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Kidnapped Tanzanian engineer 'alive and well'
2005-07-09 07:26:24
By Guardian Reporter
The Tanzanian engineer being held hostage by Somali gunmen is ’alive and well’, the kidnappers said yesterday.
The Tanzanian is among ten crewmembers of a vessel chartered by the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) which was hijacked off the Somali coast a week ago.
’They are alive and well and we will soon reach a decision,’ Mohamed Abdi Hassan, the leader of the group that hijacked the ship, told Reuters by telephone from Harardheere, 70 miles (113 km) from where his men were holding the ship at anchor.
He denied they were demanding a ransom but said they had yet to decide what to do with the ship and hostages.
’We are not pirates and we are not after any financial gain as people are claiming,’ Hassan said.
’Most of the hostages are from our neighbour Kenya. We will not and have not harmed them, we have treated them with dignity and would continue to do so,’ he added.
The ship was captured while en route to the northern port of Bossaso.
Its owner said the gunmen were demanding $500,000 to free the crew — a Sri Lankan captain, a Tanzanian engineer and eight Kenyans.
WFP last Monday suspended aid shipments to Somalia until the MV Semlov vessel was released.
Hassan, whose identity was confirmed by a minister in Somalia’s new government, said his militia was simply guarding the seas against illegal fishing and dumping of toxic waste.
’We normally request all ships that pass in our waters to identify themselves.
The ship in question had no name or anything and when we asked them to substantiate their claim of carrying relief food they had no papers or any proof whatsoever.
That’s when we became suspicious and impounded the ship.’
WFP, however, immediately denied that.’The food was clearly marked ’WFP’ and stamped with our logo,’ spokeswoman Rene McGuffin said.
WFP also showed Reuters documents it said were photocopies of papers on board proving the ship was carrying relief food.
The relief agency said it was engaged in dialogue with local clan elders, but had no direct contact with the hijackers and would not negotiate with them, McGuffin said.
The cargo of 850 tonnes of rice, donated by Japan and Germany, was destined for thousands of Somalis hit by the December 26 tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean.
The Tanzanian engineer has not yet been identified and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation said earlier this week that it could not comment on his kidnapping until it received official notification of the hijacking.
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