Couple kidnapped by pirates - update?

[Huguenot]

I'll be betting he's celebrating his new found wealth.

[alice]

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23897514-former-london-cab-driver-masterminded-release-of-chandlers.do

[Simonet]

Looks like a hero emerged in this saga that I myssed at the time i.e. Dahr Kadiye.

"The ransom, believed to be in the region of $740,000 (?460,000) is made up of funds given by the Chandlers' family, Somalia's government and the Somali community in Britain. Mursal Kadiye said: ?The whole Somali community here in London are very happy and we very delighted. There is also relief.

?We want to thank the Somali community, Dahir himself, the Somalia government and everyone who was involved in this.?

Tremendous effort from Dahr and others.

Well Done !

[womanofdulwich]

Would it be possible for there to military escorted convoys across the area where the pirates operate? Or are the speed of the various vessels too diverse to manage this? Just wondering as it worked in WW2.

[DJKillaQueen]

Not enough military vessels to do it unfortunately and patroling the sea is not an easy thing to do. It would be far more effective if commercial shipping companies hired armed security guards on their vessels. Smaller pleasure cruise vessels should perhaps avoid the area altogether. And the Somalian government could do more than it currently does to police it's own coastline of course.

[LadyDeliah]

There is no Somalian government.

[mockney piers]

Not true. There is a US/ethiopian backed federal government attempting to restore constitutional rule to the country.

It currently governs much of Mogadishu and other territories in Somalia but the are many factions in charge of other parts of the country, the split Islamist movements in the south, traditional warlords in the north.

It is along way away from being a vaguely normal country, so not sure what the government can do, especially with much of the piracy emanating from the north where they have no say at all.

[peterstorm1985]

DJKillaQueen Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Not enough military vessels to do it unfortunately

> and patroling the sea is not an easy thing to do.

> It would be far more effective if commercial

> shipping companies hired armed security guards on

> their vessels.

A number of commercial vessels are carrying armed security guards although this is not encouraged by many insurance companies; there is a clear indication of an escalation of violence at the time of attack and it does not guarantee that the attack will fail as the pirates simply take more military equipment with them. (There are some serious discussion papers on the Internet regarding legalities and increased insurance risk). Although it does seem that flying a Russian flag helps to protect a ship - but only while there are others apparently unprotected.

Smaller pleasure cruise vessels

> should perhaps avoid the area altogether.

From what I've read they generally do but there are a number of yachts that have 'got caught' in The Indian Ocean, i.e arrived 2-3 years ago when the risk area was much smaller, intending to potter around the 'safe' bits, put off leaving when things got a bit scary and now they can't get out. The risk area now stretches all the way across to the beaches of India, and South to all the tourist islands, and now to Madagascar and the Tanzanian coast.

And the

> Somalian government could do more than it

> currently does to police it's own coastline of

> course.

There is no government in the region where most of the attacks are sponsored. Even in Mogadishu members of the TFG don't go outside the presidential palace without military escort and the level of funding they receive from international sources may seem large but they haven't sorted out the daily killings in Mogadishu yet so I doubt they'll get to the rest of the country any time soon.

[DJKillaQueen]

A right ole mess then where those that do have to sail through those waters have little they can effectively do to protect themselves.

[Huguenot]

Again, to put things in perspective...

Around 21,000 ships cross this particular stretch of water every year, and only 49 were pirated last year.

Whilst even 1 kidnapped victim is a tragedy, there is evidence that someone's doing a pretty good job!

[mockney piers]

I've actually heard that some russian ships go disguised as merchant shipscarrying rich businessmen so they can have a pop at pirates with lots of fun weaponry.

Nutters, no wonder the pirates avoid them.

I heard of similar 'adventure' weekends by German business types on the Croat lines during the the Bosnian conflagrations.

There are seriously screwed up people in this world!!

[Scribe]

The reason pirates avoid targeting Russian shipping is because of the example the Russian Navy set last May.

After docking, the captain faced an eager, ad hoc press conference and simply shrugged before delivering an indifferent release after he and his crew had captured a gang of Somali pirates, took them out into the middle of the Indian Ocean and cast them adrift with no food, water or navigational equipment. On inquiring after the Somali pirates' fate after being captured by the Russian Navy, the captain simply shrugged and calmly announced to the world's media: "They're probably dead by now."

Russian Navy Abandons Somali Pirates and Condemns Them To An Agonising Fate. Oh Well, Tough Break, Comrade - BBC

[peterstorm1985]

Huguenot Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Again, to put things in perspective...

>

> Around 21,000 ships cross this particular stretch

> of water every year, and only 49 were pirated last

> year.

>

So true.

There is a view that the pirates realise that as long as their activity is kept to a level where the insurance companies are prepared to provide policies then the whole business will carry on with only minimal intervention from any military (Most governments won't spend serious money on something unless it affects their economy or endangers the lives of significant numbers of their citizens). When a gang of pirates attack a commercial ship, but fail to gain control, they don't want to come back from the sea empty handed so they attack a vessel that's not inherently valuable (not insured - either pleasure craft or small fishing boat) but that doesn't follow their business model which is clearly targeted at where the money is.