The fate of the ship’s crew still unknown despite efforts on many fronts
“Tell them, I am alive.”
That is the message that Yevgeniy Grigoriev, a Latvian hostage on the pirate-captured vessel MV Faina, wanted to pass on to his worried relatives. Grigoriev was speaking by telephone with Nina Karpacheva, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, who recently returned from a trip to Kenya.
At a press conference on Oct. 27 in Kyiv, Karpacheva gave an update on the state of negotiations to free the 20-member crew of mostly Ukrainians. The crew and their arms-laden vessel were taken hostage on Sept. 25 by Somalian pirates who are still demanding a multi-million-dollar ransom.
On Oct. 21, Karpacheva was able to speak from Kenya by telephone with other members of the crew, including Grigoriev. “The negotiation process to liberate the Faina crew is coming to a decisive stage,” Karpacheva told journalists.
At last word, 17 Ukrainians, 2 Russians and 1 Latvian were alive on board – a fact Karpacheva was able to confirm during her telephone conversation. Tragedy, however, struck soon after the seizure, when the Russian crew captain died of natural causes.
Karpacheva said she is hopeful the standoff will have a happy ending. Relatives of the crew, meanwhile, have reportedly been trying to raise money to free their loved ones.
In other meetings on her trip, Karpacheva said that Mohamed Ali Nur, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya, assured her that “pirates never kill the crew.”
The ombudsman said negotiations, not force, should be used to end the stalemate. “Everything possible has to be done so that power is not applied under any circumstances,” she said.
She joined the rising chorus of international voices calling for stronger action against piracy at sea, including stronger patrols. She also said that she gained an understanding of the extent to which Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency, has become a failed and lawless nation.
“The last two generations of Somalians were brought up without a school education,” Karpacheva said. “These youngsters know nothing but how to hold a gun and follow the orders of those who stand behind them. These are the type of people who captured the vessel. The youngest of them is only 14. It’s essential to find out who is really manipulating these boys and runs this black market if we want to fight the piracy.”
Karpacheva also called on the owner of the ship, Vadim Alperin, to pay compensation to the kidnapped crew. “I truly hope he will be guided by moral values as well,” Karpacheva said.
The ship contains a cargo of 33 battle tanks and heavy weaponry. Its seizure has focused international attention on the pirate menace off the Horn of Africa. Ships of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet have surrounded the Faina for more than a month to be sure the cargo does not get into the hands of insurgent groups linked to al-Qaida.
According to the Associated Press, the pirates’ spokesman, Sugule Ali, said they received a fax on Oct. 17 from Viktor Murenko, head of ship operator Tomex Team, saying Kenya had declined to pay any ransom for the cargo it claims.
