The Evil Solution

Young and desperate, Somali pirates aren't afraid to commit heinous acts of destruction, says one of their leaders.

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World of Pirates

From Somalia, to the Caribbean to ancient Phoenicia, a look at high crimes on the high seas

By Rod Nordland | Newsweek Web Exclusive

Dec 18, 2008

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Somali pirates last September captured a Ukrainian cargo ship, the MV Faina, loaded to the gunnels with heavy weaponry, including 33 Russian-designed T-72 battle tanks. Since then, American and Russian naval vessels have been shadowing the ship at its anchorage off the fishing village of Hindawao, 300 miles north of Mogadishu. This month there were reports that the ship's owners had agreed on ransom terms, but the Faina and its crew are still being held. NEWSWEEK's Rod Nordland interviewed Shamun Indhabur, who is thought to be the leader of the pirates who took the Faina, and the Sirius Star, a Saudi supertanker with $100 million worth of oil aboard. The interview was conducted by satellite telephone to the bridge of the Faina, through Somali translator Abukar al-Badri. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: What is your background, and how did you capture the MV Faina?
Shamun Indhabur: I was a fisherman before I turned to piracy, a crewmember of a small fishing boat. We used to capture lobsters and sharks.

When we hijacked MV Faina it was early morning 24 September 2008, in Somali waters. We took it after 60 minutes of fighting between the crewmembers and our gunmen and eventually the captain decided to surrender after we fired some rockets to warn them that we were close to destroying the ship if they didn't surrender. The captain tried to escape, but he didn't succeed. He had a pistol and he refused to surrender until we were close to killing him. When we intercepted the ship and saw the shipment [of arms], then we thought it was going to Somalia and belonged to the Ethiopians [whose army is supporting the transitional government in Somalia], but the captain told us that it was going to South Africa. Then later we saw that it was going to southern Sudan, after we forced the captain to show us the manifests.

What's the situation on board the Faina now?
The middlemen tried to steal some of the money we agreed on [estimated at more than $3 million]. And now we can't trust them. They're trying to take the money, and we are the criminals. We can't accept that.

How are your ransoms paid?
We get the money two ways. A boat takes the money from Djibouti, then a helicopter takes the money from the boat, then it drops the money in waterproof cartons on assigned [small] boats. Then we collect it, check if it is false or not, then we release the ship. The other way we get the money is a boat from Mombasa.

Isn't it dangerous for middlemen to be carrying so much money into a lawless place like Somalia? I've heard some of them have been killed doing it, is that true?
The pirates are different groups. Those in Puntland may have problems with the middlemen and sometimes kill them.

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Posted By: fiber artist @ 04/17/2009 9:53:26 AM

The Catholic vs. Protestant thing is still alive and well...remember Ireland? And, in the good ole USA, we have Baptists hating Episcopalians, Mormons are hated by everyone, Jehovas and 7th Days not well liked. Get real... organized religion of every type is bad for society. How can so called Christians call themselves that when they hate all other religions and even each other. It is the same with Muslims - the Shiite hate the Suni and the Kurds. Religion is the number one reason for war.
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Posted By: theycallmerizzo @ 02/18/2009 6:40:22 PM

garbage is right most of these guys have more brains than and skills than the average american. That said, the average american could never do what these people are FORCED to do. I do not condone it nor do i agree with it, but that being said they revert to violence because there is no chance for improvement in their lives because their society is in disaray. We need to concentrate more on helping and educating people than trying to blow them up and put them away in a cell forever.
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Posted By: selujerdna @ 12/29/2008 11:44:42 PM

garbageUniversal...

What the hell did you just write? Uneducated because he is a fisherman? Are you kidding me? There are damn smart people out there even at very low levels of society. The problem is they're not given a chance to succeed. They are often dimissed as troublemakers, unrefined, etc...This is the same thing that the pirate leader is arguing about. What is 'uneducated' anyways? Could you do what he is doing to survive? I doubt it...It takes a lot of skills to be a pirate: leadership, fishing, swimming, artillery, etc...It's pathetic that you dismiss him as uneducated because he is a fisherman. It doesn't take a genius to know what is going on in one's country.

I see one solution to this: what they need to do is make a deal with the top pirate leaders to patrol the sea for them. I can definitely understand the pirates though because here you have vessells carrying millions of dollars worth of goods, but they're starving to death. I would do the same thing too. It's called survival.