Freed Ullas Krishna (right) arrives home in Cochin, India.
Posted on 11/24/2008 6:35:58 PM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
(CNN) -- Five Indian sailors who were among the crew of a Japanese-owned cargo ship hijacked by pirates and held for two months before a ransom was paid said Monday their captivity was "total desperation."
"I wish that no one else ever has to go through this -- (hijackers) are not human but rather animals," said Alister Fernandes, one of the sailors, at a news conference in Mumbai, India. They arrived in Mumbai on Monday after several days of rest and medical and psychological treatment following the release of their ship on November 16. The Stolt Valor, a chemical tanker, was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen on September 15 and was one of several vessels hijacked in recent weeks by pirates.
Navies from various countries including the United States and India have sent warships to the area in an effort to protect cargo ships and thwart the growing wave of pirate activity off the Horn of Africa. Authorities blame many of the attacks on pirates based in Somalia.
"We were always ... all 24 hours we were on gunpoint," said Fernandes. "We were all staying on the bridge (in the) navigation area. All 22 crew members were sleeping there, eating there. Only for shower and all, only two people were allowed -- two people will go, then they come up, two (more) people will go." Another crew member, Naved Burandkar, said the hijacking occurred when pirates came behind the Stolt Valor on a boat and fired rocket-propelled grenades. "They were continuously firing (at) our ship," he said. "They boarded our ship. They were firing ... nobody was going to understand what's happening so you can imagine what the situation was
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Freed Ullas Krishna (right) arrives home in Cochin, India.
i assumed that they were not nice folks.
/s
The Somali government and people can clean this up or we can start dropping daisy cutters at random on Somali villages and towns. End of problem.
pirates need to be dealt with like we deal with terrorists. Show them no mercy and blow their boats out of the water. They only understand force.
The pirates are smart enough to understand that taking a US Ship would result in some B-52 target practice...
There is no Somalia Government.
You mean, like this:
:^)
In this photo released by Indian Navy PRO, anti-piracy operations by Indian Navy's warship INS Tabar in the Gulf of Aden Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2008. An anti-piracy watchdog group on Thursday welcomed an Indian warship's destruction of a suspected pirate vessel in waters off Somalia, where hijackings have become increasingly violent and the hijackers increasingly bold. In a rare victory in the sea war against the Somali pirates, the Indian navy's INS Tabar sank a suspected pirate "mother ship" in the Gulf of Aden and chased two attack boats on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Indian Navy PRO, HO) - AP
Actually, I had wondered about that. There’s NO government at all?
Apparently there is a UN backed transitional government so I guess you could say no government at all.
I think we should encourage American anarchists to move to that anarchist utopia.
exactly! I hope the Indians had marshmallows to roast in that fire!
They did have the nuts to sink that damned “mother ship” - a fact that damned well ought to be an embarassment to our Navy.
Simple. Arm all merchant ships. End of problem.
They have payback coming for Blackhawk Down, anyway.
This is the perfect excuse.
The closest thing they have to a government is the muslim warlords who are trying to institute Sharia law.
Good idea! Then we’d get twice as much effectiveness out of bombing them.
I mean really, how the hell can they make a successful getaway with 21st century technology? It's bizarre that they'd even make the attempt.
Eithiopia went in and killed a bunch of them last winter. Unfortunately the UN got worried and convinced them to stop.
This bombing thing’s sounding better and better!
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