Rivalry among pirates caused delay in hostages’ release – Minister Morgan -
Minister Joel Morgan, who headed the team negotiating the release of 10 Seychellois held hostage in Somalia, has said it was a lack of clear leadership among the pirates that delayed the release of seven of them who finally returned home yesterday.
The three remaining hostages, taken from the catamaran Serenity, are still being held captive but negotiations are ongoing to secure their release.
Mr Morgan said he was in contact with them on Monday, they are doing fine and he is convinced the negotiations for their release will be successful.
He said his team’s presence in Nairobi to finalise the release of the seven men had been very useful as it gave them the opportunity to have one-on-one talks with the Somali pirates about what had already been discussed when the team were still in Seychelles.
He said a lot of lessons had been learnt and contacts made, especially through the Kenyan government, which will stand the team in good stead in pursuing negotiations for the release of the other three men.
Mr Morgan said an agreement had already been reached some time back for all 10 hostages to be released in one go, and this had always been the government’s objective.
Unfortunately, just before the deal was closed his team got a call from those pirates holding the three men from the Serenity, saying they had received a message from a certain John from Mahe that the Seychelles government has a lot of money and that they should ask for a ransom.
“It is at that moment that this group of pirates asked us for a ransom over and above the agreement that we had already signed with them,” said Mr Morgan.
He said he has no idea who this “John” might be, but if there is any truth in all of this, it was a very bad thing to do as it jeopardised the chance for all our hostages to be released together.
“Although this news had been very demoralising, we continued to push through with our negotiations while in Nairobi, and all things tend to indicate that they are back on track and progressing well,” Mr Morgan said, adding that Seychelles still stands on its principle of not paying ransom money for any criminal act.
What has made the negotiations very difficult at times is the fact that the different groups of pirates do not speak as one voice and there is a lot of power struggle and rivalry among them, Mr Morgan said.
“When you think you’ve reached an agreement with one group, another one steps in and breaks the deal,” he said.
He said eventually they managed to identify one person who acted as a mediator for the groups and who had a certain control over them, and that was when things started to improve and eventually the hostages were freed.
As for the fate of the Indian Ocean Explorer – the boat from which the seven men were taken – Mr Morgan said it is still in Somalia and that he will be having discussions with the owner to see how best to get it back.
Source: NATION 6-24-09