From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Apr 09 2009 - 08:35:23 EDT
Warship nears Somali pirates holding U.S. captain
Thu Apr 9, 2009 11:19am GMT
* US navy destroyer Bainbridge arrives on scene
* Crew negotiates for release of captain
* Pirates fail in fresh Gulf of Aden attack
* Clinton urges world to end piracy "scourge"
(Adds Maersk spokesman, failed attack on another ship, details)
By Daniel Wallis and JoAnne Allen
NAIROBI/WASHINGTON, April 9 (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy destroyer reached waters
off Somalia on Thursday to help free an American ship captain taken hostage
by pirates in the first seizure of U.S. citizens by the increasingly bold
sea gangs.
Gunmen briefly hijacked the 17,000-tonne Maersk Alabama freighter on
Wednesday, but the 20 American crew retook control after a confrontation far
out in the Indian Ocean where the pirates have captured another five vessels
in a week.
The four gang members were holding the captain on the ship's lifeboat, and
the crew were trying to negotiate his release.
"Our main concern remains the safe return of the captain and our latest
communications with the ship indicate that he is unharmed," said B.J.
Talley, spokesman for the Danish-owned freighter's operator, Maersk Line
Ltd.
The U.S. Navy warship Bainbridge arrived on the scene before dawn on
Thursday, the company added.
Quoting second mate Ken Quinn, CNN said the lifeboat, with the captain and
four pirates aboard, was within sight of the Alabama. But a maritime
official said that might have changed.
"We are now getting reports the Alabama is moving towards safe waters,"
Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the Kenya-based East African Seafarers'
Assistance Programme, told Reuters.
The attack was the latest in a sharp escalation in piracy in the waters off
lawless Somalia, where heavily armed sea gangs hijacked dozens of vessels
last year, took hundreds of sailors hostage and extracted millions of
dollars in ransoms.
The long-running phenomenon has disrupted shipping in the strategic Gulf of
Aden and busy Indian Ocean waterways, increased insurance costs, and made
some firms send their cargos round South Africa instead of the Suez Canal.
The upsurge in attacks makes a mockery of an unprecedented international
naval effort against the pirates, including ships from Europe, the United
States, China, Japan and others.
"The solution to the problem, as ever, is the political situation in
Somalia," said analyst Jim Wilson, of Lloyds Register-Fairplay, referring to
the 18-year civil conflict.
"Until there is peace on land there will be piracy at sea."
PIRATES OFFERED FOOD
Pirates also attacked a Marshall Island-flagged bulk carrier on Thursday in
the Gulf of Aden 125 nautical miles (230 km) from Bosasso in northern
Somalia, NATO said on a piracy-monitoring website. It said they quit their
attempt after about an hour.
Maersk said its crew regained control of the Alabama on Wednesday after the
pirates left the huge ship with one hostage, the ship's captain. The rest of
the crew were unhurt.
The ship was carrying thousands of tonnes of food aid destined for Somalia
and Uganda from Djibouti to Mombasa, Kenya, when it was attacked about 300
miles (500 km) off Somalia.
"We are just trying to offer them whatever we can, food, but it is not
working too good," Quinn told CNN of efforts to secure their captain's
release. He said the four pirates sank their own boat after they boarded the
Alabama.
Then the captain talked the gunmen into the ship's lifeboat with him. The
crew overpowered one of the pirates and sought to swap him for the captain,
Quinn told CNN.
"We kept him for 12 hours. We tied him up," Quinn said. They freed their
captive, he added, but the exchange did not work.
Somali gunmen captured a British-owned ship on Monday after hijacking
another three vessels over the weekend.
"We think the world must come together to end the scourge of piracy," U.S.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Washington, saying she
was following the saga closely.
U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry said a thorough
policy debate on Somali piracy was long overdue.
"I plan to hold hearings to further examine the growing threat of piracy and
all the policy options that need to be on the table before the next fire
drill becomes an international incident with big implications," Kerry said
in a statement. (Additional reporting by Edward McAllister, Anthony Boadle,
Jim Wolf, JoAnne Allen and Sue Pleming in Washington and Rasmus Jorgensen in
Copenhagen; Writing by Daniel Wallis and Anthony Boadle; Editing by Andrew
Cawthorne)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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