Oil Prices and Pirate hostage prices are coming down any connection?

Dear Patriotic Global Citizens and Friends of Africa:


Re: The new downturn of oil prices and pirate hostage prices any connection?

Whose holding the world hostage with escalating prices for oil and pirates of the Gulf of Aden?

Any connection here? Should the world see the real picture of how oil and piracy is being used to destabilize the world economic and security order.

Now is the time to connect the dots and see clearly for improved alternative energy and security strategy.

Pre-emption, prevention and proactive engagement at all levels is critical for our survival.

Dr B



http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20081007/twl-af-somalia-piracy-1be00ca.html

AP October 7, 2008 Somali pirate says ransom reduced to $8 million MOGADISHU, Somalia -

A Somali pirate on a hijacked cargo ship transporting tanks reduced the ransom Tuesday to $8 million (euro5.87 million), but it was unclear if he was speaking officially for the bandits holding the Ukrainian vessel.

A man who identified himself as Jama Aden and spoke by satellite phone Tuesday is not the usual spokesman for the pirates. He answered the telephone of the spokesman, Sugule Ali, and said Ali was not immediately available.

"There are high hopes we will release the ship within hours if they pay us $8 million," Aden told The Associated Press. "The negotiations with the ship owners are going on well."

The pirates originally demanded $20 million (euro14.67 million).

Aden said a small boat was resupplying the vessel with food and qat, a narcotic leaf popular in Somalia. "The crew is doing well," he added.

Six U.S. warships are surrounding the Faina, which was hijacked late last month with 21 crew on board. Officials in Moscow say the ship's Russian captain died of a heart condition soon after the hijacking nearly two weeks ago.

A Russian frigate also is headed toward the standoff. The U.S. Navy warships have been tracking the ship amid fears its weapons might fall into the hands of al-Qaida-linked insurgents in Somalia.

The Faina's hijacking, the most high-profile this year, illustrates the ability of a handful of pirates from a failed state to menace a key international shipping lane despite the deployment of warships by global powers. More than two dozen ships have been hijacked off Somalia's coast this year.

Somalia's government has given foreign powers the freedom to use force against the pirates, raising the stakes significantly. Russia, whose warship is not expected for several days, has used commando tactics to end several hostage situations on its own soil, but hundreds of hostages have died in those efforts.

Somalia, a nation of around 8 million people, has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and then turned on each other. A quarter of Somali children die before age 5 and nearly every public institution has collapsed. Fighting is a daily occurrence, with violent deaths reported nearly every day.

Islamic militants with ties to al-Qaida have been battling the government and its Ethiopian allies since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006. Within weeks of being driven out, the Islamists launched an insurgency that has killed thousands of civilians.

Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Ahmed Jama said the government wants world powers to coordinate their approach to Somalia's insecurity.

It is not an issue "that is going to go away. There are a number of dimensions, whether it is pirates, whether it is humanitarian issues, whether it is counterterrorism," Jama said at a news conference in Kenya's capital.
_________________________ http://africa.reuters.com/wire/news/usnN07462284.html UN council calls for action against Somalia piracy
Tue 7 Oct 2008Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 7 (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday urged countries with naval ships deployed around the Horn of Africa to stamp out piracy off the coast of Somalia.

The 15-nation council passed a similar resolution in June that gave countries the right to actively combat a surge in ship hijackings around Somalia for ransom. But pirates have continued to capture vessels in what is now one of the world's most dangerous shipping zones.

The legally-binding resolution, which the council adopted unanimously, "calls upon States interested in the security of maritime activities to take part actively in the fight against piracy on the high seas off the coast of Somalia, in particular by deploying naval vessels and military aircraft."

The new resolution has no time limit but otherwise differs little from the one passed in June.

Last month's capture of the Ukrainian ship MV Faina with 33 T-72 tanks aboard -- this year's most dramatic hijacking -- prompted the resolution.

Pirates have attacked scores of vessels this year, reaping millions in ransoms and pushing up insurance costs for boats traveling near the lawless country.

For the Faina and its 20-member crew, they are demanding $20 million. Other gangs are holding about a dozen ships with some 200 crew members close to the Somali coast.

South Africa's U.N. Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo sharply criticized the French-drafted resolution, saying it was a stop-gap measure taken because a few major powers were annoyed with the rise in piracy. He said those powers were unwilling to deal with the root causes of the problem.

He said hijackings would continue until there was stability in Somalia. But stability would not come until the council sends peacekeepers, which it has been reluctant to do in the face of escalating violence.

"It's just an excuse to sink a few boats," Kumalo told reporters about the new resolution.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told reporters he was in talks with countries that might offer troops to a U.N. peacekeeping mission but gave no details.

"We need to set to work on a plan for deploying a viable multinational force to help secure a peace, or at the very least sustain its people," he said.

An understaffed and struggling African Union peacekeeping mission has also urged the United Nations to take over.

French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the European Union would start planning for a joint naval force that could be ready for deployment by the end of the year.

Such a force would bolster existing efforts by French and other navies to escort World Food Program aid shipments, on which some 3.5 million Somalis are dependent, he said.

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7656662.stm BBC October 7, 2008Hijacked tanks 'for South Sudan' Contract numbers include the initials GOSS, thought to be government of South Sudan.
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The BBC has seen evidence suggesting that the Ukrainian ship being held by pirates off Somalia is carrying weapons and tanks destined for South Sudan.

A copy of the freight manifest appears to show contracts were made by Kenya on behalf of South Sudan's government.

Kenya has repeatedly said the weapons on board the MV Faina are for its army. A South Sudanese official said South Sudan had nothing to do with the tanks.

The MV Faina is currently surrounded by warships monitoring the situation.

Last week, the Somali government said the ship's owners were involved in direct negotiations with the pirates, who are demanding a $20m (£11m) ransom.

'Diplomatic embarrassment'

A copy of the MV Faina's manifest given to the BBC appears to confirm that the contract was issued on behalf of South Sudan, although the Kenyan defence ministry is named as the consignee.

Contract numbers for tanks, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and anti-aircraft guns contain the initials GOSS, which military sources tell the BBC is a reference to the Government Of South Sudan.


Kenya could be seen as playing the same role as Cuba did during the Angolan civil war
Helmoed Heitman
Jane's Defence Weekly
This is an acronym commonly used in Sudan.
But Francis Nazario, head of South Sudan's mission in Brussels, said he had seen the manifest and it did not prove anything.

"What I know is that we have nothing at all to do with the content of this ship, and the ship was not heading for South Sudan," he told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme.

"I think if there was anything like that we would not hide it because constitutionally we have the right to do so, to bring arms from anywhere."

The Kenyan government has not yet commented on the document but it has been presented to the defence and foreign relations committee of Kenya's parliament.

Kenya has repeatedly insisted that the shipment was part of a programme to restock its military.

The BBC's Karen Allen in Nairobi says that this will be a huge embarrassment to the Kenyan government.

Although the import of military hardware is not illegal, it does put Kenya in a tight spot diplomatically, our correspondent says, not least because it was Kenya which helped broker an end to the civil war between South Sudan and the government in Khartoum in 2005.

Meanwhile, a Kenyan court has ordered the release of Andrew Mwangura, a spokesman for the Kenyan chapter of the Seafarers Assistance Programme, who had been arrested after he said the tanks were bound for South Sudan.

Mr Mwangura was charged with making alarming statements and illegal possession of marijuana.

The MV Faina is currently moored off the coast of Somalia, close to the town of Hobyo. There have been conflicting reports about where its cargo was destined for since it was captured two weeks ago.

Military balance

Last week, Western military experts told the BBC that the tanks on board the MV Faina were going to Sudan and that the shipment indicated an arms race between North and South Sudan had begun.


The pirates want a $20m ransom for the MV Faina and its valuable cargo
They are reported to both be building up their forces ahead of a referendum on independence for the South in 2011.
The military experts, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a previous delivery of tanks had taken place last November.

Helmoed Heitman, Africa correspondent for Jane's Defence Weekly, also said he had reports that more than 100 T-72 and T-55 Russian tanks have been received by the southern Sudanese in recent months.

"If these reports are true, they could change the regional military balance," he told the BBC.

"Kenya could be seen as playing the same role as Cuba did during the Angolan civil war - when they armed the MPLA."

The experts said the tanks would most likely be dug in along Sudan's north-south border, with the tanks using their guns to protect military installations.