By Paul McConnel

MADRID (Sunatimes)-The Spanish authorities are negotiating on the release of a Mozambican-registered fishing boat with two Spaniards on board hijacked off Somalia in late December, according to a report in a Madrid daily, a deal is being brokered by the same team that negotiated the freeing of a Basque boat in seized by Somali pirates in late 2009. The following is the text of the report by the Spanish newspaper La Razon website, on 14 January; subheading inserted editorially:

Madrid: Negotiations to secure the release of the Mozambican-registered fishing boat with two Spaniards aboard, the Vega 5, began on 2 January. Well-informed sources told La Razon that the team in charge of dealing with the Somali pirates who seized the boat on 27 December is the same one that led the moves that ended the hijacking of the Alakrana.

The Basque tuna boat was held for 47 days [in late 2009] off the Somali port of Harardhere, the same place to which the Vega 5 has been taken, according to the information at the disposal of Operation Atalanta. The European anti-piracy mission considers the port, where more hijacked vessels are anchored, to be a "fortress" of the criminals in the Indian Ocean.

"The same people as in the Alakrana are negotiating the ransom and with the same system. On that occasion, the result was dreadful because money was handed over several times", says the same source, who preferred not to be identified. The tuna boat, which was seized on 3 October 2009 south of Somalia, was freed in exchange for a payment of some 3m euros, according to several reports that have never been confirmed.

The lessons learned then, like the channels opened in the zone by the intelligence service, could help to secure a swifter and less costly resolution. This newspaper has learned that, as in 2009, the negotiation is being carried out via the Spanish embassy in Kenya and involves the same agents as then. On the Somali side, the negotiator could also be the same one, "an experienced mediator, with specific training for this task and who speaks perfect English".

Since November last year, the chief of the diplomatic legation in Nairobi has been Javier Herrera Garcia-Canturri. Two other embassies, in Tanzania and Mozambique, are involved in ensuring consular attention for the captain of the boat, Alfonso Rey Echeverri, and the boatswain, Jose Alfonso Garcia Barreiro.

[Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez] Zapatero's government is trying to keep as low a profile as possible to avoid the "media circus" that the hijacking of the Alakrana became. It is clear there is no interest in giving it publicity and the discretion that prevailed during the kidnapping of the three Catalan aid workers in Mauritania is once again the norm.

After the Foreign Ministry took four days to report the hijacking of the Vega 5, it was Defence Minister Carme Chacon who finally confirmed the assault on 6 January. The last person to speak was the first deputy prime minister [Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba], who justified his position by the fact that the boat flies a foreign flag and that the company that owns the vessel, Pescamar, had asked him keep quiet so as not to give explanations. Perez Rubalcaba said that "caution" was going to be the rule and that he would report on what is happening "when I can".

Silence

The fact is that silence has prevailed not just in the government. Nor does the family of the two Galician seamen wish to speak to the media, apparently by order of the company that owns the fishing boat, in which Pescanova also owns shares. The discontent among fishermen over the "law of silence" became obvious last week in a letter sent to the magazine "Fishing Industries" by the skipper of the Balueiro, which operates in the Indian Ocean. Argimiro Gonzalez Blanco slammed the Spanish government for trying to "hide" what is happening in the zone "from the rest of the citizens".

The boat did not have security on board "because they did not think they could be a target given the area it was fishing in", according to the same sources. "The phenomenon has been so profitable for the pirates that it has been exported. They are very organized people, with a lot of resources who know the sea well. They are also perfectly aware of the military response they might meet and the naval forces they might come up against", they say.

The fact that two of the 27 seamen are European clearly increases the market value of the hijacking. In statements to the Mozambican daily Noticias, the maritime administrator of Beira (the second most important city in the country), Martinho Mafumo, confirmed that the pirates know that the Spaniards "are worth more" as his country "cannot pay anything" in exchange for the lives of its 22 nationals.

SUNATIMES.COM

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