convinced that it was heading to Eritrea to deliver small arms and chemical weapons to Somalia's Islamist insurgents.

It was business as usual when speedboats surrounded the MV Iran Deyanat on August 21. The 44468 dead weight tonnage bulk carrier was pushing towards the Suez and had just entered the Gulf of Aden - dangerous waters where instability, greed and no-questions-asked ransom payments have led to a recent surge in piracy. Steaming past the Horn of Africa, 82 nautical miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was a prize for the taking. It would bring hundreds of thousands of dollars - possibly millions - to the Somalia-based crime syndicate. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them. What the pirates were not banking on, however, was that this was no ordinary ship.

The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking. According to the U.S. Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

The MV Iran Deyanat set sail from Nanjing, China, at the end of July and, according to its manifest, planned to travel to Rotterdam, where it would unload 42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" purchased by a German client. Its arrival in the Gulf of Aden, Somali officials tell The Long War Journal, was su**CENSORED**iously early. According to a publicly available status report on the IRISL Web site, the ship reached the Gulf on August 20 and was scheduled to reach the Suez Canal on August 27 - a seven day journey. "Depending on the speed of the ship," Puntland Minister of Ports Ahmed Siad Nur said in a phone interview on Saturday, "it should take between 4 and 5 days to reach Suez."

 
A hijacked bulk carrier looms in the horizon of the beach in Eyl. Photo from Garowe Online.
 
Su**CENSORED**ion has also been cast on the ship's crew, half of which is almost entirely staffed by Iranians - a large percentage of Iranian nationals for a standard merchant vessel. Somali officials say that the ship has a crew of 29 men, including a Pakistani captain, an Iranian engineer, 13 other Iranians, 3 Indians, 2 Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, possibly Croatian.

The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates - 50 onboard and 50 onshore. Within days, pirates who had boarded the ship developed strange health complications, skin burns and loss of hair. Independent sources tell The Long War Journal that a number of pirates have also died. "Yes, some of them have died. I do not know exactly how many but the information that I am getting is that some of them have died," Andrew Mwangura, Director of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Program, said Friday when reached by phone in Mombasa.

News about the illness and the toxic cargo quickly reached Garowe, seat of the government for the autonomous region of Puntland. Angered over the wave of piracy and su**CENSORED**ious about the Iranian ship, authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4. Osman also confirmed to The Long War Journal that during the six days he negotiated with the pirates members of the syndicate had become sick and died. "That ship is unusual," he said. "It is not carrying a normal shipment."

The delegation faced a tense situation in Eyl, Osman recounts. The syndicate had demanded a $9 million ransom for 10 ships that were in its possession and refused permission to inspect the Iranian vessel. At one point, he said, the pirates threatened to "blow up" the MV Iran Deyanat if authorities tried to inspect it with force. A committee of delegate members and Eyl city officials was formed to negotiate directly with the pirates in order to defuse the situation.

Once in direct contact, the pirates told Osman that they had attempted to inspect the ship's seven cargo containers after they developed health complications but the containers were locked. The crew claimed that they did not have the "access codes" and could not open them. The delegation secured contact with the captain and the engineer by cell phone and demanded to know the nature of the cargo, however, Osman says that "they were saying different things to different people." Initially they said that the cargo contained "crude oil" but then claimed it contained "minerals."

"The secrecy is not clear to us," Mwangura said about the cargo. "Our sources say it contains chemicals, dangerous chemicals." IRISL has flatly denied the ship is carrying a "dangerous consignment" and has threatened legal action against Mwangura.

The syndicate set the ship's ransom at $2 million and the Iranian government provided $200,000 to a local broker "to facilitate the exchange." Iran refutes that it agreed to the price and has paid any money to the pirates. Nevertheless, after sanctions were applied to IRISL on September 10, Osman says, the Iranians told the pirates that the deal was off. "They told the pirates that they could not come because of the presence of the U.S. Navy." The region is patrolled by the multinational Combined Taskforce 150, which includes ships from the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

In a strange twist, the Iranian press claims that the U.S. has offered to pay a $7 million bribe to the pirates to "receive entry permission and search the vessel." Officials in the Pentagon and the Department of State approached for this story refused to comment on the situation. Somali officials would also not comment on any direct U.S. involvement but one high-level official in the Puntland government told The Long War Journal "I can say the ship is of interest to a lot of people, including Puntland."

The exact nature of the cargo remains a mystery but officials in Puntland and Baidoa are convinced the ship was carrying weapons to Eritrea for Islamist insurgents. "We cannot inspect the cargo yet," Osman said, "but we are sure that it is weapons."

"Puntland requested the pirates two weeks ago to hand over this Iranian ship, saying that it is carrying weapons to Eritrea," Puntland Fisheries Minister Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf told Reuters. "I have seen food and other odd items on the ship but I do not know what is hidden underneath."

Iran's involvement in the conflict in Somalia on behalf of Islamist insurgents is well documented. In 2006, Iran flouted arms embargos and provided sophisticated anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), intelligence sources told The Long War Journal, including SA-7 Strella and SA-18 Igla MANPADS - shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles - as well as AT-3 Sagger antitank missiles.

A report issued by the United Nations in 2006 states that weapons were transferred to Somalia through Lebanon-based Hezbollah, which also absorbed a contingent of 700 Islamist fighters from Somalia during Hezbollah's war with Israel. The report also states that Iran provided support for Islamist training camps inside Somalia and had sent two emissaries to negotiate with the ICU for access to Somalia's uranium mines

[Skull and Bones]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Faina

[BucsBullsBolts]

That's been posted before and it is cute article but, of course, the ships they are mostly hijacking aren't fishing vessels or garbage scows but supertankers and container ships that are not a "threat" to Somolians or their way of life but merely the richest targets in the water. They're bandits no matter how they think of themselves.

I think in this situation it's important to know what the pirates are doing with any money or whatever they're getting from these hijackings before passing judgment...

[dalbuc]

I think in this situation it's important to know what the pirates are doing with any money or whatever they're getting from these hijackings before passing judgment...

Why? Who cares? Does it change how you feel if someone mugs you depending on how they spend the money?

[BucsBullsBolts]

I think in this situation it's important to know what the pirates are doing with any money or whatever they're getting from these hijackings before passing judgment...

Why? Who cares? Does it change how you feel if someone mugs you depending on how they spend the money?

You wouldn't steal to feed your family if there was no other option?

[Skull and Bones]

exactly.  the world has pretty much crapped on these people and they are doing what they have to do to survive. 

[Skull and Bones]

if these shipping companies don't want their freighters hijacked then they need to arm them with security teams.  maybe it's just cheaper to pay the ransoms.  Or are there some kind of international maritime laws against it?

[ufojoe]

Thanks for the articles, Skull. Seems like there is more to this story than has been reported in the msm. Not surprised.