Pirates demand ransom for tanks

Published on Saturday 27 September 2008 19:55

PIRATES who seized a Ukrainian ship laden with tanks off the Horn of Africa have asked for a ransom.

They have anchored close to the Somali shore, a man identified as the vessel's first mate said in an audio report on a Russian news website yesterday.

In a telephone conversation posted on the site Life.ru and apparently initiated by the news site, a man who said he was first mate Vladimir Nikolsky told the caller he was speaking in English at the behest of the pirates who hijacked the 530-foot cargo ship Faina on Thursday.

"They are asking that we make contact with the owners about his money," the man said. Asked how much they were demanding, he replied: "I'm not sure."

"They would like to speak directly to our owner," he said later.

The man said the Faina was anchored near the town of Hobyo and that two other apparently hijacked ships were nearby.

Most of the 35 people on the ship – 21 of them crew – were being kept in a single room, he added.

Ukraine's defence chief said on Friday that the Faina was carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks – ordered by Kenya – and a substantial quantity of ammunition and spare parts. Russia's navy said it dispatched a warship to the area, and the US said its naval ships were monitoring the situation.

Nobody aboard the Faina was injured, but the captain, Vladimir Kolobkov, was suffering from heatstroke and his condition was "not so good", Nikolsky said.

The hijacking is part of a surge of high-seas piracy that has long been a hazard for maritime shippers, particularly in the Indian Ocean.

In the latest attack, which was reported yesterday by an international anti-piracy watchdog group, armed pirates seized a Greek chemical tanker with a crew of 19 – carrying a cargo of refined petroleum from Europe to the Middle East – in the Gulf of Aden, off Somalia.

A Kenyan defence department spokesman said yesterday that Kenyan authorities have had no contact with the pirates who seized the vessel and its cargo, and have not received any demands for ransom.