Pirates cut ransom for Saudi ship to $15m

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(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-11-25 06:51

MOGADISHU: Somali pirates holding a Saudi supertanker have reduced their ransom demand to $15 million, an Islamist leader and a regional maritime group said Monday.

The largest hijacking in maritime history - the Sirius Star with $100 million worth of oil and a 25-member crew was seized on Nov 15 - has focused world attention on rampant piracy off the failed Horn of Africa state.

Scores of attacks this year have earned the pirates millions of dollars in ransom, hiked shipping insurance costs, sent foreign naval patrols rushing to the area and left about a dozen boats with more than 200 hostages in pirate hands.

The Liberian-flagged oil tanker MV Sirius Star is shown at anchor on November 19, 2008, off the coast of Somalia. Somali pirates holding a Saudi supertanker after the largest hijacking in maritime history have reduced their ransom demand to $15 million, an Islamist leader and regional maritime group both said on Monday. [Agencies]

The gang had originally been quoted as demanding $25 million to release the Sirius Star, which was captured far from Somali waters about 450 nautical miles southeast of Kenya.

But Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Isse Adow, whose men are in the Haradheere area where the ship is being held offshore, said the demand had been reduced. "Middlemen have given a $15-million ransom figure for the Saudi ship. That is the issue now," he said.

Residents say pirates have taken the ship further out to about 100 km off the coast of central Somalia after Islamist militia poured into the town in search of the pirates.

Adow, who represents the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), said his men were out to confront the pirates and free the Saudi Arabian very large crude carrier (VLCC) because it is a "Muslim" ship. But residents said other Islamist militia want a cut of any ransom payment.

Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of Mombasa-based East Africa Seafarers Programme, said his sources were confirming a reduced $15-million demand. "The ship has moved into deeper waters, but it cannot go too far because of patrols," he said.

More than a dozen foreign warships are in the area, though analysts said the range Somali pirates operate in was too vast to ever properly control.

Iran said Monday that it would use force against pirates if necessary. The warning came after an Iranian-chartered vessel was seized off the coast of Yemen last week.

The Hong Kong-flagged Delight, with 25 crew and 36,000 tons of wheat, was also seized last week on its way from Germany to Iran. It was chartered by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL), the country's biggest shipping company.

"Iran's view is that such issues should be confronted strongly," Ebtekar daily quoted Deputy Transport Minister Ali Taheri as having said.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has the capability to confront pirates. If necessary we can use force," he said, suggesting the country had the right to do so under international law.

Reacting to the increased attacks, a shipping body and tanker owners from around the world Monday called for a military blockade along the coast of Somalia to intercept pirate vessels heading out to sea.

Peter Swift, managing director of the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners, said stronger naval action, including aerial and aviation support, was necessary to battle rampant piracy in the Gulf of Aden.

A blockade along Somalia's 3,900-km-long coastline "is not easy but some intervention there may be effective. This is where coordination (among naval warships) is important," Swift told reporters on the sidelines of a shipping conference in Kuala Lumpur.

Agencies