Issue #1523 (85), Tuesday, November 3, 2009

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Pirates Seize 23 Kaliningrad Sailors and Head for Somalia

By Natalya Krainova

The St. Petersburg Times

MOSCOW — Somali pirates seized a Thai-flagged fishing trawler with 23 Kaliningrad sailors and were sailing it Sunday toward a pirate base off Somalia’s coast.

Pirates on two skiffs captured the Thai Union 3 ship Thursday as it was fishing for tuna about 200 nautical miles north of the Seychelles archipelago and 650 miles off the Somali coast, according to the EU’s anti-piracy naval force.

No sailors were injured in the attack, the Foreign Ministry said. In addition to the 23 Russians, the crew includes two Filipinos and two Ghanaians.

“The pirates did not hurt the sailors. The vessel is headed for Somalia. An EU warship is monitoring the voyage,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“The pirates have not made any demands. The ship has reserves of drinking water, food and fuel,” it said.

The ship’s owner, Samui Fishing, has asked its insurer to start negotiations with the pirates, RT state television reported. The negotiations are expected to start once the ship docks at the pirate base, which could happen Sunday or Monday, Interfax reported.

The Russian sailors were hired through a Kaliningrad recruitment agency, and local investigators have opened a criminal case, Interfax said.

But Russian authorities can do little to free the sailors because the ship belongs to a foreign company, piracy expert Mikhail Voitenko told The Moscow Times. The Russian Navy dispatched a warship to the pirate-infested waters off the coast of Somalia in September 2008 after pirates seized a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 battle tanks and its 20-member crew, which included three Russians. The ship was freed in February after Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk paid an estimated $4 million ransom.