France frees yacht off Somalia, hostage killed Four other captives, including a child, are saved, officials say msnbc.com news services updated 12:01 p.m. PT, Fri., April 10, 2009 PARIS - The French defense minister said the navy stormed a hijacked French sailboat off the Somali coast after pirates threatened to execute the hostages. One hostage and two pirates were killed during the assault. A presidential statement said four hostages were freed. Defense Minister Herve Morin told a news conference Friday that French authorities had proposed a ransom but pirates rejected the offer. He said that "negotiations were leading nowhere, and the boat was approaching the coast." It is the government's policy not to allow French citizens to be taken ashore as hostages. He said French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave the order to attack. It came at 3:30 p.m. Paris time. It was the third time the French have freed hostages from the hands of pirates but the first time that a hostage had been killed. Two-day ordeal French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said the death of one of five hostages came at the end of a two-day ordeal in the pirate-infested waters where the seizure of vessels by Somali pirates has become a common occurrence. “During the operation, a hostage was unfortunately killed,” the statement said adding that the four other hostages, including the child, were “safe and sound.” The operation began Thursday when a Navy vessel contacted the pirates and “immobilized” the Tanit, it said. “Negotiations were started to persuade the pirates to give up their criminal undertaking,” said the statement. “Today, threats were more precise, with the pirates refusing proposals and the Tanit moving toward the coast. An operation to free the hostages was decided.” Details of the operation were not disclosed. Warnings to avoid waters The passengers in the Tanit, a tourist boat, had repeatedly been warned to avoid the dangerous waters around Somalia and the Gulf of Aden. The boat, a Norwegian-made 47 1/2-foot sailboat with a single mast, was heading for the coast of Kenya when it was seized. The owners, a French couple, Florent and Chloe Lemacon, had left the French port of Vanves in Brittany in July on an adventure with their 3-year-old son, according to their blog. Two friends had joined them along the way. The non-governmental group Ecoterra International, which monitors seajackings, said on its Web site that the Tanit was seized by about 14 pirates some 340 nautical miles from Bandar-Beyla on Somalia's eastern coast. Besides the French yacht, a German ship was also seized Saturday. A Yemeni tug was taken Sunday, followed by the hijackings of a British ship and a Taiwanese vessel Monday. A total of 14 vessels and about 200 crew members are under the control of pirates, according to the International Maritime Bureau. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30154714/ Looks like the french are the only proactive ones doing anything about piracy. I think this is the 2nd time they mounted a rescue mission to free the hostages taken by pirates. As of today most pirates have no fear of repercussions from pirate activity, even if they are boarded and taken into custody, they are simply released, since nobody has any jurisdiction to prosecute these pirates. Somalia doesn't have a functioning government.
I was just coming to post the article. The French seem much more aggressive, in general, with hostage-takers. They seem much more likely than Americans to take a chance with hostages' lives to teach hijackers a lesson.
Interesting note on the French attitude toward pirates.....in the 1830's those feisty surrender monkeys invaded Algiers and committed mass genocide eliminating 1/3 of the Algerian population in their pursuit the Barbary Coast pirates. Another historical pirate fact....."Payments in ransom and tribute to the Barbary states amounted to 20% of United States government annual expenditures in 1800."
maybe if they had jobs they wouldn't do this stuff. What if we opened a bunch of Long John Silvers and Red Lobsters to employ them - then they wouldn't have to resort to thievery A Pirate Stimulus Bill needs to be passed
We, the civilized countries, have let this go on for too long. We should have known better to not negotiate with the pirates. What did people think? you pay millions of dollars to people who normally struggle to put food on tables ... and expect them to go away and stop what they 've been doing ? 1) Get to the root of the problem, help get the goverment of Somalia to take back control of their country. This could take a long time. 2) In the meantime, when you encounter a criminal , what do you do? You catch him, blow him out of the water, go on shore to his hideout and take him out, do whatever it takes ... yes, there maybe colateral damages but you have to bite the bullet ... we need to stamp this out ... it's a darnn shame that some 2 bit pirates can hold the whole world hostage ...
The issue here is violence. These hijackers are pretty decently armed, but there's been a sort of mutual-understanding here. They don't harm any of the crew (and treat them pretty well, apparently) and in exchange, countries don't harm them. They negotiate for money. Once you escalate by attacking them, you risk having future crew subject to harm. They also have generally have a few dozen people captive at any given time, so if you attack them, they can threaten harm to those people. Right now, I think countries/businesses prefer paying the ransoms to losing lives. That may change if they get more and more aggressive, but that seems to be the tradeoff everyone is willing to make for now. Also, unless you arm every single ship, the armed assault thing doesn't work - they'll just target the unarmed ships and be much more aggressive/violent when doing so. Not to mention that they have access to better weapons than they are currently using as well.
Captain freed and 3 pirates killed, one in custody. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30178013/?GT1=43001 MOMBASA, Kenya - The U.S. Navy has rescued the American sea captain held by Somali pirates. A senior U.S. intelligence official said hostage Richard Phillips was not hurt in what appeared to be a swift firefight off the Somali coast on Sunday. Phillips was safely transported to a Navy warship nearby. The official said three pirates were killed and one was injured.
You don't take an American citizen hostage, and then try to hold him for ransom against the US government. I love this country.
