RESOURCES & ITEMS OF INTEREST
Sea Pirates : A case study of Somali Piracy
Pralav Dhyani*
Piracy has been a global menace all over the globe since time immemorial. However, with changing time and advancement of science and technology, pirates have started using sophisticated gadgets, boats, arms, etc. The challenges of piracy that the sailors face today need to be seriously looked into by all nations so that the marine trade and life of the sailors is safe.
This paper deals with the modus operandi and issues related to hijacking of cargo ships by Somali pirates. The paper is based upon a hijacking case where the author was one of the cadets on MV RAK Afrikana which was hijacked off Seychelles coast by Somali pirates on 11th April 2010 and was released after 332 days of captivity on the 8th March 2011 from around 2.7 nautical miles east of Haradhere coast in south Somalia.
As the author was a victim of Somali piracy and one of the hostages in Somalia, the horn of Africa, for almost 11 months, the experiences of the author have been shared in this paper. The presentation includes author’s views based on his close observations, experience and interactions with the pirate groups and the crew right from the hijacking till release. The analysis also incorporates information aired by BBC World news, whenever the author got a chance, observing behavior of the crew and the pirates during captivity as also gathering information on the efforts made by the ship owner, the family members of the hijacked crew, the DG Shipping of India, the Government of India, politicians, etc.
Eleven months is too long a period for anyone to be away without any communication whatsoever with one’s family members or near & dear ones and that too surrounded by sea all around in the captivity of armed pirates. Spending 332 days on a hijacked ship is one hell of an experience. In such harsh conditions the author reminiscences the behavior of the pirates and the crew and suggests ways for self and group conduct of the crew.
This paper further delves on piracy related issues, such as, attacking strategy, Somali soldiers and their Executive Committee, initial promises and demands, ration supply, armaments, crew and pirates’ interlacement, divide and rule policy, coastal groups, crew recreational activities, the drop day and money distribution, etc. Finally the author suggests the ways and means for the Governments, ship owners and crew members as to what preventive measures can be taken at their end to avoid and subvert the piracy efforts on the first hand and secondly for the ship owners and the crew members as to how they should behave and conduct themselves during captivity of the pirates so that everyone is protected.
*(Mr. Dhyani is beginning a book about his experiences as a pirate captive which we will be eager to read.)
Sea Pirates : A case study of Somali Piracy
1. Introduction
Ever since its beginning in the early 1990s, the image of marine piracy in the Indian Ocean has been very different for people who have just read or heard about it from the people who have actually experienced it. Everyone is familiar with the fact and justification provided by the pirates of Somalia for conducting this brutal act which is because of the presence of technically sound foreign fishing vessels and trawlers in the Somali waters which take away the livelihood of not so highly equipped fishermen of Somalia. This being a major reason initially, these fishermen resorted to piracy for a better source of income and started calling themselves the Coast Guard of Somalia. About 70% of the country’s coastal population supports this as a form of national defense of country’s territorial waters, also calling this whole act a compensation for the marine resources stolen from them by the foreigners. With the passage of time it has now become an obsession for easy money making and has taken them so far ahead that they really don’t care about foreign fishermen fishing in their waters anymore. Their minds have become so addictive to piracy that now they are ready to go as far as possible for a hunt and ready to hijack anything that is afloat.
To understand fully, one needs to probe further deep into the cause. The instability of the country, ever since the down fall of the Said Barre regime in 1992, led to the Somali Civil War. Since then no government could effectively control the entire country. The North-Western part of the country has been relatively stable under the self-declared but recognized sovereign state, the Somaliland.
The southern part of the country has been a very stronghold of the Islamist group - the Al Shabab. Wherever there is Al Shabab the Islamic laws must be followed. With the presence of various controlling authorities and their own internal conflicts, the chaos that started during the fall of Somalia Democratic Republic in 1992 could not find any settlement until now. Problems, such as, clans, family loyalties, and social conflicts found their own solutions by the use of weapons which are more easily accessible than food, thus resulting in the civil war.
The incidents of attacks and hijacking of vessels are only increasing year by year. The price of the ransom has now reached Millions of dollars. The type of weapons and technology, different kind of attacking strategies, different kinds of mother vessels being used by the pirates is advancing with time. This clearly shows that gradually they are becoming more and more skilled in their act and have developed a mindset of being impervious.
2. The Country
Somalia lies on the eastern most part of Africa, also known as the Horn of Africa. It has a land area of 637,540 square kilometers. It has a coastline of 3,300 Kms and more which is the longest compared to any of the African or Middle East country. The estimated population of the country, as on October 6th 2011, is approximately 9,349,648. The country is bordered by Djibouti to the Northwest and Kenya to the Southwest and the Gulf of Aden, with Yemen at the North and the Indian Ocean to the East.
The only good part about the country is, its location, which is easily accessible by vessels crossing the Suez, Gulf of Aden or the Indian Ocean. Majority of the vessels, transporting cargo, use these areas to shorten their voyage and around 21,000 ships pass through these areas annually.
During the middle age, Somalia was an important centre for commerce catering to the rest of the ancient world. Several powerful Somalian emperors dominated even the regional trade. But the country did or could not keep up pace with the development and advancement in technology, which could have made the country a major port of East Africa or a bunkering port for vessels crossing the area, making it a hub for mariners. In absence of that piracy beckoned as a lucrative option to survive.
3. Agencies
There are lots of people and agencies engaged in the gigantic racket of piracy in Somalia. Many pirate groups emerged once they realized the amount of money they could earn through piracy. The area for piracy is divided mainly between two groups , operating in two major territories: the north party, covering the coast of Oman and Yemen, Gulf of Aden and the Suez, the south party: covering the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, Seychelles and also reaching up to south-west coast of India covering Lakshadweep. Then there are smaller groups operating under these two major territorial groups. Once the pirates are onboard and have absolute control of the hijacked vessel and its crew, they command the ship to sail towards Somalia at gun point. All the hijacked vessels are kept at different places like Hardere, Obiyo, Garacad, Puntland, etc., along the coast of Somalia. Both the north and the south hunting groups have three major parties or three major members of the ‘Executive Committee’ as they call it. The Executive Committee in turn has different Commanders.
The Hunting Party
The Security Party
The Financer
The head or ‘commander’, as they call him, of the hunting party and the security party is normally the same person.
3.1 The Hunting Party
Hunting party Is a group of 5-10 Somalis who load their skiffs on a mother vessel and sail out of Somalia to hunt for a target. At times they have advance information of a particular vessel’s voyage and they wait for it en-route its passage. There are also random hunts when they just sail out hoping to catch anything that floats. If they are extremely lucky they come back with a cargo vessel, if they are a little lucky they come with something as the same size of their mother vessel which is then used as another mother vessel, if they are just lucky they come back alive with nothing and if they are not lucky they simply don’t come back. It is not that a hunting party is always successful.
3.2 The Security Party
Once a vessel reaches the coast of Somalia and is anchored, the boats awaiting at the shore approach the vessel with a huge number of people on them. The important members of the group then speak to the captain. The rest of the pirates or soldiers as they call themselves stay on board as
day workers and guard the vessel. During the initial months there are about 20-25 people on board a vessel of around 100m in length. All of these men are armed with AK-47’s, RPG’s or LMG’s. These men who come from shore do shifts which last from sunrise to sunset and then sunset to sunrise. At a time there are around 10-15 pirates on board for almost 15 days, then they go back to shore for a few days and the next batch comes on board. The shore security personnel are paid on a daily or monthly basis according to whatever deal they strike with the executive committee.
3.3 The Financers
This is the group which is in overall command but is works behind the scene. There is only one person present from the financer’s side and that is the Translator (Tarjuman is the Somali word for translator). He is very amicable and amiable acting like a good friend, trying to show that he is not with the pirates and is merely helping in the negotiation, to gain the sympathy and confidence of the crew. He tries to put in the mind of the crew that he, the translator, is just an ordinary person like them and is not in control of the situation. His job is only to facilitate the communication between pirate commander and Captain / Ship owner. It is all very well planned and tested with time. The financers also act in the same way as a normal investor would act in a business plan. Less investment and more profit margins. They invest in the vessels, providing it with food (whatever quality they have) for crew and the pirates, cigarettes, “meera” or “khat” (the addictive grass that the pirates eat during their watch to keep them awake) and other daily needed items like tea, sugar, milk powder, cooking oil etc. Every day in the evening before sunset a couple of boats, depending on the number of ships anchored, approach the vessels and provide fresh “meera” to the pirates along with whatever ration is required on the vessel. This takes place almost every day without fail. In case the negotiations take too long to come to a settlement, they reduce the amount of supply to less than 20% compared to the initial supplies. Even the number of soldiers on board for security goes down.
4. Strategies of Pirate attacks
Most of the times, a mother vessel is either a fishing vessel or a trawler of not more than 50m in length or it can also be a dhow boat of the same size. If they are using any of these and none of the crew onboard is white skinned , then these mother vessels are only used for hunting. The deal that is made is, if that particular mother vessel helps in 3 successful hijacking then it would be released without any money. If the crew onboard is white i.e., European or American or the vessel has a European or American registry, then ransom is also demanded. With experience the pirates have also realized the importance of channel 16. They monitor it with whatever knowledge they have of the English language. None of the crew members is allowed to touch or even come close to any of the VHF equipments or any other communication equipments. They make sure that the satellite phones are also disconnected and the AIS is switched off. It is only the radar that operates.
Once they have identified a particular target, they follow it for a few miles and when they are almost 6 nautical miles away from it, they lower their skiffs and approach for an attack. The number of skiffs and number of pirates on the skiff depends on the size of the vessel. Most chases are from the stern and they try to climb on board from the port or starboard side beam or quarter. They use anchor hooks which is tied to a thick rope, these hooks are thrown on board and it hooks up to the ships railing, once hooked they hold tight to the rope and start climbing one after the other. If a minimum of 2 pirates get onboard with guns they know they can at least stop the engine of the vessel. If it gets difficult for them to climb on board, they start firing shots in air and at times towards the accommodation. What I have observed through my personal experience is that from the day of the hijack until the money is dropped they do not intend to kill anyone.
These days they have started using hijacked cargo vessels as well for hunting. They have realized that in doing so it saves their investment on fuel, food and water because a newly hijacked vessel which has sailed out of nearby country is always full of food, water and fuel. As soon as the vessel reaches the coast of Somalia, within a few days it leaves for the hunt. At times they negotiate with the ship owner if the vessel had successful hunting voyages. But their word can’t be taken for granted.
5. Aims and Objectives
In this section I present my experience which I had and all that I came across during 11 months (332 days to be precise) of my captivity in Somali waters. Thinking about it now, doesn’t sound as frightening as it was which is bygone for now. But it has given me the realization that the pirates have now learnt very well how to play this game. Each and every move is well planned and well organized. If negotiations are going slow, they create a situation which is then conveyed to the ship owner to intimidate and frighten him. Though as mentioned earlier, they don’t intend to kill anyone. It is simply because they know the value of the life of the crew. It’s because of the crew that they are getting paid. But this does not mean that there is no danger to the life of the sailors. There can be situations which need immediate medical help either physical in nature or due to the mental stress and depression. Like in our case one of the crew members succumbed to the mental stress. Moreover we should always remember that they are after all pirates and not our well wishers. Their aim is to get as much money as possible in shortest possible time with minimum expenses.
The mental pressure and harassment, for the senior officers and especially for the captain, better known as the master, is extremely tough to handle. Any problem, any misunderstanding, any miscommunication, it’s only the master who is blamed. If there is any technical fault experienced onboard, again the master is blamed for it as if it has been intentionally done. The pirates always harbor a doubt in their minds that the crew is always up to something. If the negotiations go at a very slow pace and there are no developments between the pirates and the ship owner, acts like mock executions, crew lock downs are performed to terrorise the master so that he is compelled to communicate with the company and inform about the killing of the crew and plead to get him and his crew rescued by accepting the pirates’ demands. Locking the crew to confined places for few days is done to specially those who are difficult to break down.
From day one, the pirates start studying the behavior of individual crew members. They look for members who can be brainwashed easily. They also try to get friendly with some of the crew in the name of religion, if there are any. They even offer a cut out of the ransom money, if that particular member or members of the crew can provide them with any kind of information which they can use for their advantage. Once friendship is established, that particular crew member gets a little more advantage, like cabin facility, opportunity to call home a few times, petty things like extra milk powder, tea or whatever it may be. It might sound very awkward talking about such things, but what I want everybody to understand is that in a situation like this, your own crew can give up on you for the smallest of benefits. By crew I also mean high ranked and well experienced officers and engineers. With these kinds of strategies, the pirates successfully create differences among the crew and then divide and rule the crew. All this is followed especially if the Master does not come under their pressure. They also identify the crew members who are close to the Master. By close I mean who stand by him. They then harass the Master by threatening to kill his trusted people or the young crew members specially the cadets. There have been incidents where the Master was tied up and left all alone in the bridge for days with no member of the crew allowed to meet him. Incidents where a crew member was tied up and thrown on deck, and then master was threatened with plans of throwing the crew overboard have also taken place. During all these acts they pick up somebody who is very emotional and can break down easily. Because even if a single person breaks down then their purpose is solved to some extent.
The movement onboard for the crew is restricted. If an individual needs to use the wash room, he has to ask the person standing with a gun. If granted the permission, he has to come back in the time given to him or else as the Somali say “PROBLAM”. The fact that someone with enormous experience and vast knowledge of sea life, like our master, also had to take permission from the security guards of the pirates even for a cup of tea , pained me the most apart from the agony of the captivity.
The day of the ransom money drop, is just like sitting outside a factory where the day workers are waiting to collect their day’s wages, looking at each other’s faces, reacting like they have seen money for the first time, fighting with each other over a dollar, every one sitting outside the counting area with his own pen and note book trying to calculate money with his best concentration and additional skills. It is also true that 20% from each ransom goes to the Al Shabab Group which seems to have quite a clout over the country.
The hostages on the ship, specially the young cadets, and the pirates do have amicable conversation at times and during one of these light moments when I questioned a pirate about why he was doing all this. The pirate’s answer was very simple - ”Money, Somalia all currency dollar, pound, euro, all”.
But what he said next is something to ponder upon: He said he had worked with the government of Somalia as a soldier but what he got in return was only food and “khat” and no money, no cigarettes. If he works for Al Shabab he would get only food, no money, no “khat” and cigarettes. But working as a pirate, he gets money, he gets food, he gets cigarettes and he has 3 wives now. He concluded with a statement that I still remember “Pirates good mustaqbil”. Mustaqbil means future.
6. Few things to remember
Only a person who has personally experienced hijacking and been a hostage can understand the mental and physical strain of this situation. To cope with this excruciating situation without getting panicked and depressed by being mentally strong is very important.
To avoid mental stress and depression one should involve oneself in creative activities with whatever resources are available. It either can be reading, or fishing, if allowed, exercising, walking in the evening for some time, whenever allowed, share the best of the sailing experiences with other crew members, crack some sailor jokes, talk about women and wine, two things loved by sailors, or the best is to write about how each and every day is being spent.
During our time, we also came up with different ideas. We played a lot of card games to keep ourselves busy, read a lot of books; in fact I myself developed my reading habit onboard under piracy. We even made chess board, ludo and used the shells of the bullets found on deck to make chess board pieces. When there was nothing to do, we took old torn slippers and started stitching them, or started making pillows to sleep a little more comfortably at night.
During the day times we really had nothing to do and when we used to feel hungry in the afternoon, specially the cadets, we would steal flour from the Somali food store and hide it and make some halwa for the crew and treat ourselves and later argue about who will wash the dishes. Even in this kind of situation a little bit of fun is required to get one’s mind off the tension around him.
7. Reactions of different people
The families of the hostages too undergo a very tough and harrowing time especially when they know nothing about the whereabouts of their loved ones. They depend upon the information provided by the shipping company. Sometimes they do not even believe the ship owner.
It is very important for the families and friends of the sailors to understand that the ship owner cannot share all the information with them or anyone outside the group of people negotiating from the owner’s side. The ship owner, if has not announced to disown the ship and is in continuous contact with the pirates then one must be sure that he is trying his best for the earliest release of the vessel. But the families should keep in mind that if the negotiations are taking time, it means the demands are too high, or another reason that I personally experienced was: ‘There was a time of about 4-5 months when the coast had only one vessel under the pirates and that was ours. During those days the translator never arrived onboard, there were different reasons given for his absence, i.e., it was time for his operation or he had met with an accident or it was his mother who was very sick. After our release, we had discussion with the owner and he knew about that gap of absence, as during those days there was no communication from the pirates’ side. The only reason being is that if they would have released our vessel at that particular time then the coast would be empty and then there was a possibility, according to them, that the naval warships could attack the coast as there were no hostages under them.
The families should never go to the Media. Going to the Media is what the pirates want. If a group of families from a particular vessel go to the media and half the world gets to know about the situation then the demand of ransom increases. The pirates get publicity and that’s what they want. This further helps them to ask for more ransom.
Going to the government authorities, well I can’t say anything about any other country but India. Trust me, the present scenario is that governments can communicate with the governments only and in Somalia, there is no control of their government on pirates. This was all the representatives could tell the families of the crew when they personally met different Indian government authorities. Opposition party members were also met and they did nothing but tried to get political mileage out of it by raising the issue in the parliament and staging a walk out from the parliament. The media, took up the issue of another hijacked ship, aired the news for 2-3 days to earn its TRP and then kept quite. As I said earlier, the current scenario is, one should not approach any of the above mentioned three agencies. They cannot do anything under the prevailing laws and protocols and on the contrary, it harms the case, for the pirates want this to raise the ransom amount leading in delaying the release.
8. Conclusion
I would like to conclude this case study by floating some ideas which I realized during my experience. We should start training our sailors to be mentally and physically strong. They should have briefings and training sessions on how to survive with minimum resources. Utilization of resources in such situations is extremely important and should be utilized very judiciously. The crew has to be taught to be united under any kind of distress situation, especially under piracy. The cadets or trainees who are the future of this profession should be briefed on all this as a part of their training curriculum.
Is mere killing or catching a few of them, when they go for a hunt, are the only options we have to curb the menace of piracy? I don’t think so. Why don’t we start sabotaging these people? Why don’t we destroy their communication systems? Why do they have the one of the cheapest communication systems in the world? Why is the UN providing them aid through the World Food Program? To be very frank there were times when I saw the cooking oil that was provided to us had a tag of World Food Program, a gift of Canada. The question arises, if this food is for the people of Somalia, who are dying due to a famine, how is the aid reaching the pirates and that too in large quantities. Supply of rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, etc., are all available with them in large supplies. It is like one of the best delivery system I have ever seen. Anything, anywhere, anytime, just one phone call away. Many of the above can be checked by the governments, if they take united approach, to put sanctions on communication and other facilities enjoyed freely by the pirates at the cost of lives of the nationals of these governments. This can be supplemented with joint patrolling in the area with support of satellite imageries to track the pirates.
Let me share one more very small incident. Among these pirates, who were onboard, the youngest one among them was a 17 year old boy. I saw a brand new AK-47 with him when he came to the vessel for the first time. By the time 10 months had passed, he was on duty one night and I was awake thinking about home. I asked him where did he get this gun from and he proudly said “My mother gave it to me on my birthday”. One can imagine how easily and freely such sophisticated arms are made available to them. It should be a matter of great concern to the governments to check this free flow of arms and ammunition.
My captain, who stood with the crew for 11 months, experienced two strokes on board during piracy. One of them lead to paralyzing the left part of his body which he got over it without any medication and without any doctor’s consultation. During the days when he could not walk, couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, he wrote on a piece of paper “Save Ship, Save Life”. He could just see one month’s freedom after release because when he finally got back home, he again had brain stroke just after a month which was fatal.
The life of our Capt. Superintendent, who was negotiating on behalf of the company got so stressed that he lost his life due to heart stroke during negotiations. One of our crew members lost his wife while he was still in captivity and the worst; I saw the sea burial of our cook who gave up just four days before the money was dropped. I am angry and deeply concerned because I have my full support and sympathy with the sailors who are in captivity of the pirates, without any fault of theirs, and the mighty government machinery is tight lipped to even announce any measures they plan to take to end this menace. We the sailing community and the concerned governments should work towards measures so that “Sailors Sail Safe”!!!
Pralav Dhyani*
Piracy has been a global menace all over the globe since time immemorial. However, with changing time and advancement of science and technology, pirates have started using sophisticated gadgets, boats, arms, etc. The challenges of piracy that the sailors face today need to be seriously looked into by all nations so that the marine trade and life of the sailors is safe.
This paper deals with the modus operandi and issues related to hijacking of cargo ships by Somali pirates. The paper is based upon a hijacking case where the author was one of the cadets on MV RAK Afrikana which was hijacked off Seychelles coast by Somali pirates on 11th April 2010 and was released after 332 days of captivity on the 8th March 2011 from around 2.7 nautical miles east of Haradhere coast in south Somalia.
As the author was a victim of Somali piracy and one of the hostages in Somalia, the horn of Africa, for almost 11 months, the experiences of the author have been shared in this paper. The presentation includes author’s views based on his close observations, experience and interactions with the pirate groups and the crew right from the hijacking till release. The analysis also incorporates information aired by BBC World news, whenever the author got a chance, observing behavior of the crew and the pirates during captivity as also gathering information on the efforts made by the ship owner, the family members of the hijacked crew, the DG Shipping of India, the Government of India, politicians, etc.
Eleven months is too long a period for anyone to be away without any communication whatsoever with one’s family members or near & dear ones and that too surrounded by sea all around in the captivity of armed pirates. Spending 332 days on a hijacked ship is one hell of an experience. In such harsh conditions the author reminiscences the behavior of the pirates and the crew and suggests ways for self and group conduct of the crew.
This paper further delves on piracy related issues, such as, attacking strategy, Somali soldiers and their Executive Committee, initial promises and demands, ration supply, armaments, crew and pirates’ interlacement, divide and rule policy, coastal groups, crew recreational activities, the drop day and money distribution, etc. Finally the author suggests the ways and means for the Governments, ship owners and crew members as to what preventive measures can be taken at their end to avoid and subvert the piracy efforts on the first hand and secondly for the ship owners and the crew members as to how they should behave and conduct themselves during captivity of the pirates so that everyone is protected.
*(Mr. Dhyani is beginning a book about his experiences as a pirate captive which we will be eager to read.)
Sea Pirates : A case study of Somali Piracy
1. Introduction
Ever since its beginning in the early 1990s, the image of marine piracy in the Indian Ocean has been very different for people who have just read or heard about it from the people who have actually experienced it. Everyone is familiar with the fact and justification provided by the pirates of Somalia for conducting this brutal act which is because of the presence of technically sound foreign fishing vessels and trawlers in the Somali waters which take away the livelihood of not so highly equipped fishermen of Somalia. This being a major reason initially, these fishermen resorted to piracy for a better source of income and started calling themselves the Coast Guard of Somalia. About 70% of the country’s coastal population supports this as a form of national defense of country’s territorial waters, also calling this whole act a compensation for the marine resources stolen from them by the foreigners. With the passage of time it has now become an obsession for easy money making and has taken them so far ahead that they really don’t care about foreign fishermen fishing in their waters anymore. Their minds have become so addictive to piracy that now they are ready to go as far as possible for a hunt and ready to hijack anything that is afloat.
To understand fully, one needs to probe further deep into the cause. The instability of the country, ever since the down fall of the Said Barre regime in 1992, led to the Somali Civil War. Since then no government could effectively control the entire country. The North-Western part of the country has been relatively stable under the self-declared but recognized sovereign state, the Somaliland.
The southern part of the country has been a very stronghold of the Islamist group - the Al Shabab. Wherever there is Al Shabab the Islamic laws must be followed. With the presence of various controlling authorities and their own internal conflicts, the chaos that started during the fall of Somalia Democratic Republic in 1992 could not find any settlement until now. Problems, such as, clans, family loyalties, and social conflicts found their own solutions by the use of weapons which are more easily accessible than food, thus resulting in the civil war.
The incidents of attacks and hijacking of vessels are only increasing year by year. The price of the ransom has now reached Millions of dollars. The type of weapons and technology, different kind of attacking strategies, different kinds of mother vessels being used by the pirates is advancing with time. This clearly shows that gradually they are becoming more and more skilled in their act and have developed a mindset of being impervious.
2. The Country
Somalia lies on the eastern most part of Africa, also known as the Horn of Africa. It has a land area of 637,540 square kilometers. It has a coastline of 3,300 Kms and more which is the longest compared to any of the African or Middle East country. The estimated population of the country, as on October 6th 2011, is approximately 9,349,648. The country is bordered by Djibouti to the Northwest and Kenya to the Southwest and the Gulf of Aden, with Yemen at the North and the Indian Ocean to the East.
The only good part about the country is, its location, which is easily accessible by vessels crossing the Suez, Gulf of Aden or the Indian Ocean. Majority of the vessels, transporting cargo, use these areas to shorten their voyage and around 21,000 ships pass through these areas annually.
During the middle age, Somalia was an important centre for commerce catering to the rest of the ancient world. Several powerful Somalian emperors dominated even the regional trade. But the country did or could not keep up pace with the development and advancement in technology, which could have made the country a major port of East Africa or a bunkering port for vessels crossing the area, making it a hub for mariners. In absence of that piracy beckoned as a lucrative option to survive.
3. Agencies
There are lots of people and agencies engaged in the gigantic racket of piracy in Somalia. Many pirate groups emerged once they realized the amount of money they could earn through piracy. The area for piracy is divided mainly between two groups , operating in two major territories: the north party, covering the coast of Oman and Yemen, Gulf of Aden and the Suez, the south party: covering the coast of Kenya and Tanzania, Seychelles and also reaching up to south-west coast of India covering Lakshadweep. Then there are smaller groups operating under these two major territorial groups. Once the pirates are onboard and have absolute control of the hijacked vessel and its crew, they command the ship to sail towards Somalia at gun point. All the hijacked vessels are kept at different places like Hardere, Obiyo, Garacad, Puntland, etc., along the coast of Somalia. Both the north and the south hunting groups have three major parties or three major members of the ‘Executive Committee’ as they call it. The Executive Committee in turn has different Commanders.
The Hunting Party
The Security Party
The Financer
The head or ‘commander’, as they call him, of the hunting party and the security party is normally the same person.
3.1 The Hunting Party
Hunting party Is a group of 5-10 Somalis who load their skiffs on a mother vessel and sail out of Somalia to hunt for a target. At times they have advance information of a particular vessel’s voyage and they wait for it en-route its passage. There are also random hunts when they just sail out hoping to catch anything that floats. If they are extremely lucky they come back with a cargo vessel, if they are a little lucky they come with something as the same size of their mother vessel which is then used as another mother vessel, if they are just lucky they come back alive with nothing and if they are not lucky they simply don’t come back. It is not that a hunting party is always successful.
3.2 The Security Party
Once a vessel reaches the coast of Somalia and is anchored, the boats awaiting at the shore approach the vessel with a huge number of people on them. The important members of the group then speak to the captain. The rest of the pirates or soldiers as they call themselves stay on board as
day workers and guard the vessel. During the initial months there are about 20-25 people on board a vessel of around 100m in length. All of these men are armed with AK-47’s, RPG’s or LMG’s. These men who come from shore do shifts which last from sunrise to sunset and then sunset to sunrise. At a time there are around 10-15 pirates on board for almost 15 days, then they go back to shore for a few days and the next batch comes on board. The shore security personnel are paid on a daily or monthly basis according to whatever deal they strike with the executive committee.
3.3 The Financers
This is the group which is in overall command but is works behind the scene. There is only one person present from the financer’s side and that is the Translator (Tarjuman is the Somali word for translator). He is very amicable and amiable acting like a good friend, trying to show that he is not with the pirates and is merely helping in the negotiation, to gain the sympathy and confidence of the crew. He tries to put in the mind of the crew that he, the translator, is just an ordinary person like them and is not in control of the situation. His job is only to facilitate the communication between pirate commander and Captain / Ship owner. It is all very well planned and tested with time. The financers also act in the same way as a normal investor would act in a business plan. Less investment and more profit margins. They invest in the vessels, providing it with food (whatever quality they have) for crew and the pirates, cigarettes, “meera” or “khat” (the addictive grass that the pirates eat during their watch to keep them awake) and other daily needed items like tea, sugar, milk powder, cooking oil etc. Every day in the evening before sunset a couple of boats, depending on the number of ships anchored, approach the vessels and provide fresh “meera” to the pirates along with whatever ration is required on the vessel. This takes place almost every day without fail. In case the negotiations take too long to come to a settlement, they reduce the amount of supply to less than 20% compared to the initial supplies. Even the number of soldiers on board for security goes down.
4. Strategies of Pirate attacks
Most of the times, a mother vessel is either a fishing vessel or a trawler of not more than 50m in length or it can also be a dhow boat of the same size. If they are using any of these and none of the crew onboard is white skinned , then these mother vessels are only used for hunting. The deal that is made is, if that particular mother vessel helps in 3 successful hijacking then it would be released without any money. If the crew onboard is white i.e., European or American or the vessel has a European or American registry, then ransom is also demanded. With experience the pirates have also realized the importance of channel 16. They monitor it with whatever knowledge they have of the English language. None of the crew members is allowed to touch or even come close to any of the VHF equipments or any other communication equipments. They make sure that the satellite phones are also disconnected and the AIS is switched off. It is only the radar that operates.
Once they have identified a particular target, they follow it for a few miles and when they are almost 6 nautical miles away from it, they lower their skiffs and approach for an attack. The number of skiffs and number of pirates on the skiff depends on the size of the vessel. Most chases are from the stern and they try to climb on board from the port or starboard side beam or quarter. They use anchor hooks which is tied to a thick rope, these hooks are thrown on board and it hooks up to the ships railing, once hooked they hold tight to the rope and start climbing one after the other. If a minimum of 2 pirates get onboard with guns they know they can at least stop the engine of the vessel. If it gets difficult for them to climb on board, they start firing shots in air and at times towards the accommodation. What I have observed through my personal experience is that from the day of the hijack until the money is dropped they do not intend to kill anyone.
These days they have started using hijacked cargo vessels as well for hunting. They have realized that in doing so it saves their investment on fuel, food and water because a newly hijacked vessel which has sailed out of nearby country is always full of food, water and fuel. As soon as the vessel reaches the coast of Somalia, within a few days it leaves for the hunt. At times they negotiate with the ship owner if the vessel had successful hunting voyages. But their word can’t be taken for granted.
5. Aims and Objectives
In this section I present my experience which I had and all that I came across during 11 months (332 days to be precise) of my captivity in Somali waters. Thinking about it now, doesn’t sound as frightening as it was which is bygone for now. But it has given me the realization that the pirates have now learnt very well how to play this game. Each and every move is well planned and well organized. If negotiations are going slow, they create a situation which is then conveyed to the ship owner to intimidate and frighten him. Though as mentioned earlier, they don’t intend to kill anyone. It is simply because they know the value of the life of the crew. It’s because of the crew that they are getting paid. But this does not mean that there is no danger to the life of the sailors. There can be situations which need immediate medical help either physical in nature or due to the mental stress and depression. Like in our case one of the crew members succumbed to the mental stress. Moreover we should always remember that they are after all pirates and not our well wishers. Their aim is to get as much money as possible in shortest possible time with minimum expenses.
The mental pressure and harassment, for the senior officers and especially for the captain, better known as the master, is extremely tough to handle. Any problem, any misunderstanding, any miscommunication, it’s only the master who is blamed. If there is any technical fault experienced onboard, again the master is blamed for it as if it has been intentionally done. The pirates always harbor a doubt in their minds that the crew is always up to something. If the negotiations go at a very slow pace and there are no developments between the pirates and the ship owner, acts like mock executions, crew lock downs are performed to terrorise the master so that he is compelled to communicate with the company and inform about the killing of the crew and plead to get him and his crew rescued by accepting the pirates’ demands. Locking the crew to confined places for few days is done to specially those who are difficult to break down.
From day one, the pirates start studying the behavior of individual crew members. They look for members who can be brainwashed easily. They also try to get friendly with some of the crew in the name of religion, if there are any. They even offer a cut out of the ransom money, if that particular member or members of the crew can provide them with any kind of information which they can use for their advantage. Once friendship is established, that particular crew member gets a little more advantage, like cabin facility, opportunity to call home a few times, petty things like extra milk powder, tea or whatever it may be. It might sound very awkward talking about such things, but what I want everybody to understand is that in a situation like this, your own crew can give up on you for the smallest of benefits. By crew I also mean high ranked and well experienced officers and engineers. With these kinds of strategies, the pirates successfully create differences among the crew and then divide and rule the crew. All this is followed especially if the Master does not come under their pressure. They also identify the crew members who are close to the Master. By close I mean who stand by him. They then harass the Master by threatening to kill his trusted people or the young crew members specially the cadets. There have been incidents where the Master was tied up and left all alone in the bridge for days with no member of the crew allowed to meet him. Incidents where a crew member was tied up and thrown on deck, and then master was threatened with plans of throwing the crew overboard have also taken place. During all these acts they pick up somebody who is very emotional and can break down easily. Because even if a single person breaks down then their purpose is solved to some extent.
The movement onboard for the crew is restricted. If an individual needs to use the wash room, he has to ask the person standing with a gun. If granted the permission, he has to come back in the time given to him or else as the Somali say “PROBLAM”. The fact that someone with enormous experience and vast knowledge of sea life, like our master, also had to take permission from the security guards of the pirates even for a cup of tea , pained me the most apart from the agony of the captivity.
The day of the ransom money drop, is just like sitting outside a factory where the day workers are waiting to collect their day’s wages, looking at each other’s faces, reacting like they have seen money for the first time, fighting with each other over a dollar, every one sitting outside the counting area with his own pen and note book trying to calculate money with his best concentration and additional skills. It is also true that 20% from each ransom goes to the Al Shabab Group which seems to have quite a clout over the country.
The hostages on the ship, specially the young cadets, and the pirates do have amicable conversation at times and during one of these light moments when I questioned a pirate about why he was doing all this. The pirate’s answer was very simple - ”Money, Somalia all currency dollar, pound, euro, all”.
But what he said next is something to ponder upon: He said he had worked with the government of Somalia as a soldier but what he got in return was only food and “khat” and no money, no cigarettes. If he works for Al Shabab he would get only food, no money, no “khat” and cigarettes. But working as a pirate, he gets money, he gets food, he gets cigarettes and he has 3 wives now. He concluded with a statement that I still remember “Pirates good mustaqbil”. Mustaqbil means future.
6. Few things to remember
Only a person who has personally experienced hijacking and been a hostage can understand the mental and physical strain of this situation. To cope with this excruciating situation without getting panicked and depressed by being mentally strong is very important.
To avoid mental stress and depression one should involve oneself in creative activities with whatever resources are available. It either can be reading, or fishing, if allowed, exercising, walking in the evening for some time, whenever allowed, share the best of the sailing experiences with other crew members, crack some sailor jokes, talk about women and wine, two things loved by sailors, or the best is to write about how each and every day is being spent.
During our time, we also came up with different ideas. We played a lot of card games to keep ourselves busy, read a lot of books; in fact I myself developed my reading habit onboard under piracy. We even made chess board, ludo and used the shells of the bullets found on deck to make chess board pieces. When there was nothing to do, we took old torn slippers and started stitching them, or started making pillows to sleep a little more comfortably at night.
During the day times we really had nothing to do and when we used to feel hungry in the afternoon, specially the cadets, we would steal flour from the Somali food store and hide it and make some halwa for the crew and treat ourselves and later argue about who will wash the dishes. Even in this kind of situation a little bit of fun is required to get one’s mind off the tension around him.
7. Reactions of different people
The families of the hostages too undergo a very tough and harrowing time especially when they know nothing about the whereabouts of their loved ones. They depend upon the information provided by the shipping company. Sometimes they do not even believe the ship owner.
It is very important for the families and friends of the sailors to understand that the ship owner cannot share all the information with them or anyone outside the group of people negotiating from the owner’s side. The ship owner, if has not announced to disown the ship and is in continuous contact with the pirates then one must be sure that he is trying his best for the earliest release of the vessel. But the families should keep in mind that if the negotiations are taking time, it means the demands are too high, or another reason that I personally experienced was: ‘There was a time of about 4-5 months when the coast had only one vessel under the pirates and that was ours. During those days the translator never arrived onboard, there were different reasons given for his absence, i.e., it was time for his operation or he had met with an accident or it was his mother who was very sick. After our release, we had discussion with the owner and he knew about that gap of absence, as during those days there was no communication from the pirates’ side. The only reason being is that if they would have released our vessel at that particular time then the coast would be empty and then there was a possibility, according to them, that the naval warships could attack the coast as there were no hostages under them.
The families should never go to the Media. Going to the Media is what the pirates want. If a group of families from a particular vessel go to the media and half the world gets to know about the situation then the demand of ransom increases. The pirates get publicity and that’s what they want. This further helps them to ask for more ransom.
Going to the government authorities, well I can’t say anything about any other country but India. Trust me, the present scenario is that governments can communicate with the governments only and in Somalia, there is no control of their government on pirates. This was all the representatives could tell the families of the crew when they personally met different Indian government authorities. Opposition party members were also met and they did nothing but tried to get political mileage out of it by raising the issue in the parliament and staging a walk out from the parliament. The media, took up the issue of another hijacked ship, aired the news for 2-3 days to earn its TRP and then kept quite. As I said earlier, the current scenario is, one should not approach any of the above mentioned three agencies. They cannot do anything under the prevailing laws and protocols and on the contrary, it harms the case, for the pirates want this to raise the ransom amount leading in delaying the release.
8. Conclusion
I would like to conclude this case study by floating some ideas which I realized during my experience. We should start training our sailors to be mentally and physically strong. They should have briefings and training sessions on how to survive with minimum resources. Utilization of resources in such situations is extremely important and should be utilized very judiciously. The crew has to be taught to be united under any kind of distress situation, especially under piracy. The cadets or trainees who are the future of this profession should be briefed on all this as a part of their training curriculum.
Is mere killing or catching a few of them, when they go for a hunt, are the only options we have to curb the menace of piracy? I don’t think so. Why don’t we start sabotaging these people? Why don’t we destroy their communication systems? Why do they have the one of the cheapest communication systems in the world? Why is the UN providing them aid through the World Food Program? To be very frank there were times when I saw the cooking oil that was provided to us had a tag of World Food Program, a gift of Canada. The question arises, if this food is for the people of Somalia, who are dying due to a famine, how is the aid reaching the pirates and that too in large quantities. Supply of rice, flour, cooking oil, sugar, etc., are all available with them in large supplies. It is like one of the best delivery system I have ever seen. Anything, anywhere, anytime, just one phone call away. Many of the above can be checked by the governments, if they take united approach, to put sanctions on communication and other facilities enjoyed freely by the pirates at the cost of lives of the nationals of these governments. This can be supplemented with joint patrolling in the area with support of satellite imageries to track the pirates.
Let me share one more very small incident. Among these pirates, who were onboard, the youngest one among them was a 17 year old boy. I saw a brand new AK-47 with him when he came to the vessel for the first time. By the time 10 months had passed, he was on duty one night and I was awake thinking about home. I asked him where did he get this gun from and he proudly said “My mother gave it to me on my birthday”. One can imagine how easily and freely such sophisticated arms are made available to them. It should be a matter of great concern to the governments to check this free flow of arms and ammunition.
My captain, who stood with the crew for 11 months, experienced two strokes on board during piracy. One of them lead to paralyzing the left part of his body which he got over it without any medication and without any doctor’s consultation. During the days when he could not walk, couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, he wrote on a piece of paper “Save Ship, Save Life”. He could just see one month’s freedom after release because when he finally got back home, he again had brain stroke just after a month which was fatal.
The life of our Capt. Superintendent, who was negotiating on behalf of the company got so stressed that he lost his life due to heart stroke during negotiations. One of our crew members lost his wife while he was still in captivity and the worst; I saw the sea burial of our cook who gave up just four days before the money was dropped. I am angry and deeply concerned because I have my full support and sympathy with the sailors who are in captivity of the pirates, without any fault of theirs, and the mighty government machinery is tight lipped to even announce any measures they plan to take to end this menace. We the sailing community and the concerned governments should work towards measures so that “Sailors Sail Safe”!!!