Somali pirates demanding 25 million dollars for a Saudi supertanker seized two weeks ago said Saturday they were hoping for a "favourable" reply as the expiry for the ransom loomed. The pirates hijacked the 330-metre long Sirius Star on November 15 and have given the owners of the giant oil carrier up to Sunday to pay the ransom.
"Though the ultimatum for the payment of the 25 million dollars is about to expire, we are still expecting to get a favourable reply," Mohammed Said, the leader of the group holding the Sirius Star, told AFP.
"We are securing the tanker as well as Harardhere area. We don't want anything bad to happen," he said. Harardhere is the coastal village in northern Somalia off which the ship is being held. "Negotiations continue but we don't know when they will be finalised."
In a recent interview, the chairman of Lloyd's insurance said it was "highly likely" the owners of the Sirius Star would pay up. Lord Peter Levene told Channel Four News television: "At the end of the day there is no alternative, if you don't want lives to be lost."
The capture of the Sirius Star, carrying two million barrels of oil, sent shockwaves through the shipping world and prompted some companies to re-route via the Cape of Good Hope. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi on Friday called for tougher international action against the rampant piracy that has threatened to choke one of the world's most important shipping routes.
Meles also claimed Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea was backing the pirates who have defied foreign navies in the region and increased attacks on vessels in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
"By directly and conspicuously supporting extremists in Somalia and exacerbating its woes, Eritrea is responsible for the rampant piracy in the region," Meles said late Friday. "It is of utmost importance that the international community does more to tackle piracy in the Gulf of Aden."
But many experts argue the piracy problem will never be resolved until there is an end to Somalia's relentless fighting involving a myriad of clans, Islamist groups, as well as Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces.
Ethiopia and Eritrea blame each other for the Somali crisis, with Asmara accusing its rival of invasion when it sent in troops in 2006 and Addis Ababa blaming it for supporting the Islamists.
On Friday, Ethiopia announced its troops will withdraw from Somalia by the end of 2008, ending an ill-fated two-year occupation but raising fears of a security vacuum in the war-ravaged country. In the latest of a series of brazen attacks launched despite the presence of foreign navies in the region, pirates on Friday seized a Liberia-flagged oil and chemical tanker in the Gulf of Aden.
Three men initially thought to be crew jumped overboard and were fished out by German helicopter then brought aboard a French frigate escorting a Norwegian bulk carrier. Anti Piracy Maritime Security Services (APMSS) said the three were former British soldiers providing security for the MV Buscaglia.
The men "came under sustained and heavy attack from pirates with automatic weapons and rocket propelled grenades," Nick Davis, the firm's director said in a statement. They "sustained, non-lethal, resistance, denying the attackers' access to the ship long enough for the ship's operating crew to seek safety below decks and to summon assistance from coalition warships," he added.