NATO to combat Somali pirates, Japanese boat freed

Thu Oct 9, 2008 12:33pm EDT

(Adds NATO, Yemen navy)

By Abdiqani Hassan

BOSASSO, Somalia, Oct 9 (Reuters) - The NATO military alliance agreed on Thursday to join anti-piracy operations off Somalia, and a Japanese tanker was released after a $1.6 million ransom payment, officials said.

With growing calls for firm, concerted action against Somali gangs who have attacked scores of vessels this year, NATO states agreed to send seven frigates this month to combat piracy and escort aid ships, alliance officials said.

The pirates have been causing havoc in the world's busiest -- and now most dangerous -- shipping area connecting Europe to Asia and the Middle East, taking millions in ransoms, hiking insurance costs, and threatening humanitarian supplies.

NATO officials said the seven frigates from a group that were to have taken part in an exercise in the Suez Canal region would arrive off the Somali coast within two weeks in response to a request from the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP).

The decision to send the ships was taken at a meeting of defence ministers from the 26 NATO member states in Budapest, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

"Piracy is a serious problem for shipping in that area. It is also an immediate threat to the lives of the people in Somalia," he said. "Substantially more than 40 percent of the population depend on the food aid being delivered by ship."

The European Union has agreed to start planning for a joint naval force that could be ready for deployment by the end of the year.

Pirates freed a Japanese chemical tanker, the MT Irene, and its crew after a $1.6 million ransom was paid, a local official said on Thursday. It had been seized by gunmen on Aug. 21 as it travelled to India from France through the Gulf of Aden.

"The pirates disembarked and the ship sailed away. Its 25 crew members are safe," Abdulqadir Muse Yusuf, assistant fisheries minister for Somalia's northern region of Puntland, told Reuters, without elaborating.

In the highest profile incident in years, Somali gunmen are holding a Ukrainian ship loaded with tanks and other weaponry.

On Wednesday, an onshore associate of the pirates said an $8 million ransom deal was in the offing that might allow that ship to be freed within days.

The MV Faina has been held since the end of September with 20 crew on board. Its cargo includes 33 T-72 tanks which were en route to Kenya's Mombasa port.

Another source close to pirates said Yemen's navy fired on one gang on Thursday.

"My group ran back after the Yemeni navy fired at them in the Gulf of Aden because they were afraid to be captured alive as they were outnumbered," said the associate of the pirates, who identified himself only as Hassan.

Somalia has been mired in civil conflict since 1991. (Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom in Budapest; Writing by Daniel Wallis and Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)




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