The Island
Sunday, September 08, 2013
The 52 Sri Lankan seafarers held captive by Somali pirates over
the past year or so, some were released from time to time, but the exact
number held by these armed men at present is still not known, it was
revealed last week.
In the latest raid on a cargo vessel,
six more Sri Lankan were captured off the Somali coast, but their ship
had taken in water during the raid and run aground. The men remain
unaccounted for with their fate still unknown, the National Union of
Sea Farers, Sri Lanka (NUSS) said.
The pirates were
demanding millions of dollars in ransom essentially from shipping
companies owning and operating cargo vessels, Secretary, NUSS, Palitha
Atukorale told a news conference.
He said that there are
around 15,000 Sri Lankan seafarers employed aboard ships operated by
various shipping agencies operating from Colombo.
These
pirates have not been controlled by the government of Somalia and
subject to this lax situation of tacit dysfunction of law and order,
piracy abounds on the high seas off Somalia, he noted.
Secretary
Shipping Agencies in Sri Lanka, Chirat Bari said the plight of Sri
Lankan seafarers is serious issue which demands official attention. "As
much as Sri Lanka is affected so are India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan".
Asked
by the media on official intervention, Atukorale said there are
official negotiations with shipping companies, but as a matter of
principle, the government did not negotiate with pirates or terrorists,
and did not even consider demands for ransom payments.Roy Paul,
Director, of the London-based Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response
Programme (MPHEP), said his organization is assisting seafarers’
families in Sri Lanka with basic assistance for a limited period. Such
assistance would end March 2014.
He also said piracy
increased over the past year or so and there are now about 5,000
seafarers held captive. They were robbed of their personal belongings
and demands were being made for cash ransoms of at least one million
dollars for the crew of each vessel captured by them. Some shipping
companies closed down their businesses and left without trace
immediately after their ships were attacked.
Asked on
availability of technological surveillance and use of satellites for
such action, Paul said the US government had used such inputs and freed
their hostages. But such action was restricted only to American
citizens, he noted.
He said his organization did not have the clout to request such official action.
Some
of he families affected were also present, but the press did not have
access to them for interview. Families were being helped with a monthly
payment of about Rs. 25,000.
Shipping and cargo handled by these vessels comprise about 95% of the world’s goods in transit.
Asked
whether there is a solution to this problem, Paul replied, "It has to
gain the attention of the UN if a solution is to be found".
A
harbor worker present at the news conference said he had suffered a
heart attack at work, but because of the indifference of those in
charge and delayed medical attention, he is now partially paralyzed.