TAIWANESE HORROR VESSEL FREED BY PIRATES OFF SOMALIA AFTER 10 MONTH ORDEAL

Fishing vessel FV WIN FAR 161 and her crew were freed today after a relatively small ransom was received by the pirates, marine monitors working with ECOTERRA Intl. reported.

THE CAPTURE

The 56 m long, 696 GRT Taiwanese long-linerl with the registration CT7-0485 and call-sign BI-2485 was seized on April 6, 2009 near the Seychelles.

The sea-jacked Catamaran SY SERENITY was used to capture the Taiwanese fishing vessel.

The tuna long-liner had been observed earlier to fish illegally in Somali waters but after the sea-jacking was also involved in first trying to capture another longliner of the same fleet, which used the Seychelles as point for their transshipments of caught tuna, and then in the piracy attack on MV MAERSK ALABAMA.

Though Taiwan foreign affairs spokesperson Henry Chen refuted the report, the vessel had been used also for further attacks later.

NIGHTMARE FOR CREW

The crew of 30 (17 Filipinos, six Indonesians, five Chinese and two Taiwanese) was left by the shipowner and their respective governments in an awful condition despite the pleads of a humanitarian organization to at least provide relief food and water. Unfortunately not all 30 crew-members will be able to re-unite with their families since 3 sailors (2 Indonesians and one Chinese) already died during the 10 month horror-ordeal.

DODGY OWNER

The ship's skipper and first engineer are Taiwanese nationals and the 700-ton long-liner is apparently owned by HSIEN LUNG YIN of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan and operated under the management of WIN UNI MARINE by the Taiwanese company WIN JYI FISHERY CO. LTD. (WIN FAR FISHERY GROUP /Xiamen ) from KAOHSIUNG , which regularly sent their vessels into Somali waters from the Seychelles - a key transshipment point for poached tuna from the Indian Ocean to Japan.

FISHING SCAMS

Links of this group of notorious fish-poachers are also existing to another group, whose ships uses the names FV TAWARIQ 1-4. One of their vessels was impounded by the Tanzanian authorities for illegal fishing in the Tanzanian EEZ and the crew subsequently is still held in Tanzanian prsions, where now one Kenyan crew-member died under mysterious circumstances.

Taiwan is not a party to the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and their agreements and thereby feels not bound by its regulations. Selon Edward Huang, the general secretary of the Taiwanese Association of Tuna exporters went quiet on the case since long.

The Government of the Philippines only after eight month found the manning agency, who lured the 17 Pinoy sailors into the fish-poaching operation. The company is STEP UP MARINE from Singapore and infamous for recruiting innocent crews for all sorts of clandestine missions.

ENDLESS PLIGHT

Armed response damaged the vessel when it attacked a naval cargo ship but it could return to Garacad, where it was moored.about 7 nm from the beach at the north-eastern Indian Ocean coast for a long time. She first had lost all her oil but that could be replaced with help from sea-jacked Theresa VIII and though limping she was able to sail again for a short while to Hobyo and Harardheere at the Central Indian Ocean coast of Somalia. The vessel could always be moored on the heavy anchor obtained from another, former sea-jack hostage - the MV Hansa Stavanger.

The Idonesian government now stepped up their efforts to push the Taiwanese and Chinese governments as well as the owner to come to terms, when it was feared that the owner might want to abandon the ship and crew and to just cash the insurance sum in full.

The vessel was at last held 5nm off Garacad and the group holding it finally got a new interpreter for proper negotiations, while the ransom demand had been reduced significantly.
Fears that the vessel might be recaptured are minimal, though the vessel has hardly any fuel left, but since a U.S. warship is only 45nm away, the Taiwanese vessel might get naval assistance and it is assumed that the crew will also be interrogated concerning the involvement of the vessel in the MV MAERSK ALABAMA case.

Taiwans Foreign Ministry spokesman Henry Chen confirmed that the Win Far 161 was released today, Thursday, and the boat and its crew are on their way home. He did not say how many crew were on board and how much ransom was paid.

The most serious horror case at the Somali coast of the present times therefore seems to be over. Villagers in Garacad reported that all the money received was immediately snatched by the shop-keepers and others to whom the pirate group was indebted.

Good news is also that an alleged plan to just receive some money from the owner but sink the vessel with the consent of the owner, for him to cash the insurance sum and then to sell the crew later for another ransom while the sailors would be used as slaves on other vessels, didn't find the majority among the pirate group.

They just got now some cash, the vessel and crew go, paid their debtors and are most likely on to a new mission within a few days time.

This kind of piracy with impunity only can be stopped by properly developing coastal communities.

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