| When Wijeymuni Elmo Anneslem Soysa called his wife from the high seas off the coast of Devinuwara in the south of the country, he would never have known that it would be the last time he would be speaking to her for another, ten-plus months.
Mr. Soysa, a ship engineer and 13 other Sri Lankan crew members were on board the Saudi-flagged Saudi Al Nisr that was sailing from the Japanese port of Yamatova headed for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia when the drama at sea unfolded.
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| Anneslem Soysa recalling the horror and below with his relieved family. |
This is his story as told to the Sunday Times:
It was March 3 this year, and I was busy in the engine room, when my Captain and chief engineer wanted me urgently on the bridge as something was amiss.
Fearing some serious mechanical or related problem, I rushed to the Bridge only to witness a scene that I hope and pray I will not experience ever again. For there out at sea men armed to the teeth on several boats were spraying the Saudi Al Nisr with repeated rounds of automatic fire.
The Greek captain, Chief Engineer Iranga Jayasinghe and I hit the deck as soon as the firing started.
We had all heard about the activities of Somali pirates in the region but never realised that one day we would end up as bargaining chips for these ruthless sea gangs who cause terror.
The pirates boarded the vessel using steel ladders and within a short time the entire vessel was under their control. There was nothing the terrified crew could do to stop them except follow their orders.
We were ordered out of our cabins and told to take shelter on the bridge. This was to be our abode for the next 10 months. The pirates, numbering around 25 took up residence in the cabins and robbed us of all our belongings, from wrist watches, mobile phones, to jewellery and what ever they could lay their hands on.
After several months of unsuccessful bargaining with the ship owner over the ransom payment, it was apparent that the pirates were getting irritated and it was then that they began assaulting the crew members.
There was a near zero communication gap since none of the pirates except for the leader known only as Mr. Lee understood or spoke English. Crew members who failed to understand instructions were singled out and assaulted.
On one occasion a senior officer was stripped to his underwear and kept on the open deck in the scorching sun for the entire day, simply because he could not understand the instructions given by the pirates.
Food consisted of plain rice with fish curry and the water was restricted to one litre a day that had to be used for drinking, washing, etc. Any extra water ration will have to be gathered from the sea.
One night they used our vessel in an aborted attempt to grab another commercial vessel that was sailing in the vicinity but the pirates were forced to withdraw since that ship was protected with a high voltage security shield.
They also lost one man who was electrocuted while attempting to enter the bridge of the ship. The furious pirates later sprayed the vessel with automatic fire before allowing it to leave the area.
Naval boats from the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) repeatedly came within sight of our ship but they were unable to attack the pirates because of our presence. That’s the main reason we were kept on board the vessel as hostages.
The pirates would at times get all excited when they heard any mention that ransom money was ready for delivery. Then they would sulk and get angry once more when it turned out to be a false alarm.
This happened many times, and we were at the receiving end.
I was convinced that the Saudi owner had written us off and left us at the hands of the pirates. But owing to pressure, mainly from the media and other individuals they had a re-think and finally came up with the money.
During our captivity we heard the dreadful news that another Libyan flagged vessel that had been hijacked before had been torched after the pirates failed to get a ransom.The fate of the crew was not known and feared dead. The pirates do not spare the lives of the hostages if they decide to call off the hijacking owing to the non-payment of the ransom, we were made to understand.
Our entire crew had given up hope of returning home alive. As each day passed we were convinced that the pirates would get rid of us as the ship owner showed no signs of meeting the ransom demand.
And then without any prior indication our prayers were answered on December 5.
The pirates told us to be ready to sale towards Saudi. The ransom had been agreed upon by the ship owner and that the money would be dropped into the sea the following day.
True to their word a small fixed wing aircraft hovered over the vessel the following morning and dropped a package that was guided with a parachute.
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| Saudi Al Nisr vessel |
The package was collected by the pirates, brought on board and the money counted, distributed among them selves and they said “you are now free to go”.
On our way back there were tense moments as we had to pass more pirate terrain.
During the trip to Sallalah we called in for help from vessels sailing in the area since we were short on supplies and adequate drinking water.
Our SOS was picked up by a US war ship which dispatched relief supplies including milk, fresh water and other food stuffs. A US medical team also boarded the vessel to inquire into our health and we were administered saline.
Five days later and we landed safely at the Omani port of Salallah and each of us who returned to Colombo vowed never to return to sea again.
Sea saga: Hijacked Lankans return
By Leon Berenger
A group of 11 Sri Lankan sailors who were held captive since March this year by Somali pirates returned home in the early hours of Thursday morning, while relatives of the men hit out at Sri Lanka’s envoy in Riyadh for his lack of cooperation during the ordeal.
The group of men who were sailing the Saudi flagged Saudi Al Nisr vessel when it was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden on the Somali coast were freed on December 7, after the ship owner paid 1.8 million US dollars as ransom money to the pirates.
The group later sailed from the Somali coast on December 7 and docked in the Omani sea port of Salalah a week later awaiting travel documents and wages before returning to Sri Lanka.
Their release was delayed for several months after the Interior Ministry in Saudi Arabia objected to paying the ransom saying that the pirates were allegedly linked to radical Islamic groups in the region and elsewhere, the local representative for the Saudi Al Nisr, Captain S. H. R. Kumar said.
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| One of the returnees at the airport on Thursday. Pic by N. Kumarasinghe |
Relatives of two of the men told the Sunday Times, that during the whole episode the Sri Lankan embassy in Riyadh maintained a ‘don’t care’ attitude adding to the delay in releasing the captives.
They said that several attempts to reach the Lankan Ambassador in Riyadh Ahamed Jahawal proved futile. “Each time we got through to the ambassador’s mobile it was answered by a female voice that said the envoy was busy at a meeting. This happened on several occasions and finally we just gave up. However it was different with the Consul General in Jeddah, Sabarullah Khan who was cooperative and helpful,” the relatives said.
Several calls made by The Sunday Times to reach Ambassador Jahawal also received the same reply from the unidentified female voice.
Meanwhile the sailors had informed their respective homes that the company had settled all their due wages while they were berthed at Sallalah.
At first the company had requested that the men sail the vessel to Jeddah, but they had refused on the grounds that it would have been risky as they would have had to pass pirate-infested waters again, Mareena Soysa, the wife of a crew member said.
“My husband and even the rest were eager to return home at the very earliest. It was a tense 10-month period for me, since I was concerned about my husband’s health,” she told the Sunday Times.
The local representative for the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) Ranjan Perera said that the Somali pirates have in their custody about 20 foreign vessels along with some 521 crew members including several Sri Lankans.
The latest hijacking was that of a Malaysian-flagged vessel- MV Albedo on November 26 along with a 23-member crew, including five Sri Lankans.
The hijackers made their demand known only yesterday and now talks are on to seek the early release of both the vessel and crew the company’s local representative, M. K. M. Imran of G. R. J. Shipping said.
He added that both the shipping company-Majestic-Henrich and the Malaysian Government were talking with the pirates.
The MV Albedo was seized some 900 nautical miles of the Somali coast while heading to Nairobi from Malaysia . |
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