&host=www.rt.com&uri=/news/pirates-seize-oil-tanker/&via=1.1 8.27.241.141:80 (Footprint 4.8/FPMCP)&ua=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html))
Pirates seize oil tanker with Russian crew
Published: 05 May, 2010, 14:23
Edited: 07 May, 2010, 14:11
Pirates have seized an oil tanker with 23 Russians aboard, according to EU's anti-piracy mission "Atalanta". The vessel, sailing under a Liberian flag, was attacked some 800 kilometers east of the Somali coast.
Recent reports claim the tanker is now headed back to the coast of Somalia.
The tanker’s movements are being monitored via satellite every ten minutes, Itar–Tass news agency has quoted the press secretary of Novoship company, which owns the vessel, as saying. Among those captured there are two women, the agency reported.
According to Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office spokesperson Vladimir Markin, investigators have launched a criminal case on charges of piracy.
The seizure of the “Moscow University” vessel took place 350 nautical miles from the Yemeni island of Sokotra. The tanker was carrying almost 90,000 tonnes of oil to China.
According to information Novoship had received from the captain of the vessel before the connection was interrupted, two small vessels with armed pirates on board attempted to approach the ship. The pirates opened fire with automatic weapons.
While the pirates took control of the ship, its crew is believed to have barricaded itself in one of the lower compartments of the ship
Foreign ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov confirmed that the ship has been captured and said that the foreign ministry is “double-checking the details of the capture and the situation with Russian sailors”.
The Russian warship Marshal Shaposhnikov is now heading towards the captured vessel to assist its crew members. It is expected to reach the destination early Thursday morning.
However, piracy expert Mikhail Voytenko does not think it will try to free the ship by force, as the move would put the crew in danger.
“[The crew] is alive and well at the moment. However, they won’t be able to protect themselves from the pirates. The ship has been taken and they are a human shield of sorts,” Voitenko told Interfax.
He foresees that the events will take their usual turn, with the pirates taking the vessel to one of the Somalian ports.
Meanwhile the pirates have made their first statement since the hijacking of the ship.
“Any attempt to rescue the ship will certainly endanger the crew. The ship will be docked at Garacad,” a pirate called Abdi told Reuters, adding that it was too early to talk about a ransom.
“Even modern armed forces cannot fight against this kind of threat,” said Dmitry Rogozin, Russian ambassador to NATO. “We want to create an international court which could convict sea pirates. It hasn’t been internationally approved, but there is likely no alternative.”
05.05.2010, 11:15
2 comments
EU presents findings into the South Ossetia War to USHead of EU fact finding commission into the South Ossetia war in 2008, Heidi Tagliavini has presented last year’s report on the war to the US Helsinki Commission. Georgia started the war, the report states. |
05.05.2010, 15:27
3 comments
Cannibal Goths sentencedTwo 20-year-old men, who killed and partially ate a girl, have received long jail sentences. |
Human rights, rights of being, rights of existence have to be aligned in perspective with the resourceful future of sustainable enterprise and exploitation of the human resourceful potential/exponential in a way that liberates equality as a viable resolution to conflicts on a global scale. Politics is all about payment...reasonable rates of return in exchange for contribution...the pirates are protesting against global capitalism and the loss of fishing stocks threatening survival. response to the global fishing crisis, in the view of the documentary called 'the end of the line' a global consensus and resolution to supplement dependency will be required if the oceans are going to be saved and restocked to support global interest with regards to future generations, in addition to managing global distribution of food stocks. Holding fishermen in a holding cycle like a plane over sustained period or redeploying their expertise into global conservation of the oceans is an essential part of taking control of the global sustainable enterprise to manage future relativity to an expectation of conservation in action. If we can not resolve the global issues of sustainable enterprise, enterprise is out of choice.
This story suggests that the Russian Navy is very effective. However, it seems to me more like using a hand grenade to swat a mosquito. I think four, on-station(Gulf of Arden) aircraft, or four drone aircraft, could protect the Gulf from Somali pirates. Therefore, there must be something else, not piracy causing this international Naval participation in protecting the Gulf of Arden. I wonder what it is? Happy to hear the crew and ship were returned safely..