Saturday April 11, 2009

Somali pirates in German ship fail to find comrades

By Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Pirates on a German ship with 24 foreign hostages said on Saturday they had returned to the Somali coast after failing to locate the scene of a standoff involving an American captive on a drifting lifeboat.

Maersk Alabama Captain Richard Phillips is seen at his home in Underhill, Vermont, in this undated photo provided by his family April 8, 2009. (REUTERS/File photo provided by Phillips Family/Handout)

The pirates had hoped to use the hijacked 20,000-tonne container vessel, Hansa Stavanger, as a "shield" to reach fellow pirates holding American ship captain Richard Phillips far out in the Indian Ocean. U.S. naval ships are close to the lifeboat.

"We have come back to Haradheere coast. We could not locate the lifeboat," one pirate on the German ship, who identified himself as Suleiman, told Reuters. "We almost got lost because we could not find the bearing of the lifeboat."

The German ship was seized off south Somalia between Kenya and the Seychelles and has a crew of 24.

Somali elders and relatives of pirates holding Phillips are planning a mediation mission to secure his release, a regional maritime group said.

"They want to resolve this in the traditional Somali way of negotiations," Andrew Mwangura told Reuters. "They are just looking to arrange safe passage for the pirates, no ransom."

Separately, French special forces stormed a yacht held by pirates elsewhere in the lawless stretch of the Indian Ocean in an assault that killed one hostage, but freed four.

Two pirates were killed and three captured.

More U.S. warships have been sent towards the powerless lifeboat drifting in international waters off Somalia, where pirates have been holding Phillips since trying to hijack his ship, the 17,000-tonne, Danish-owned Maersk Alabama, on Wednesday.

The American captain apparently volunteered to get in the lifeboat with the pirates in exchange for the safety of his crew, who regained control of the Maersk Alabama, which is carrying food relief to Kenya. Later Phillips tried to escape by jumping overboard, but was quickly recaptured.

Close by, the destroyer USS Bainbridge launched drones that monitored the incident and kept radio contact with the pirates. The Bainbridge wants a peaceful outcome to the standoff with the assistance of FBI experts, a U.S. official said.

OTHER HOSTAGES

Phillips is one of about 250 hostages being held by Somali pirates preying on the busy sea lanes of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

The biggest nationality among the hostages is Filipino and the pirates are keeping about 16 captured vessels at or near lairs like Eyl, Hobyo and Haradheere on Somalia's eastern coast -- five of them taken in the last week alone.

Yet the fact Phillips is the first U.S. citizen seized has galvanised intense world attention.

"Once again, it has taken American involvement to get world powers really interested," said a diplomat who tracks Somalia from Nairobi. "I hope they don't forget the Filipinos and all the others, once this guy is released."

The standoff has also given U.S. President Barack Obama a foreign policy problem in a place most Americans would rather forget.

Perched on the Horn of Africa, Somalia has suffered 18 years of civil conflict since warlords toppled former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

Americans remember with a shudder the disastrous U.S.-U.N. intervention there soon after, including the infamous "Black Hawk Down" battle in 1993 when 18 U.S. troops were killed in a 17-hour firefight that was later made into a hit movie.

DEFIANT

The pirate gang holding Phillips remained defiant despite the arrival of U.S. and other naval ships in the area.

"We are not afraid of the Americans," one of the pirates told Reuters by satellite phone. "We will defend ourselves if attacked."

The pirates are demanding $2 million for his release and a guarantee of their own safety, a pirate source said.

Officials in Washington confirmed reinforcements were nearby. The frigate USS Halyburton, equipped with guided missiles and helicopters, and a German frigate.

The USS Boxer, an amphibious assault ship, was also heading for the lifeboat's general area, mainly in case its medical facilities were required.

In France, the government stood by its raid to free the yacht, which was hijacked en route to Zanzibar last weekend with two couples and a 3-year-old child aboard.

"During the operation, a hostage sadly died," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office. But it said the president "confirms France's determination not to give in to blackmail and to defeat the pirates."

Last year there were 42 ship hijackings off Somalia, which disrupted shipping, delayed food aid to East Africa and raised insurance costs. Some cargo ships have been diverted to travel around South Africa instead of through the Suez Canal.

RESPONSE

The hijackings brought an international response, with ships from the United States, Europe, China, Japan and others flocking to the region to protect the sea routes.

Maritime groups say the likeliest outcome of the U.S. hostage saga is a negotiated solution, possibly involving safe passage in exchange for the captive.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray and Anthony Boadle in Washington, William Maclean in London, Mogadishu office, and Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi)

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