Piraterij

[D819]

Het wordt hoog tijd dat er internationaal wat wordt ondernomen tegen piraterij!

Nederland dient dit als een hoofdtaak van de Marine te zien, en op die manier wordt tevens een belangrijke geldbron van het internationaal terrorisme aangepakt !

AP  MOELLER  PAYS  PIRATES  TO  FREE  CREW  OFF  NIGERIA.
                                By DONALD URQUHART

http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/

05 May 2003

(SINGAPORE) Danish shipping, oil and industrial group AP Moeller took the
unusual step of announcing it had recently paid a ransom to secure the
freedom of one of its vessels and crew after pirates hijacked the ship off
the coast of Nigeria.

The 4,000 gt offshore supply vessel, Maersk Shipper, was boarded by pirates
on April 15 off the coast of Nigeria while on charter to Royal Dutch Shell,
according to a statement on the Maersk Group's website.

Once aboard the ship, the hijackers issued various demands with Shell and
Maersk jointly responding that the intruders had to leave the vessel prior
to any consideration of their demands.

The vessel's 16-member crew - with British officers and Nigerian and South
African seamen - were subsequently 'manhandled' and their personal
belongings and money carried in the ship's safe were stolen.

'The situation thereafter deteriorated to such an extent that our seafarers
feared for their lives,' the company said.'As soon as this became known,
Maersk decided that a cash payment should be made irrespective of the
intruders still being on board the vessel.'

The value of the ransom was US$2,500 paid in local Nigerian currency,
Bloomberg News reported.The hijackers left the vessel after receiving the
payment and the vessel is now back in service with a new crew aboard.

'We very much regret that our employees on board the Maersk Shipper had to
suffer this ordeal,' the company said, adding that both it and Shell had
taken unspecified steps to prevent similar incidents.

AP Moeller issued the statement to clarify what it said was an inaccurate
report in a Danish newspaper.US asksfor helpin IraqMeanwhile, AP Moeller
recently announced it has been formally asked by the US to help the ongoing
effort to rebuild war-torn Iraq.

The US-led war in Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein left Iraq's infrastructure
devastated and although its oil infrastructure suffered less damage in the
war and has started to resume production, the industry had degraded during
Saddam's 24 years of rule and is in dire need of investment.

The shipping, oil and industrial giant received the request from the
coalition administration in Iraq via Denmark's Foreign Ministry, according
to a Reuters report.'They have asked us whether we would be interested in
contributing and we have replied that we are very positive to that and are
ready to assist where we can,' the report quoted director Knud Pontoppidan
as saying.

'They know that our expertise is in the field of transportation, logistics
and infrastructure and oil. We have given them information of our
operations, our capabilities. They will review that and come back to us,' he
said.

Denmark participated in the war with a submarine and a corvette, and AP
Moeller, owner of the world's largest container line Maersk Sealand, has
been transporting US military equipment under the US government's Maritime
Security Program (MSP) and Ready Reserve Force (RRF) programmes for many
years.

Shipping companies like Maersk and Singapore's Neptune Orient Lines are
among 10 such companies contracted to the US government, obligating them to
provide 100 per cent of the capacity of their US-flagged vessels if called
upon during national emergencies and war.

But aside from the mandatory conscription, these vessels are also given
preference in carrying US defence-related cargoes which are shipped on a
commercial basis and often at a premium rate.Maersk in particular is
understood to have carried substantial volumes of cargo to the Middle East
in support of the US-led war on Iraq.


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