From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu May 06 2010 - 11:43:02 EDT
Russian forces free oil tanker, kill Somali pirate
Thu May 6, 2010 1:23pm GMT
* Russian warship frees all 23 crew on hijacked tanker
* 10 Somali pirates captured, one dead - investigators
* Pirates to be brought to Moscow for prosecution
(Adds comments from Russian President Medvedev)
By Ludmila Danilova
MOSCOW, May 6 (Reuters) - Russian forces freed a hijacked Russian oil tanker
and rescued its crew in a helicopter-backed operation on Thursday that
killed a Somali pirate, authorities said.
Russian investigators said 10 captured pirates, who seized the China-bound
MV Moscow University in the Gulf of Aden, will be brought to Moscow for
prosecution.
They hijacked the tanker on Wednesday with its 23-member crew and a cargo of
crude oil worth $52 million.
"Measures are being undertaken to bring the detained pirates to Moscow," the
Investigative Committee of the Prosector General's office said on official
website sledcomproc.ru.
The rescue was a boost for the Kremlin, which has been seeking to revive
Russia's naval muscle far from its shores despite limited resources.
President Dmitry Medvedev congratulated Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov
in a televised meeting and ordered that all those involved receive medals
for their part in the rescue.
"It was accurate, professional and quick," Medvedev said.
The European Union's naval force said the Russian warship Marshal
Shaposhnikov had sent in a helicopter that returned fire after being shot at
by pirates. Eventually the pirates surrendered and a boarding team from the
warship arrived on board the tanker, an EU naval statement said.
The Russian Investigative Committee said in its statement that one pirate
was killed and some of the 10 who were captured were injured.
A spokeswoman for the tanker's owner, Novorossiysk Shipping Company, said
the crew survived the 20-hour siege by hiding in a safe room that was
inaccessible to the hijackers.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said the tanker would most likely continue on its
planned voyage to China.
Somali pirates have extorted tens of millions of dollars in ransoms from
shipowners and insurers and are still able to seize ships despite the
presence of an international fleet of warships in the busy shipping lanes
linking Europe with Asia.
Somalia lacks the legal infrastructure to support trials, and captured
pirates are often released because of disagreements over which country
should try them.
Kenya and the Seychelles have prosecuted dozens of pirates handed over by
foreign navies, but have both said they would have difficulties coping with
the numbers if every seized pirate was placed in their hands.
Last month, the U.N. Security Council suggested creating special piracy
courts to plug a gap in the world response to the costly attacks on merchant
ships off Somalia's coast.
Medvedev said the international community was dragging its feet on the
issue.
"What exactly is the problem? We all know that it's an evil, and we can't
seem to agree on how to fight it," he said.
Russia has been sending warships to patrol and protect Russian crews and
cargoes off the Horn of Africa since the hijacking of the Ukrainian-owned
cargo ship MV Faina in 2008 and the death of its Russian captain. The Faina
was carrying a cargo of 33 battle tanks and other weapons.
Two Russian fishing vessels were hijacked in the early 2000s off Somalia,
but Wednesday's attack was the first on a large Russian-owned merchant
vessel, said Andrew Mwangura, who runs the East African Seafarers'
Assistance Programme.
Some oil tankers are sailing around southern Africa and further east into
the Indian Ocean, away from Somalia's coastline, to avoid the Gulf of Aden
and pirates who are striking deeper out at sea, shipping experts say.
(Additional reporting by Richard Lough in Nairobi, Abdi Guled in Mogadishu,
Toni Vorobyova and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman;
Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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