The Liberation Of The MV Suez And Its Bitter End - An Incredible Pirate Story
(Updated on June 20)
If a story of a pirated ships near Somalia ever makes it into a movie, this is the one that would make for the most incredible and excellent action script. It involves a ten month long crew ordeal, ever increasing ransom demands, arrested mercenaries and a fight between two hostile navies which both want to appear as savior of the pirated crew.
The Ship
The MV Suez was captured by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden on August 2 2010. It was freed a week ago after a quite dramatic story but its ordeal did not end there. It still had to nearly create an international military conflict and more sad sea drama.
MV SUEZ was travelling in the Internationally Recommended Transit Corridor (IRTC) when attacked. Immediately after the first report a helicopter was directed to the ship but pirates had already taken over the command of the vessel.The MV SUEZ, deadweight 17,300 tonnes with a crew of 23 (Egypt, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India Nationalities), is a Panama flagged merchant vessel with a cargo of cement bags. EU NAVFOR is monitoring the situation.
Later reports vary between 22 and 28 crew member, six Indians, eleven to thirteen Egyptians, four Pakistanis and one to four Sri Lankan.
The MV Suez, IMO 8218720, is a multi-purpose/heavy lift cargo ship which was build in the East German Warnow shipyard in 1984. The ships ownership has changed quite often. It sailed earlier as Torm Texas, Industrial Champion, Cte Cinta, Amsterdam, Nedlloyd Amsterdam, Sevastaki (pic), Evi (pic), Eastern Moon and Rahim (pic).
IMO 8218720 in 2008 as Rahim - Photo by Peter Wearing
This ship is owned and operated by an Egyptian company, Red Sea Navigation, but flagged in Panama.
MV Suez was on her way from Pakistan to Eritrea. She is old, much abused and has likely only scrap value. The cement cargo is not really valuable either. Who would pay a six or seven figure to free such a ship and its crew?
The Egyptian ship owners, Abdel Meguid Matar and Mohamed Sobhi, would not. They would not even put up the crew's pay to support their families. At the end of August 2010 Egyptian family members of the crew sued the owners to pay the demanded ransom, $1 million, and some went into hunger strike. But month after month passed without any success.
Somali news source Ahram Online reported Dec. 15 that pirates turned down a ransom payment of $500,000 for the release of the MV Suez because the offer “came too late,” according to the ship’s engineer.
The pirates then increased their ransom demand to $1.1 million.
The Political Issue
As month after month went by and the cases of the MV Suez sailors and their families grew -via the local media- into interior political issues in India as well as in Pakistan.
The Indian government tried to apply pressure on the owner via the Egyptian government. When another deadline was set by the pirates to March 11 2011 and went by without any payment, the interior political pressure increased:
The families and relatives of the abducted sailors, who have lost all hopes, are going to hold a protest rally in New Delhi Thursday against the "silence of the government" on the matter. The protestors will march from Jantar Mantar to the Parliament House.At the same time, the opposition parties led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are putting pressure on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government to deal with the issue in a serious manner.
But the Indian government still showed no urgency to solve the problem.
In Pakistan someone acted. Late in February the Pakistani human rights advocate Ansar Barney made phone contact with the pirates and started his own negotiations. He is a former minister and a UN Expert Adviser on human rights. When the ransom deadline had passed without the ship owner paying, Barney was said to meet the shipowner in Egypt to discuss a combined ransom payment.
The Ansar Barney Welfare Trust, a humanitarian NGO, started to collect the demanded $1.1 million to free the sailors. An Indian national living in Dubai was reported to be willing to contribute $500,000.
At the end of April the Indian government established an Inter-Ministerial-Group to handle the cases of the then 46 Indians in the captivity of Somali pirates. Local political pressure continued to build.
In Pakistan the governor of Sindh province and a Citizen-Police-Liaison Committee got involved with Barney on the issue. Together they flew to Dubai for negotiations on the issue.
Somewhere along the Egyptian owners of the ship became furious about the court cases by the families of the Egyptian crew members on board of the MV Suez. The owners backtracked on a promise to pay some share of the ransom they had earlier agreed to.
Also somewhere along the ransom demand seems to have been again increased from the earlier reported $500,000 and $1.1 million to $2.1 million.
Freeing The Ship
In May the money Ansar Barney had collected by then was to be transferred to the pirates in a secret mission by the British mercenary company Salama Fikira. On May 24 a Cessna Citation business jet flew with the ransom money from the Seychelles to Mogadishu, Somalia. There it met a Cessna Caravan single engine plane which came from Nairobi, Kenia and was modified for the actual money drops onto the pirated ships. The planes flew under cover of an UN humanitarian evacuation mission and were supposedly coordinated with Somali authorities.
But when the mercenaries landed in Somalia on to transfer the money between the planes for delivery to the MV Suez and another ship, the MV Yuan Xiang, they were held up and the money was seized by Somali security forces at the Mogadishu airport. The six men transfer team, 3 Brits, 2 Kenyan and 1 American were arrested.
This was a surprise as money transfers like this one are routine and are usually coordinated with the government (which likely takes a share) and the airport guards are supposed to protect the transfer missions.
Another pirate deadline on June 1 was moved to June 11 because no other plane could be found to drop the money to the pirated ship. In phone calls the crew now claimed that the pirates started to torture them.
Despite the money reportedly still being in the hands of the Somali government, not the pirates, the ship was finally set free:
[T]he foreign security team arrested for bringing in $3.6 million in ransoms for two ships was due to appear in court in Mogadishu on Thursday. The team's lawyer was looking to get all six bailed, providing an aircraft and the money in Somalia's central bank as security. Details have yet to emerge from the appearance.Reports the money is still in the bank has not stopped the release of the two ships it was destined for. The MV Yuan Xiang was released last week, while the second vessel the money was reportedly heading too, the MV Suez, gained freedom on Saturday [June 11].
Why would the pirates, after such a long time, let the ships go when the ransom money was still in the hands of the Somali government? Could there be some cooperation between them? Or was there an additional money transfer?
The ship owner and the freight owner seem not to have paid anything. The Pakistani claim that the Indian who was supposed to come up with a $500,000 share of the money did not show up when the money was to be transferred and that all the money was collected in Pakistan.
Pakistan was quite proud about this while the Indian government was criticized over the lack of action from its side.
Still the drama was, by far, not over.
Navy Collisions
When the ship was freed on June 11 it sailed off towards Salalah in Oman. The Egyptian Assistant Foreign Minister Abdel-Hakam said that all steps were taken to ensure the safe arrival of the ship at the port.
Three days later he got egg on his face when MV Suez was again attacked by pirates. The crew fended off the pirate attack and via radio asked an Indian military ship for help which, the crew said, was denied.
Pakistan sent the PNS Babur, a 40 year old former British frigate, to escort the MV Suez. On its way PNS Babur was also attacked by pirates but drove them off.
India sent its own ship, the guided-missile frigate INS Godavari, to escort the MV Suez.
At that point, around June 14/15/16, a competition evolved between India and Pakistan on who would escort the MV Suez (Indian TV video). Both had already claimed they were escorting the MV Suez when it was fending off a pirate attack on its own.
But it was the PNS Babur which fended off yet another pirate attack on the MV Suez.
The wife of one of the Indian seaman on board of the MV Suez talked with him by phone. (Indian TV interview). The Captain has diabetes and isn't well. Two other person are very ill, she says dying. Food is a problem as is fuel. She says the ship was twice attacked by pirates after its release and that the second attack was repelled by the PNS Babur.
There was more trouble to come:
Wasi Hasan, MV Suez’s Pakistani captain said the crew may have to abandon the ship and hitch a ride with PNS Babar. “The boiler in the engine room is not working, so our speed has slowed down from 15 knots to 8 knots,” he said while talking to NDTV.He also said that there is eight tons of diesel left on board, not enough to get Suez to the port of Salalah in Oman.
The Indian navy claimed that the MV Suez had rejected all contacts with its ship and on the 17th the INS Godavari was pulled back:
[I]n a controversial move, the Indian Navy has pulled out the warship INS Godavari that was sent to escort the cargo vessel to Salalah and ward off further attacks.The Navy took the decision claiming the Suez refused contact.
But sailor Ravinder Singh who is on board the freed ship has denied receiving any communication from the Indian Navy.
He told CNN-IBN that only the Pakistan Navy's Babur is escorting the Suez at this point.
"We are moving towards Oman and are still mid sea. We will take about 34 hours to reach Salalah. INS Godavari is not with us. We haven't even seen the ship yet. It has not called us. PNS Babur has been escorting us since Wednesday night. Naval commandos are accompanying us as well. They provided us with medical assistance, food supplies and water. They will be staying with us till we reach the next port," said sailor Ravinder Singh.
The Indian and Pakistani military are not exactly on a friendly footing with each other. The political stakes are high, especially for the Indian government, which so far did not look good in this whole affair while the Pakistanis payed the ransom, got the ship and crew released and were escorting them to safety.
It is unclear yet how and when exactly the following happened but the Pakistani and Indian frigates somehow collided with, or rammed, each other:
Pakistan has claimed that the Indian Navy Ship Godavari not only hampered the humanitarian operations being carried out by Pakistan Navy Ship Babur, but also undertook dangerous manoeuvres during the course of the incident.A statement issued by the Foreign Office and carried by Pakistani media said Pakistan had lodged a protest with the Indian government on an incident that occurred while MC Suez was provided with security cover.
The exact location of the incident, however, was not mentioned in the statement released by Pakistan's Foreign Office. "It [incident] resulted in the brushing of the sides of INS Godavari and PNS Babur," the statement said.
India somewhat denied the incident:
An Indian navy official refuted Pakistani allegations that an Indian vessel had put at risk MV Suez. “Reports of aggression by INS Godavari are incorrect and based on misinformation,” he said.
The Indians later lodged a counter protest and claimed that it was the Pakistani ship which hit its ship at its helicopter deck while trying to pass it (NDTV news video). The report tells of anonymous officials' claims that the Indian Navy is withholding video of the incident as it does not want to blow up next week's foreign minister meeting between Pakistan and India about nukes and Kashmir.
Does the video exist? High politics were now at stake over the simple escort of a crippled ship.
The End Of MV Suez
Meanwhile, on the 18th, the MV Suez, still at open sea some 70 miles off Oman, ran out of fuel. On order of the Egyptian owner the tug Hasic was dispatched from Oman to bring the ship into the harbor.
But early on the 19th the tug itself had technical problems and it failed to reach the MV Suez.
Without fuel, low on food and in a gathering storm the crew finally gave up on its ship:
The MV Suez's 22-member crew, including six Indians, were on Sunday transferred to a Pakistani warship when the Egyptian merchant vessel, which was recently released by Somali pirates after payment of ransom, began taking on water in the Arabian Sea. MV Suez was on its way to the Omat of Salalah when it ran out of fuel and began taking on water in stormy weather, Geo News channel quoted its sources as saying.
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The Suez's captain had also opened the vessel's valves to scuttle it, the channel reported.
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MV Suez Captain Syed Wasi Hasan said on phone that the weather had turned threatening due to the monsoons."We were on the open seas for the past three days. The owner of the ship has thus far not sent any fuel," he said.
It seems like this is the end of IMO 8218720, the MV Suez. But for a ship with such an adventures soul, or maybe it was a jinxed one, it is better to go down in the Arabian Sea than to get teared apart on the beaches of Alang.
After their long ordeal and the dramatic last days the crew is now save and hopefully all will come home. The Pakistanis will transfer the MV Suez crew from their old PNS Babur to the brand new Pakistani frigate PNS Zulfiquar which will bring them to a festive welcome in Karachi. The PNS Babur is to continue its counter pirate operations. The mercenaries were sentenced on the 19th to ten to fifteen years and the money and their planes are now officially confiscated. It is expected that after yet another ransom pay gets made, this time to the Somali government, the mercenaries will get released.
What more could Hollywood ask for? Lots of pirate attacks, shabby Egyptian businessmen, a multicultural ship crew in a deep long trouble, suffering children and families, mercenaries with lots of money caught by a half illegitimate government in the middle of a civil war, more pirate attacks, two nuclear armed navies ramming their ships into each other threatening a war escalation, the sad moment when the MV Suez finally goes down in a storm, the happy ending for the crew. The wife of the crewman in the video above is pretty and smart. Her figure can certainly be used to add some love drama on top of it all.
Then again the story lacks white men in the hero roles. That, unfortunately, may be a no-no if one wants to have some box office success in 'western' societies.
Posted by b on June 19, 2011 at 19:14 UTC | Permalink
How do you do it, b? I'm amazed both the pirates and crew didn't abandon ship long before they did. And amazed there were enough rations aboard for such a long hostage stretch. I think Obama should star in the role of the ship owner.
Posted by: Eureka Springs | Jun 20 2011 3:26 utc | 2
fantastic
but the real mystery of the story is: how many people do you have on your team, b?
Posted by: claudio | Jun 20 2011 6:13 utc | 3
Great story.
Then again the story lacks white men in the hero roles. That, unfortunately, may be a no-no if one wants to have some box office success.
Very true. Though Hollywood has never had a problem in the past with simply adding a fictional American to serve as hero.
Posted by: alexno | Jun 20 2011 9:00 utc | 4
the film should feature the Somali pirates, they really are in business:
http://www.panama-guide.com/index.php?topic=flagged
Posted by: somebody | Jun 20 2011 9:36 utc | 5
Like off-shore banking and off-books accounting, foreign flagging is a practice that we'd be better off without.
Posted by: Watson | Jun 20 2011 14:22 utc | 6
Don't ya just love the free enterprise system? Imho, not too much difference between the world banking system and these guys. Holding others hostage, while a select group makes money, with the demise of innocents being the bargaining chip.
Posted by: ben | Jun 20 2011 15:06 utc | 7
and beside the plot, the scenario: a failed state surrounded by unsettling Us friends (Djibouti, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Kenya); and the Ocean, where all kind of trafficking, toxic waste dumping, unlawful fishing, etc, occurs;
a scenario and a plot for conspiracies, not only movies
Somali pirates are really something special in our world
Posted by: claudio | Jun 20 2011 16:25 utc | 8
"What more could Hollywood ask for?"
That's just being eurocentric.
Bollywood won't be touching this story either.
I could imagine an Iranian film-maker doing a good job with this. Their love of poetry translates like magic onto film.
Posted by: nobodee | Jun 20 2011 16:46 utc | 9
I could imagine an Iranian film-maker doing a good job with this. Their love of poetry translates like magic onto film.
Indeed...
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On another note, all this has to have some humor to it too, for some reason the cunning use of flags comes to mind...lol
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Jun 20 2011 18:58 utc | 11
@somebody
Good (&white) vs Evil - again; Hollywood has the ability to transform the most diverse realities into the same eternal plot, the fable we live in today (see Obama vs Osama, the IC vs Ghaddafi, etc etc etc)
maybe Hollywood is the real strategist of the Empire
Posted by: claudio | Jun 21 2011 1:54 utc | 12
Claudio I agree, Hollywood is a kind of brainwash, however, it is basically a Protestant Christian idea that it is good vs. evil and the good will win (Catholics have the option of repentance). Other religions are much more sophisticated about this e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_of_evil#Islamic_concept_of_evil
Posted by: somebody | Jun 21 2011 12:56 utc | 14
Somebody, much has been written about the many ways our "modern" civilization is a direct offshoot of the preceding Christian society, but we aren't always conscious of it
besides the Godd vs Evil thing, for example, there's the "power over creation" myth, first assigned by God, then guaranteed by Science
Posted by: claudio | Jun 21 2011 16:42 utc | 15
Egyptian ship confirmed sunk; crew safe
The Panama-flagged ship sank in rough seas some 74 nautical miles southeast of Salalah, said Sayyid Sulaiman bin Mohammed al Busaidy, Superintendent General of Pollution Control at the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (MECA), and Commander of Oman’s multi-sectoral Task Force on Pollution.
“I can confirm that the MV Suez sank in 4,900 metres of water, which means that it poses no threat to shipping or navigation in the area. Furthermore, as the vessel had completely run out of fuel prior to its sinking, there is no risk of any oil spill or pollution that may harm the marine environment or Dhofar’s shores.”
Will six Indians on mv Suez return home?
With the crew-members of mv Suez now headed for Karachi, the bigger question remains, given the restrictive visa regimes that India and Pakistan have for each other, as to the fate of the six Indians on board.If the Pakistani are smart they will hand the Indian seamen some flowers and a few dollars and immediately send them on a plane home.After being rescued on Sunday by Pakistan Navy's warship, PNS Babur, from the sinking merchant vessel on which they were held captive by Somali pirates for 10 months, the crew was transferred to PNS Zulfiqar on Monday evening for onward journey to Karachi.
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While human rights activist Ansar Burney was hopeful of putting the entire crew on flights to their respective countries soon after reaching Karachi, there is a fear that the Indians may meet a fate similar to that of their Pakistani counterparts, who were rescued by the Indian Navy and stranded in Mumbai since March this year.The five Pakistani sailors rescued by the Indian Navy from Somali pirates have been awaiting consular access for the past three months and are expected to get it on June 28. Even after consular access is provided, the process of verification takes months. Since they do not have Indian visas, these five sailors have been confined to the Yellow Gate police station, Mumbai, since March.
"the Indians may meet a fate similar to that of their Pakistani counterparts"
Does this perhaps explain the odd competition between the two warships while escorting the MV Suez (more than the usual rivalry)?
Posted by: nobodee | Jun 22 2011 12:17 utc | 17
MV Suez: Released sailors arrive in Karachi
from twiter:
kursed Saad
Indian citizens rescued will be handed over to Indian High Commission today. #MVSuez
Posted by: amar | Jun 23 2011 13:29 utc | 18
Ansar Burney says : Indian sailors to arrive in New Delhi by EK 510 on 24th of June at 9 am.
Posted by: amar | Jun 23 2011 18:07 utc | 19
So the Indian sailors will arrive home before the Pakistani sailors who were rescued 3 months ago. That's a PR win for Pakistan. No wonder the MV Suez denied assistance from the Indian navy.
Posted by: nobodee | Jun 23 2011 20:14 utc | 20
According to this article from BBC news, the Indian sailors arrived in Delhi. Not much credit given to Pakistan in that article, though.
Posted by: philippe | Jun 24 2011 6:40 utc | 21
From the Times Of India: Freed after 10 months, Indian crew of MV Suez reach Delhi
Closely holding his three-year-old son, Ravinder Singh Bhulia, one of the released crew members who hails from Rohtak, said, "Indian and Pakistani media helped us a lot. As far as the Indian government's role in the release, I don't want to comment on it".The comments to that article are interesting. A lot of Indian thanking Pakistan and damning their government.
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There was no government representative to receive them at the airport.N K Sharma, another released crew member, said, "Whatever Pakistan government has done is really praiseworthy. We don't know what Indian government did or did not but Pakistan government has treated us well."
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Family members of the released men thanked Burney for facilitating the release of the sailors, but complained that the Indian government did little to save the sailors.
It is a story but one has to take care of the legitimate shipping in the soul of sea.These dramas may end the merchandising of the goods and every thing is on risk. more over there is some thing else in this hijacking rather than simple ransom money,I think it is threatening for Pakistani Merchandisers and govt of Pakistan, Somali's are doing some wrong aspiration on behalf of other Armies and forces.
Posted by: Tanveer | Jun 25 2011 7:05 utc | 23
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia has freed six foreigners who had been sentenced to at least 10 years in prison each for bringing into the country millions of dollars intended for pirate ransom, a government spokesman said Sunday.Still waiting for news who paid how much to get them freed.
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The spokesman said the country’s president had pardoned the foreigners. The three Britons, an American and two Kenyans were freed after the court processed their release, he said.The men were arrested in Mogadishu last month after two planes were found to be carrying millions of dollars in cash. On June 18, two of the defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine, and the others were sentenced to 10 years and a $10,000 fine. Pirates have been receiving millions of dollars in ransoms for several years, but this was the first time Westerners were sentenced for their role in paying out the ransoms.
An AHN article listed the names & ages of those six
Benadir regional court judge, Ilmi Hashi Nur said the freed foreigners flew out of Mogadishu international airport.The judge also stated that two planes they used carrying money to Somalia were fined 50,000 $ each which means (100,000 $).
The pardoned foreigners, who brought 3.6 million dollars into Mogadishu airport with two planes, were from United States, United Kingdom and neighboring Kenya, according to Nur. He said the 3.6 million dollars was confiscated by the government.
“They were Andrew Robert, 56, from UK, Patrick Birmingham, 41, from US, Alexander James Andrew, 22 from UK, Mathew Brown, 32, from UK, Marcos William, 25, from Kenya and Altair Macleod Davidson, 46, from Kenya” Nur added.
Posted by: b real | Jun 27 2011 6:03 utc | 25
Thanks to both b and b real. I am still wondering about the "arrests" I commented on
@ 35 in the Open Thread of June 17. I can't help wondering how the NSA listening post in the Dahlak Archipelago might be in some way linked to this story, although the fact that the "raiders" were Brits makes such hypotheses rather tenuous. Perhaps some British ox has been gored in Eritrea, but I am unaware
of what that ox may have been.
Posted by: Hannah K. O'Luthon | Jun 27 2011 7:51 utc | 26
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What an epic! You can write a novel on this :)
So MV Suez was destined to provide a home for the soul of Osama bin Laden at the bottom of the Arabian Sea :) :)
Posted by: amar | Jun 19 2011 19:41 utc | 1