How do you pay a pirate’s ransom?

How do you pay a pirate’s ransom?

By Robyn Hunter BBC News

Pirates in Somalia are making a fortune by hijacking ships and demanding ransoms to set them and their crews free – one official estimates the total this year to be around $150m. There are conflicting reports about how much they want for the Saudi oil tanker they seized last month, the Sirius Star, and its cargo of two million barrels of oil, but how do you negotiate and deliver a pirate ransom in the 21st Century?

The owner hires people to take the money… for the handover of the big bags of cash. Same like the movies. Fahid Hassan, Harardhere

From what can be gleaned – how the negotiations run their course and how the ransoms are paid – what goes on would be worthy of a Hollywood action movie script. “No matter what process is taken, they always go through a middleman,” advises BBC Somali service analyst Said Musa. “And trust is at the heart of everything.” Fahid Hassan, who has experience of the negotiations, says that after boarding the ship, the first step for the pirates is to make contact with its owners. “All the important documents are there on the ship, so the pirates can know easily all the information they need,” he says. “The talks are by telephone, mostly satellite phone but sometimes even SMS/text messages are sent. The pirates do not negotiate themselves. They hire someone and often this person is a relative; someone they can trust.”

See satellite images showing the hijacked super-tanker, Sirius Star Enlarge Image

“For the Sirius Star, there are two negotiators. Sometimes they are on the ship, sometimes they are in town. The negotiator must work and work and work to get the money which is a very difficult job. It is very difficult to please the owner and please the pirates,” he adds. “But once the money is delivered the negotiator gets a share, the same as a pirate. Everyone on the ship gets an equal share.” Mr Hassan says that in the past, the ransom was delivered by money transfer, but that now owners hire a third party to hand over the money directly. “They come onto the ship or the pirates get onto their boat for the handover of the bags of cash,” he says. “The men who bring the money then go; they leave the ship to let the pirates count and check. Some of the pirates have counting machines and also machines to detect fake notes.” Security firms Roger Middleton, a Horn of Africa specialist at the Chatham House, says the ship-owners hire professionals, from specialist negotiators to private security firms, to transfer the ransoms.

‘World only cares about pirates’ On patrol with the pirate hunters Q&A: Somali piracy

“They are mostly ex-SAS and British or Australian. A lot are also South African,” he says. Not much more is known for certain, however, as it is an unwritten rule among members of such firms that there are no kiss-and-tell stories. Understandably, those involved are also aware of the needs of their clients and the strict demand for secrecy with people’s lives being at stake. However, Mr Middleton says that such operations cost about $1m, not including the ransom. “The professional negotiators get about $100,000 for their services and the lawyers get a fee of about $300,000,” he explains. Regarding what goes on behind closed doors, be it the negotiations and the legal and insurance matters as a result of these hijackings, Mr Middleton says it would be fair to say that, “most of it happens in London,” he adds. The EU’s first ever naval mission will patrol the pirate-infested Gulf of Aden

Gavin Simmonds, head of international affairs at the British Chamber of Shipping, agrees this assumption is “highly likely” as London is the centre of the global maritime industry. “It seems perfectly plausible that the actual facilitation of ransom money is being done by London-based insurers,” he says. However, Mr Simmonds says he has also heard rumours that some exchanges have taken place in Dubai. Bags of cash The pirates ask that the ransom is all in used dollar bills – normally $50 or $100 notes – according to those with experience of such negotiations. Kenyan sailor Athman Said Mangore, who was held captive for more than 120 days by Somali pirates, says they are known to make many demands and put in place a number of restrictions.

Pirates have generally treated the crew they seize well – so they are paid

“They sometimes say they want $208,000 exactly in $100 bills only,” he says. “I don’t know why they make those demands. They usually also don’t like dollar bills that were printed in 2000 or the years before. If it was printed in 1999, they say: ‘This is not fit to be used in our shop’,” he adds. Once the ship’s owners have sourced cash, a private security firm takes over. They then hire a tug boat, often from the Kenyan port of Mombasa, which they take further north up the coast towards Somali waters. The security personnel then board the boat with the bags of cash and enough weaponry to keep it safe. When the ransom has been paid, the pirates are left to count the money and are allowed to leave the vessel freely. “The navies in the Somali waters of course must have a pretty good idea of what goes on, as they have spy drones and they are watching the hijacked vessels,” Mr Middleton says. “Whether there’s any coordination between the ransom payers and the navies is unknown.” The BBC’s Joseph Odhiambo in Mombasa says that on at least two prior occasions the ransom money was delivered to the hijacked vessels via air-drops. He also says that other payments were flown from Wilson Airport in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, into Somalia on cargo planes transporting the stimulant, khat. No-one knows how long it will be until the Sirius Star is set free, but it is fair to say the ransom negotiations will be both complicated and delicate, with its cargo believed to be worth $100m. And the families of its 25 crew members, who are being held hostage, will be hoping that the pirates stay true to their word that they have no intention of harming them.

 

Navy shoots dead pirate suspects

The Royal Navy has repelled a pirate attack on a Danish cargo ship off the coast of Yemen, shooting dead two men believed to be Somali pirates.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the incident took place on Tuesday, when HMS Cumberland crew members tried to board a traditional wooden dhow.

The Yemeni-flagged vessel was identified as having been involved in an earlier attack on the Danish ship

An MoD spokesman said the pirates were shot in self-defence.

After initial attempts to stop the dhow failed, the Royal Navy launched sea boats to encircle the vessel.

The British seamen were fired on and shot back before the dhow was boarded and its crew surrendered.

Third death

An MoD Spokesman said: “Two foreign nationals, believed to be Somali pirates, were shot and killed in self-defence.

“A Yemeni national was also found injured and later died, despite receiving emergency treatment from the ship’s doctor.

“It is unclear whether his injuries were as a result of the fire-fight or a previous incident involving the pirates.”

A post-shooting investigation is being carried out, the spokesman added.

Details of the incident emerged when Russian navy spokesman Igor Dygalo revealed the frigate Neustrashimy (Fearless), from its Baltic Sea Fleet, had also tried to rescue the Danish vessel MV Powerful.
HMS Cumberland is taking part in Nato anti-piracy operations

He said the two warships repelled the attempted raid after the pirates fired weapons at the Danish ship and twice tried to board it.

HMS Cumberland, a Plymouth-based Type 22 frigate, is currently deployed on a piracy-fighting mission in the Gulf of Aden as part of a Nato taskforce.

There has been a rise in attacks on merchant shipping and aid shipments in the area.

The boarding took place 60 nautical miles south of the Yemeni coast, inside the Maritime Security Patrol Area.

The MoD said the boarding operation was conducted “in accordance with UK Rules of Engagement”.

Pirates have been causing havoc in one of the world’s busiest shipping areas, making the waters off the Horn of Africa some of the world’s most dangerous.

The pirates prey on one of the world’s key shipping routes, which leads to the Suez Canal, the transit point for up to a third of the world’s oil.

Rocket grenades

Pirates have hijacked more than 30 ships so far this year, twice as many as last year, with the ransoms paid to them by governments or ship-owners far higher than in previous years.

The pirates are equipped with speedboats and armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

They have taken millions of dollars in ransoms and their actions have led to a hike in insurance costs for shipping and threatened humanitarian supplies.

A Turkish-flagged tanker with a 14-man crew became the latest victim of the pirates when it was hijacked off Yemen on Wednesday, according to the Anatolia news agency.

Last month, a maritime watchdog said that Somali pirates were responsible for nearly a third of all reported attacks on ships.

 

Indian Navy foils pirate attempt on Merchant Vessel

The Indian naval warship ‘Gomti’ foiled a pirate attempt on the Indian merchant vessel, M.V. Jag Arnav, around 60 nautical miles off east of Aden. After getting the SOS from the ship, the naval warship immediately rushed a rescue mission and fired at the Somali pirates, forcing them to flee from the spot. The incident occurred at 10.30 AM (IST) today.