Weird article: Russia tried to offload suspected pirates and corpses to Berbera

[Qaranki]

MYSTERY WIDENS ON GREEK TANKER FIRE AND PIRATES OFF SOMALIA PDF Print E-mail

Written by ECOP-marine

Wednesday, 13 July 2011 12:32

 

altAFRICA 13 July 2011 At 00h23 UTC (03h23 local time) on/06 July 2011 in position Latitude: 12 29N and Longitude: 04444Em around 20nm SW of Aden, the bridge and crew quarters of an oil tanker were on fire, and the captain and crew abandoned the ship - leaving the vessel dead in the water.

 

 

While the all-Filipino crew of 26 sailors from the Liberian-flagged oil tanker MT BRILLANTE VIRTUOSO, carrying about 1 million barrels of fuel oil, had jumped into the live boats and the seamen were then taken on board of U.S.American warship USS PHILIPPINE SEA (CG 58), operating under Combined Maritime Forces (CMF), the piracy reporting centre of the NGO IMB sent - with reference to the shipowner - an alert, which stated:

 

 

"The 149,601 dwt Suez Max oil tanker was attacked at 0006 hrs UTC, only 20 miles the Port of Aden, the company said. The vessel was en-route from Kerch, Ukraine to Qingdao, China, carrying 141,404.941 MT of fuel oil."

 

 

After having sent statements claiming an alleged piracy attack by 7 pirates, the shipowner later stated:

 

 

"The Brillante Virtuoso is presently safely adrift and two tugs have arrived from Aden and having secured the vessel, are proceeding with fire-fighting measures,” the ship’s manager, Athens-based Central Mare Inc, said in a statement. “The Master, Chief Engineer and Electrician are on board the tugs to assist in the salvage operation. No pollution or injury to crew members has been reported.”

 

 

BUT, while most already stated that Somalis had set an oil tanker ablaze with a rocket propelled granade (RPG), NATO stated clearly:

 

 

"No confirmation of piracy."

 

 

and also the U.S.American navy could not find any evidence of a piracy attack, which was summarized by the Combined Maritime Forces (CMF) headquarters with the sentence:

 

 

"The [uSS] Philippine Sea found no evidence of pirates and concentrated their efforts on assisting the crew members."

 

 

Interestingly, also EU NAVFOR headquarters in Northwood was "not so sure" about a pirate attack.

 

 

Reportedly the crews of the two tugboats which the Greek owner had sent from Aden to tow the vessel to safety were able to extinguish the fire.

 

 

So far we had already reported (see our last two CPU issues), but many questions remained unanswered.

 

 

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

 

 

Then, on 08. July 2010, two days after the incident off Aden, the Deputy Director of the Berbera Port in the breakaway Republic of Somaliland, Mr. Omar Abukar Jama (Cumar Abokor Jaamac), and the Harbour Master of Berbera Aden Hussein Hussein (Aadan Xussen Cilmi) (nicknamed Aadan Daved) received strange calls via HF radio-tranceiver from EU NAVFOR announcing that a Russian warship was steaming towards Berbera to hand over 7 alleged pirates who had been nabbed by the navies and the EU NAVFOR officer said the Russians also wanted to offload three bodies of Somalis, who had been killed in a fight with anti-piracy forces off the Yemen coast.

 

 

Soon after, a Russian signals officer informed the port officials at Berbera via ship-radio that the Russian warship was actually on her way to the Somaliland harbour and had seven Somali "fishermen" on board whom they "had rescued from their destroyed boats" and three corpses of Somalis deceased during their mishap.

 

 

The officers of the Russian warship ship insisted that they had "rescued" these people.

 

 

With now two different stories at hand, the Somaliland officials insisted to speak to those Somalis, which the Russians had on their ship.

 

 

Thereby it turned out that the group of the survivors consisted of six Somali nationals, who hail from the semi-autonomous regional state of Puntland, which is part of the Federal Republic of Somalia under its present Transitional Federal Government (TFG). The seventh man was said to also be a Somali national but hailed from the Jareer ethnic group of Somali Bantu. All apparently had ventured from Alula (Calawla) in Puntland onto the Gulf of Aden.

 

 

The identity of the Somalis detained on the Russian warship were:

 

 

1- Maxamed Ismaciil Salaad - 14 years

2- Jaamaca Maxamed Faarax - 21 years

3- Xuseen Maxamed Siraad -21 years

4- Cabdiraasaq Shire - 26 years

5- Axamed Cumar - 22 years

6- Cabdo Cali Sahiir - 29 years

7- Maxamed Siciid Cali - 26 years

 

 

With 29 years the oldest survivor, Abdo confirmed to the Somaliland officials that they had been taken on board at position 12 degrees 49 minutes North and 047degrees 53 minutes East, which is not far from where the incident of the burning oil supertanker happened.

 

 

Due to the contradictory stories of the navies and the fact that the persons hailed from Alula in Puntland the Somali officials at Berbera harbour decided that they would not allow the Russian warship to approach Berbera and advised the Russian captain to bring his human cargo to Bosasso, Puntland's harbour town at the Gulf of Aden.

 

 

Then again EU NAVFOR demanded over the radio that Somaliland should accept the docking of the Russian warship and promised "that a deal would be struck".

 

 

During the night the communications and the haggling continued and also a British Navy ship which was scheduled to come to Berbera for a training session with the Somaliland marines corps tried to convince Somaliland to accept the delivery.

 

 

But the Somaliland officials had already made up their mind, and at 02h36 instructed the port security forces to not allow the Russian warship close to or into the harbour. The harbour master communicated these instructions also to the Russian navy vessel.

 

 

But with first light the Russian warship approached at 06h00 the outer moorings of Berbera harbour.

 

 

This time serious warnings were issued to the officer on the Russian ship, who had identified himself as Alexander Zakharov.

 

 

While the Somaliland forces got ready to avert the berthing of the vessel by all means, the Russian warship finally complied and cleared the zone, but continued to sail only about one or two miles off the shores to the East.

 

 

Though rumours in Somalia spoke already on 06. June 2011 of an actual attack by a known group of 12 pirates operating close to Aden, whereby seven boarded the gigantic oil tanker, the naval forces remained mum, denied any piracy case and so far did not provide any official clarification on a piracy attack. At least EU NAVFOR appears thereby very dodgy, but also the Russian and the Yemeni navy haven't been cleared, because it is fact that the Russians already had the Somalis on board at that time. Earlier reports from Somalia also spoke of an involvement of the Yemeni coastguard and navy, who might have fired the RPG (most likely RPG29), which according to the written statement of the vessel’s manager, Central Mare Inc., set the accommodation block of the vessel ablaze, thus nearly creating a major maritime and environmental disaster.

 

 

With the now revealed mop-up operation off Somaliland, it already has become clear that at least EU NAVFOR clearly lied to Bloomberg journalists, who reported:

 

 

If it were an attack by pirates and they started the fire, it would be the first such incident, said Harrie Harrison, a spokesman for European Union Naval Force, or EU Navfor. The group has yet to confirm pirates were involved, he said.

http://www.international.to/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1530:mystery-widens-on-greek-tanker-fire-and-pirates-off-somalia&catid=36:news&Itemid=74

[Qaranki]

Rest of the article.

 

Meanwhile observers in Somalia reported that the Russians had actually set the seven surviving Somalis free at a beach east of Berbera and, while they tried to walk off, they where found by local officials and arrested. It is said that the seven are at present in Somaliland detention awaiting further questioning.

Where the corpses of the three killed Somalis are is not yet clear. It can not be ruled out that the Russians dumped the bodies into the sea or that the approach of a British naval vessel with Somaliland navy officials on board at the coast near Laasqorey, which was repulsed by the Puntland forces who fired on the British contingent as we reported earlier, is not connected.

 

 

Unless the navies could proof otherwise, it must be assumed that these Somalis stem from the incident with the oil tanker, which was the only one officially reported incident since 26 June 2011. Thereby the conspiracy by navies and governments is already clear concerning the shielding of the truth from the public as well as from the Somali government and the UN. The mainstream media like Reuters with all their direct pirate and insurgent contacts or naval megaphone Associated Press seem to collude and have like the Russian media themselves not reported. They couldn't because the navies try kept the real developments secret, but the media obviously also didn't make an effort.

 

 

Now it remains to be seen if this conspiracy actually had developed into a situation whereby a navy could rightfully be accused of having become an accessory to commit maybe even insurance fraud. As accomplices to commit unlawful acts and to jointly cover up the navies must be seen already

 

 

Since IMO, the maritime authorities of Yemen and the flag-state Liberia as well as the naval command centres and the insurance company of the vessel itself or the owner have not come up with a clear post incident report, it is now the turn of the UN, who has to launch a full and independent investigation.

 

 

This is specifically warranted, because the UN let the navies off the leach in the Somali waters and based on the UNSC resolutions and global-governance arrangements, the UN also has the responsibility to hold its members accountable. Even the involved states themselves, whose judges preside over piracy cases must come clean for their own interest and in order to maintain the truly higher moral ground - necessary to justly prosecute true pirates.

 

 

Finally, and because fire on such a huge oil-tanker could have caused an environmental disaster of unprecedented magnitude for the marine ecosystem, the whole area and especially the coastal state of Yemen, it must also become clear who or what caused the fire on the tanker. If it turns out that it was caused by a naval attack, the rules of engagement certainly have to be rewritten to avert a future occurrence of similar incidences involving such a dangerous tanker.

 

 

The rule-book on lying certainly has to be revised by the involved navies.

 

 

Otherwise we will soon see the picture of the burning bridge of such tanker develop into a gigantic fireball and a major oil-spill.