Thai Fishing Boat Hijacked Off The Coast Of Somalia

[Huey]

They got nothing. And I mean NOTHING to loose and everything to gain. You really just need to get some Black Water type guys in "Bait Ships" disguised as civilian yachts and other soft targets. Then when the pirates come they reveal a heavy arsenal and start killing them with no mercy. One could even use similar tactics with support vessels. Rather pay some one to kill the pirates then to pay the pirates.

[oevna]

They got nothing. And I mean NOTHING to loose and everything to gain. You really just need to get some Black Water type guys in "Bait Ships" disguised as civilian yachts and other soft targets. Then when the pirates come they reveal a heavy arsenal and start killing them with no mercy. One could even use similar tactics with support vessels. Rather pay some one to kill the pirates then to pay the pirates.

I'm not sure who you mean by "they." If you mean the pirates, then yes, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from piracy.

If you mean the people who are being robbed, then they have a lot to lose. Remember, the pirates are holding hostages and expensive assets, which we have to assume will only be returned unharmed if the pirates' demands are met.

-oev

[CuttySark]

Why care about them. They don't even fly Thai flag.

[slapout]

I await what this type of question/comment will bring out in a response line. Which flag should the vessels fly, to recieve (care) from the civilized people of the world?

[CuttySark]

I await what this type of question/comment will bring out in a response line. Which flag should the vessels fly, to recieve (care) from the civilized people of the world?

Say a Thai citizen by birth, travel with a US passport to Iraq, got cought in the war, and Thai government is suppose to help him? Got speak to Bush. (This is just an example for comparison).

[sriracha john]

Trawler ransom demand expected

Somali pirates are expected to demand a ransom today for the release of a Thai fishing boat and 16-man crew seized on Tuesday. Apisit Techanithisawat, Chairman of the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, said last night the pirates are likely to demand a ransom after the trawler was anchored off the Somali coast yesterday.The Thai trawler was seized about 30 nautical miles off

Continued here:

http://www.bangkokpost.net/221108_News/22Nov2008_news04.php

[dingdongrb]

They got nothing. And I mean NOTHING to loose and everything to gain. You really just need to get some Black Water type guys in "Bait Ships" disguised as civilian yachts and other soft targets. Then when the pirates come they reveal a heavy arsenal and start killing them with no mercy. One could even use similar tactics with support vessels. Rather pay some one to kill the pirates then to pay the pirates.

I'm not sure who you mean by "they." If you mean the pirates, then yes, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from piracy.

If you mean the people who are being robbed, then they have a lot to lose. Remember, the pirates are holding hostages and expensive assets, which we have to assume will only be returned unharmed if the pirates' demands are met.

-oev

It's obvious the poster meant 'they' = pirates

Assume they will be returned unharmed..........??? Hmmmmmm I think this is what was thought of the crews and passengers during the 9/11 hijackings.

[Plus]

Yeah, beating up those natives in Somalia will be a cake walk....

As if it has never been tried before.

[oevna]

They got nothing. And I mean NOTHING to loose and everything to gain. You really just need to get some Black Water type guys in "Bait Ships" disguised as civilian yachts and other soft targets. Then when the pirates come they reveal a heavy arsenal and start killing them with no mercy. One could even use similar tactics with support vessels. Rather pay some one to kill the pirates then to pay the pirates.

I'm not sure who you mean by "they." If you mean the pirates, then yes, they have nothing to lose and everything to gain from piracy.

If you mean the people who are being robbed, then they have a lot to lose. Remember, the pirates are holding hostages and expensive assets, which we have to assume will only be returned unharmed if the pirates' demands are met.

-oev

It's obvious the poster meant 'they' = pirates

I disagree, obviously, or else I wouldn't have asked the question. Read it again. The way it is worded, it sounds like Huey meant that the "Bladk Water types in bait ships" have nothing to lose by going after the pirates. Huey then goes on to suggest that they ambush the pirates, which is a bit short-sighted, since they have a lot to lose (hostages and expensive assets). Although in his defense, he may have been speaking sarcastically.

[

Assume they will be returned unharmed..........??? Hmmmmmm I think this is what was thought of the crews and passengers during the 9/11 hijackings.

The difference is, in the case of the 9/11 attackers, their intent was always to kill the hostages. Actually, the hostages were sort of collateral damage, considering the real targets. In the case of the Somali pirates, their intent is to extort money from the owners of the assets. And they have released their hostages every time their demands have been met. In fact, the hostages are taken care of quite well, with foreign chefs brought in to prepare meals for them to their liking. That is the pirates' business model, and they would be stupid to break it by killing hostages unnecessarily. Unless, of course, they are pressed to do so by uncooperative countries. That's what I am afraid of. This is getting some attention now, and I am afraid it's going to get ugly soon.

Edited November 22, 2008 by oevna

[endure]

AP reports the The Thai ship as follows;

Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of Sirichai Fisheries Co.,Ltd. told The Associated Press that the hijacked Thai ship — the Ekawat Nava 5 — sailed from Oman and was headed to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was hijacked about 380 miles (610 kilometers) from Eyl — where he said the pirates were believed to be taking the ship. He said he did not know what the hijackers' demands might be for the release of the crew — 15 Thais and one Cambodian.

I am surprised that when the thieves are captured they are released. Apparently, no country is willing to take on the task of prosecuting them. Well gee, if you don't do anything to these thugs, what do you expect?

One of the largest Norwegian oil carriers instructs its fleet to avoid the area altogether and to sail an extra 15 days around the horn of Africa instead of using the Suez canal. Add in the extra shipping costs, the extra costs of shipping insurance, and consumers are paying for this.

The Sirius Star was on the Cape of Good Hope route anyway as she's too big to transit Suez.

[dumball]

I await what this type of question/comment will bring out in a response line. Which flag should the vessels fly, to recieve (care) from the civilized people of the world?

Say a Thai citizen by birth, travel with a US passport to Iraq, got cought in the war, and Thai government is suppose to help him? Got speak to Bush. (This is just an example for comparison).

Should send in the Thai navy and airforce , they have the equipement , all they need is some practise , send a few high ranking officers with them so they can finally earn all of those medals hanging on their uniforms .Should be a breeze for them realy , go in singing the national anthem , that should give them all of the fortitude they need to get the job done quickly and efficiently .Oh , and please do not forget the purple neck-scarves , warriors brave and true .

[animatic]

The idea of ringer ships to lure them and then

when the show their hand blast them out of the water,

and take some barganing captives.

Well it's not nice and friendly like, but neither are these guys.

Not very touchy-feely warmth and compasionate either.

BUT... Piracy On The High Seas has always been a Capital Offence.

These guys have had a free ride for several years,

and are getting more brazen... Maybe time for that line in the sand.

And maybe HIGH time to help Somalia the failed country,

get back on it's feet. A real cure for a recurrence of this cancer.

The Somali people get plenty of sympathy, the pirates... NONE.

[sriracha john]

UPDATE... the "pirate ship" sunk by the Indian Navy posted on earlier turns out to be the Thai fishing boat...

Sunken 'pirate ship' was actually Thai trawler, owner says

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN / 8 minutes ago) -- Fourteen sailors are still missing from a Thai trawler that was sunk last week by the Indian navy as a suspected pirate ship, the vessel's owner said Tuesday.

One crewman was found alive after six days adrift in the Gulf of Aden, and one is confirmed dead, said Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, owner of the Ekawat Nava 5.

Last week, India's navy reported that the frigate INS Tabar had battled a pirate "mother vessel" in the gulf November 18, leaving the ship ablaze and likely sunk. Wicharn said that vessel was his ship, which was in the process of being seized by pirates when it came under fire.

Indian authorities insisted that their ship had acted against a pirate vessel which had threatened to attack the Tabar.

"We fired in self-defense and in response to firing upon our vessel. It was a pirate vessel in the international waters and its stance was aggressive," Commodore Nirad Sinha, a navy spokesman, told CNN. He said the ship the Tabar fired upon was laden with ammunition. Video Watch more about the piracy threat in the region »

Wicharn told reporters that the Ekawat Nava 5 was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was set upon by pirates off the Horn of Africa. The pirates were seizing control of the ship when the Tabar moved in, he said.

Wicharn said he learned the fate of his vessel from a Cambodian crew member who survived the gunfire and drifted in the ocean for six days before he was plucked to safety by a passing ship. The sailor was recovering in a hospital in Yemen, he said.

Wicharn said his ship made a distress call on November 18 as it was chased by pirates in two speedboats, but the connection was lost midway. The owners, Sirichai Fisheries, had not heard from the crew since then.

Later that evening, the Indian navy said it encountered a suspected pirate "mother vessel," with two speedboats in tow, about 285 nautical miles (525 km) southwest of the Omani port of Salalah. "Mother vessels" are often used as mobile bases to ferry pirates and smaller attack boats into deep water.

When the Tabar's crew hailed the ship and demanded it stop for inspection, the pirates threatened to destroy the Indian ship, the ministry reported.

"Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar," the ministry said. The Indian frigate returned fire, setting the pirate ship ablaze and setting off explosions on board, the statement said.

An international fleet has been patrolling the waters off the Horn of Africa in an effort to crack down on pirates based in largely lawless Somalia.

Pirates have attacked more than 90 vessels off East Africa so far this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau's Piracy Reporting Center, which monitors piracy around the world, including a Saudi supertanker captured earlier this month.

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The latest ship seized was a Yemeni freighter Adina taken last week with a crew of seven on board, including two Yemenis, two Panamanians and three Somalis, security sources in Yemen told CNN.

The government is in direct contact with officials in Somalia to work on rescuing the ship, for which the hijackers are asking for a $2 million ransom.

[Jai Dee]

Pirate 'mothership' was really Thai fishing boat

The "pirate mothership" destroyed by the Indian Navy in the Gulf of Aden last week was actually a Thai fishing boat that was itself under attack, it has been claimed.

Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of the Bangkok-based Sirichai Fisheries, has said that the sunken vessel, which was destroyed by INS Tabar, an Indian frigate, on November 19, was the Ekawat Nava 5, a deep sea trawler.

He said that one fisherman from the vessel had been found alive, adrift in the Indian Ocean, but that 14 others were still missing and at least one dead.

The allegation is a blow to the Indian Navy, which had won international plaudits for taking the fight to the heavily-armed crews of Somali pirates that are terrorising the vital Suez Canal trade route.

They include the Sirius Star, the Saudi-owned oil tanker which is carrying at least oil worth at least $US100 million and is the largest vessel ever to have been hijacked.

This morning the Indian navy again insisted INS Tabar, a stealth frigate, acted in self defence after being fired upon by a pirate ship that was heavily loaded with supplies of ammunition and explosives.

Earlier it has released photographs of the incident which showed a large explosion on board the targeted vessel.

Disputing that account, Mr Wicharn has said that the Ekawat Nava 5 was heading to Yemen from Oman last Tuesday to deliver fishing equipment when it was attacked by two pirate speed boats in the Gulf of Aden.

"The sunken ship which the Indian navy claimed was a 'mother ship' of pirates was not the 'mother ship' at all," he told reporters in Bangkok.

The pirates were in the process of boarding the vessel when the Indian navy frigate, the INS Tabar appeared, he added.

Mr Wicharn claims to have learnt the fate of his fishing boat from a Cambodian crew member who survived the attack and was rescued by a passing ship after surviving for six days, adrift in the Indian Ocean.

The man was taken to Yemen, it is claimed, where he said that at least one of his crew mates had died in the attack.

A spokesman for the Indian Navy said: "We fired in self-defence and in response to firing on our vessel. It was a pirate vessel in international waters."

He added that the ship, which was found in pirate-infested waters, had threatened to blow itself up if INS Tabar approached.

It has been suggested in the Indian press that the fishing vessel was commandeered by pirates and that its owners are now in the process of making an insurance claim.

The incident may force those countries that have dispatched warships to the region to reconsider the rules of engagement under which they operate.

A fortnight ago, pirates caught trying to hijack a cargo ship off Somalia fired on two Royal Navy assault craft packed with commandos armed with machineguns and SA80 rifles.

Two Somali pirates in a Yemeni-registered fishing dhow were killed. A third pirate, believed to be a Yemeni, suffered injuries and subsequently died.

France, South Korea, Russia, Spain, the US and Nato also have a presence and several other skirmishes have been reported.

Source: Times Online - 26 November 2008

[wrathfultalon]

The Indian Navy is in a hard spot. High on success they acted too quickly most likely. We all make errors, theirs took lives unfortuneately. Its amazing in this day and age piracy is still alive, then again when the USA can spend hundreds of Billions of dollars annually and still be in a stale mate in Iraq and Afghanistan whoes poplace is using make shift weapons and junk to subvert their attempts, anything is possible!

[Jai Dee]

Thailand seeks clarification from India on sinking of "pirate" ship

Thailand has sought a clarification from the Indian Navy on its rules of engagement in sinking an alleged pirate ship last week off the coast of Somalia after evidence has emerged that the ship was a Thai vessel, officials said Wednesday.

'We have asked the Indian authorities to help us verify the ownership of the vessel and then clarify their rules of engagement,' said Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat.

The Indian Navy frigate INS Tabar sank a suspected pirate vessel November 18 in the Gulf of Aden.

The vessel is now believed to be the Ekawat Nava 5, registered in Kiribati, an island nation in the South Pacific, but owned by Thai national Wicharn Sirichaiekawat.

The Thai Foreign Ministry said it was convinced the 'pirate ship' was in fact the Ekawat Nava 5 because the owner of the vessel lost contact with his ship on November 18 while it was in the Gulf of Aden and one of the crewmen, a Cambodian, who survived the attack has provided details of the incident from his hospital bed in Yemen, Tharit said.

According to Wicharn, the ship had a crew of 16 on board when it was attacked, including one Cambodian and 15 Thais. He said the ship was travelling from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment when it was first attacked by pirates and then attacked by the Indian Navy.

'The ship was raided by pirates, and all of the crew members were tied up when the Indian Navy attacked, according to the survivor,' Tharit said.

Thailand has sought a clarification from Indian authorities on whether the Indian Navy frigate attempted to assist any of the survivors after it fired on the vessel and eventually sank it.

'We are still awaiting their answer,' Tharit said.

The Indian government said last week that it sank a pirate vessel after it fired on the INS Tabar.

The Tabar had spotted a pirate vessel 285 nautical miles, or 528 kilometres, south-west of Salalah, Oman, and asked the vessel to stop for investigations, it said.

The vessel's response 'was that she would blow up the naval warship if it closed in on her,' a government statement said.

'Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck ... with guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers,' it said. 'The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired on INS Tabar.'

The Indian warship retaliated, leading to a fire and an explosion on the other vessel.

Source: DPA - 26 November 2008

[kurgen]

I blame that dastardly duo of the high seas Master Bates and Seaman Stains

[Nick100]

Bait boats, bad boys, big guns = Dead pirates.

[dingdongrb]

Maybe a warning sign might stop them......

[sriracha john]

The Thai fishing boat....

Associated Press

Destroyed pirate ship was hijacked Thai fishing vessel

HONG KONG: The alleged pirate ship that was blasted out of the water by the Indian Navy in the Gulf of Aden last week was actually a legitimate Thai fishing trawler that had been seized by pirates earlier in the day, the boat's owner said Wednesday.

The hijacking of the Ekawat Nava 5 far out at sea; its apparent and immediate conversion to a "mother ship" for the pirates; the gunfight that led to its fiery nighttime sinking; and the harrowing tale of a lone surviving crewman illustrate the dangers and the legal undertow that surround many of the recent hijackings in East African waters.

The Ekawat Nava 5, with a crew of 16, was hijacked on the morning of Nov. 18, according to Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, the managing director of Sirichai Fisheries, which owns the boat.

The boat had a GPS tracking device on board, Wicharn said by telephone from Bangkok. The company immediately reported the hijacking and the boat's location to the International Maritime Bureau in Kuala Lumpur, the clearinghouse for reports of piracy.

The bureau broadcast the news of the hijacking to various ports, other ships in the area and the coalition of navies that helps maintain a maritime security corridor in the gulf.

"We got the report and sent out the information," said Noel Choong, head of the piracy reporting center. "The Thai company did the correct thing."

A British Navy ship got the news and approached the Ekawat Nava 5, but the pirates, Wicharn said, "brought out our crew and used them as human shields."

With that, the warship backed away.

"They said they couldn't do anything because they feared for the safety of the crew," said Wicharn.

International maritime law permits clearly marked navy vessels to stop and check the registry of ships suspected of piracy in international waters, including arrest and seizure.

But in the case of the Thai ship, the question after its hijacking became: Was it still a commercial ship to be protected, or had it suddenly become a pirate ship to be commandeered?

"That's the key point and the major problem - that the legal basis for action is so problematic," said Dieter Berg, the head of corporate underwriting for marine clients and the leading piracy specialist at the reinsurer Munich Re.

"There's just no legal basis for the effective pursuit of pirates," Berg said Wednesday by telephone from Munich. "There are no effective rights to pursue pirates or to get them into international courts. This is the problem that the international community has to solve."

About 7 p.m., with darkness closing in, the Indian missile frigate Tabar, which had been escorting Indian merchant ships in the gulf, approached the Ekawat Nava 5. The Tabar demanded that the trawler stop to be investigated.

"This vessel was similar in description to the 'mother vessel' mentioned in various piracy bulletins," the Indian Navy said in a statement.

"Mother ships" are oceangoing boats, often large fishing trawlers, that East African pirates use to tow or carry speedboats far out to sea. When a commercial prize is sighted, these faster and more nimble boats are then deployed to overtake, threaten and hijack it. The unarmed crews are no match for the heavily armed pirates, and the commercial vessel is then held for ransom.

The pirates on the trawler warned that they would sink the Tabar if it approached any closer, and the navy statement said men with rocket-propelled grenade launchers were seen on deck.

Then, the navy said, the Tabar was fired upon.

The Indian ship returned fire, resulting in explosions on board the fishing boat. Two speedboats then broke away from the burning trawler, the navy said, as the pirates tried to escape.

One of the speedboats was later found abandoned. The other escaped entirely.

Of the 16-man fishing-boat crew, only one has been found - a Cambodian seaman who was picked up by some Yemeni fishermen.

The man had drifted, holding onto a metal barrel, for six days and 160 kilometers, or 100 miles.

He is recuperating in Yemen "and still very frightened," Wicharn said Wednesday.

"And we're still looking for the rest of the crew," said Wicharn, who added that he carried insurance on the crew members but not on the vessel itself. He put the value of the boat at $500,000.

"The survivor saw some of the crew jump into the sea, although six or seven had been shot dead from the very beginning," Wicharn said.

He said those half-dozen crewmen, according to the survivor, had been shot by the Indian boat, not by the pirates.

The Thai company has asked Yemeni officials to alert harbormasters and fishing captains to be on the lookout for "dead bodies or surviving crew."

- Associated Press / 2008-11-26

=======================================================

** Mods: Please update thread title to:

Thai Fishing Boat Hijacked By Pirates Off The Coast Of Somalia Sunk By Indian Navy

and thread subtitle to:

15 crew members presumed dead

Edited November 27, 2008 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Additionally, in light of the very serious and deadly nature of this thread, please consider removing the comical postings.

Edited November 27, 2008 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

'Pirate' ship sunk by India was Thai fishing vessel - official

MOGADISHU: India was on Wednesday caught up in a storm over the sinking of a purported Somali pirate "mother ship" as the hijackers of a Saudi supertanker demanding $25 million in ransom called for "honest" talks with the vessel's owners.

A maritime watchdog said the vessel sunk by the Indian Navy in the Gulf of Aden was a Thai fishing trawler and not a Somali pirate vessel as was first announced. The Indian Navy won international praise for taking on the Somali pirates, who have turned the vital Suez Canal trade route into the world's most dangerous waterway.

But Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau piracy-reporting center, said the vessel it attacked was a Thai-operated fishing boat which had been seized by pirates off Yemen on November 18.

"We can confirm that the incident has taken place. One Thai crew member died during the attack by the Indian Navy, on the same day the vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates," he told AFP.

Choong said one Cambodian crewman was rescued by passing fishermen four days later, but 14 other crew on the Kiribati-registered vessel are still missing.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Said, the leader of the group which 11 days ago captured the Sirius Star, carrying 2 million barrels of crude oil, said protracted talks were not helping them, the ship's owners or the crew. "We are urging the owners of the Saudi tanker to have an honest dialogue in order to end the crisis," he said. "We need them [the vessel's owners] to call their captain and our members on the Sirius Star so we can speed up the negotiations."

The hijackers had set a November 30 ransom deadline.

"Too much delay is not good for us and for the owners of the tanker and the crew as well. We are not threatening them but we are urging them to be honest."

The 330-meter oil carrier is the biggest vessel ever seized by pirates, sparking international alarm and prompting foreign navies to rush to the region to curb the rising piracy.

An Indian Navy spokesman Nirad Sinha, defended the crew of the boat that opened fire on the Thai boat. "The vessel was similar in description to what was mentioned in various piracy bulletins," Sinha told AFP.

"The Indian Navy ship asked them to stop for investigation on repeated calls. The vessel responded by saying it would blow up the Indian ship ... Pirates were seen roaming on the deck with rocket-propelled grenade launchers."

The owners of the downed boat, Thai-based Sirichai Fisheries, confirmed that the deep sea trawler Ekawatnava 5 had been destroyed, and said the crew were tied up when it came under fire from the INS Tabar.

"The ship was hijacked early in the day and was sunk in the evening," its managing director, Wicharn Sirchaiekawat, told AFP in Bangkok.

Somali pirates have carried out around 100 attacks in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean since the start of this year. They still hold 17 ships and more than 250 crew.

Many experts have argued that the torrent of pirate attacks off the Somali coast can never be completely resolved unless the causes are tackled.

The Horn of Africa country has been plagued with relentless fighting among myriad clans, Islamist groups as well as Ethiopian troops and Somali interim government forces.

On Tuesday, Said said talks with the owners of the Sirius Star were continuing and that the crew was being treated well.

Two British crew members have backed up the claim.

"Everything is OK, we've got no mistreatment or anything, we're being treated quite well," Peter French, the chief engineer on the Sirius Star, told ITV News television by telephone.

Second officer James Grady said the 25 crew members were not being allowed on deck. But while he said their captors were heavily armed, he added that they appeared "quite relaxed" and had not hurt the hostages.

The pirates have been in the world's spotlight since hijacking the Sirius Star.

Some shipping companies have rerouted some of their fleets to the Cape of Good Hope, while private security outfits have offered their services to combat the new scourge.

Also on Wednesday, at least four journalists - a Briton, a Spaniard and two Somalis - were abducted in the northern Somali breakaway state of Puntland, officials and witnesses said.

The abduction apparently took place in the port city of Bosasso, where several foreigners have been abducted over the past year, but there was some confusion over the nationalities of those taken.

"We have reports saying that two foreign journalists were kidnapped with two local journalists. The two foreigners are British and Spanish," Abdel-Kebir Musa, Puntland's assistant minister for seaports, told AFP.

"It happened at around 11:00 a.m. local time ... No one so far has claimed this kidnapping. We haven't had any sign from the driver or the car," he added.

Puntland presidential adviser Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade had earlier told AFP that the two abducted foreigners were Spanish and French. However, there was no other confirmation that a French national was abducted.

"A police operation is under way. All the exits of Bosasso have been closed and an investigation been launched in an attempt to collect witness accounts on who might have kidnapped them," Musa said.

The version of events given by the assistant minister was confirmed by the manager of the International Village, the hotel where the two foreign journalists were staying.

"They left the hotel maybe around 10:00 a.m. They had booked their flights the day before. They told me they were flying to Djibouti," Abdullahi told AFP. "They were picked up by their fixer and the same security men who had been looking after them."

"Then an airline officer at the airport called me to ask where they were because they didn't show up. This is when I understood they had probably been kidnapped," he said.

- AFP / 2008-11-28

[sriracha john]

** Mods: Please update thread title to:

Thai Fishing Boat Hijacked By Pirates Off The Coast Of Somalia Sunk By Indian Navy

and thread subtitle to:

15 crew members presumed dead

above is bumped....

EDITORIAL

Questions unanswered over sinking of trawler

Three weeks on, 14 Thai seamen are missing, presumed dead after an Indian naval vessel fired on a Thai fishing trawler off the coast of Somalia when it mistook it for a pirate ''mother ship''. A Cambodian crewman who was rescued by Yemeni fisherman after holding onto a metal barrel for six days and floating 160km is the only surviving crew member. Under normal circumstances, there would likely be accusations and recriminations, followed by inquiries and possible compensation for the victims. But little has been heard or said about this tragic incident, which has been overshadowed by domestic political turmoil and the terror attacks in Mumbai. The Foreign Affairs Ministry has yet to release the names of the victims as discussions between the two countries continue through diplomatic channels. But that is little comfort to the families of the crewmen of the Ekawat Nava 5 and the ship's owner, Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, who could demand compensation from the Indian government if its navy is found to be at fault. India's navy said at the time of the sinking on Nov 18 that the INS Tabar, which was protecting merchant vessels in the area, had fired and set ablaze a pirate ''mother ship''. It later emerged the trawler had earlier in the day been hijacked by Somali pirates. Wicharn's company contacted the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) which broadcast news of the hijacking to ports, other ships and naval vessels in the vicinity. Wicharn said they also asked the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the IMB to help pass on a description and pictures of the trawler to patrolling NATO vessels and asked for assistance. He said the NATO coordinating centre promised to help, but the company understood that the patrolling ships could do little because of fears the crew would be in danger if the ship launched an attack. The Foreign Ministry has instructed Thai embassies in Kenya and Oman to find out what happened and says if the answer from the Indian government is unclear and unreasonable, it will pursue legal action and demand compensation. Wicharn, who is adamant his company did everything by the book after the hijacking, says he is more concerned about the human loss and the future of the seamen's families. He is hopeful that the bodies of the victims may still be retrieved, but there appears little hope of

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http://www.bangkokpost.com/071208_News/07Dec2008_news21.php