Tigers hold shipwrecked crew

By Chris Kamalendran

Diplomatic efforts were under way last night to secure the release of 25 crew members of a foreign ship which drifted into the LTTE controlled Mullaitivu after developing engine trouble. Officials from the Jordanian company owning the ship, Farha III, are due in Sri Lanka tomorrow as the Foreign Ministry in Sri Lanka and the Jordanian Ambassador based in New Delhi have sought the assistance of the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission (SLMM) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (SLRC) to secure the release of the crew members.

The Defence Ministry aerial picture showing the ship

The ship with 14,000 metric tons of rice from a southern Indian port was heading to Durban, South Africa when it developed engine trouble on Thursday and sent out a distress message. The message was received by the Maritime Rescuing Coordinating Centre, Falmouth in Britain.

The Iranian captain of the ship along with 11 Jordanians and 13 Egyptians was taken away by the LTTE and by last morning the ship had drifted three nautical miles away from the coast of Mullaitivu.
The Defence Ministry said the Sea Tigers had forcibly boarded the vessel when it was drifting off Mullaitivu seas due to a technical problem.

The ministry said that the distress message released indicated that the ship was under an armed pirate attack. But, an LTTE spokesman said that the movement’s sea cadres boarded the ship to check whether it was an “enemy vessel”.

“The crew members are safe” the spokesman said without elaborating on plans to release the crew.
An SLMM spokesperson told the Sunday Times that they were in contact with the government and the LTTE to secure the release of the crew members.

“We have asked the LTTE to respect international laws,” the spokesperson added. The SLMM was yet to receive a response from the LTTE. The Local Shipping Agents, MALS Ship, soon after being alerted by the Navy, had hired a ‘tug’ in an effort to tow the ship to safety, but was forced to abandon the mission after they lost communication with the ship.

A spokesman for the local company said that they had sought the intervention of the Jordanian mission in New Delhi to help release the crew members.

The Air Force yesterday took aerial pictures of the 150m-long vessel, but the Navy was not able to get closer to the ship as it had lost communications.Soon after the ship was detected, Sri Lankan Defence authorities had called the Jordanian embassy in Delhi to verify the details of the vessel.