Somali negotiator says talks to secure release of captain have collapsed

U.S. warships and helicopters stalked a lifeboat holding an American sea captain and his four Somali captors Sunday as Somalis reported negotiations for his release have collapsed and his crew briefed FBI agents about how they fought off the pirates who boarded their ship.


A Somali man involved in the negotiations and another in telephone contact with the pirates said clan elders have been trying to negotiate a free passage for the pirates in exchange for the release of Capt. Richard Phillips, but the talks broke down Saturday night over the U.S. insistence that the pirates must be arrested and brought to justice.


Nineteen American sailors guarded by U.S. navy Seals reached safe harbour in Kenya's northeast port of Mombasa on Saturday night, exhilarated by freedom but mourning the absence of Phillips, who sacrificed himself as a hostage to save them.


"He saved our lives!" second mate Ken Quinn, of Bradenton, Florida, declared from the ship deck. "He's a hero."


ATM Reza, a crew member who said he was first to see the pirates board the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday. described how the bandits "came on with hooks and ropes and were firing in the air."


He was responding to a throng of reporters shouting questions from shore about the ordeal that began with Somali pirates hauling themselves up from a small boat bobbing on the surface of the Indian Ocean far below.


As the pirates shot in the air, Phillips, 53, of Underhill, Vt., told his crew to lock themselves in a cabin and surrendered himself to safeguard his men, crew members said.


Phillips was still held hostage in an enclosed lifeboat Sunday by four pirates being closely watched by U.S. warships and a helicopter in an increasingly tense standoff. The lifeboat is out of fuel and drifting.


A Pentagon spokesman said Saturday night that negotiations to free Phillips were continuing.


But Abdiwali Ali Tar said they were deadlocked. "Some local elders as well as our company have been involved in the negotiations but things seem to be deadlocked because the pirates want to make sure to be in a safe location first with the captain - either on one of the ships their colleagues hold or Somali coastal villages - but the Americans will not allow that," said Tar, the head of a private security firm acting as the coast guard in northeast Puntland region, a haven for pirates.


A second man who closely monitors piracy said his pirate sources reported the negotiations collapsed because clan elders want the pirates to go free if they release Phillips but the U.S. navy is demanding the elders surrender them to Puntland authorities. The man spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Source; AP