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Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Spanish media reported that a document produced by a European military intelligence agency claims that pirates are targeting specific ships identified by a team of "well-placed advisers" in London.
These "consultants" are in constant satellite telephone contact with pirate commanders on land, who can then pass details of the layout of the vessel, its crew, route and cargo to their colleagues at sea, it states. On some occasions, they can even spend days in advance training for an specific attack.
A Spanish radio station, Cadena SER, quoted the document in a report yesterday. "The information provided voluntarily by merchant ships transiting the area to various international agencies has now landed in the pirates' hands," the document said.
Captains of hijacked ships have said after their experience that the pirates knew in great detail the nationalities of the crew, the ship's position, its layout and its destination.
The document, drawn up for commanders of the European Union anti-piracy force patrolling off Somalia, also reportedly said that hijackers are avoiding ships sailing under certain flags, including Britain's.
Despite having one of the largest merchant fleets, British boats have escaped the worst of the pirates' raids in the last year.
It was unclear why leaks of such sensitive details appear to be coming from Britain.
The Cadena SER report gave three examples of ships which were targeted with specific information. These were a Spanish fishing boat, the Felipe Ruano, a Greek freigher, the Titan, and a Turkish cargo vessel, the Karagol.
It was not immediately possible to verify the extent of the report's findings with Operation Atalanta, the co-ordinated European naval anti-piracy force deployed in the Gulf of Aden.
Ships from Nato, the US, China, India and at least a dozen other nations have been patrolling the waters off Somalia in a bid to curb rampant piracy.
The pirate gangs are believed to have grown out of vigilante "coast guard" patrols set up by Somalis to force European, Russian and Chinese trawlers stealing Somali fish to pay "tax" on their catches.
But recently the trend has turned into simple plunder, with ships hijacked purely for the millions of dollars in ransoms which are regularly being paid.
A Somali minister said yesterday that such payments, usually denied by ship owners, was worsening the situation.
"They are just running for ransom, you know ... and giving to these pirates and this is what made them strong," said Abdul Karis Osman Issa, public works minister in the semi-autonomous Puntland region of northern Somalia.
"They are giving millions of dollars so this is the problem, created by the international community first."
A British-owned cargo ship, the Malaspina Castle, was released at the weekend. The 32,000 ton ship and its mainly Bulgarian crew were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on April 6.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk, May 12, 2009