The two Spanish seamen José Alfonso García y Alfonso Rey, taken hostage from Spanish FV VEGA 5 off Mozambique, have been freed today, 14. May 2011, by their Somali captors against a massive, multi-million-dollar ransom.
They were held back in Somalia while the Somali pirates on VEGA 5, which had gone on another piracy mission, were overpowered and the vessel sunk by the Indian navy. During the Indian naval attack only 13 of the 24 original crew could be rescued. Nine sailors of the crew of the two Spaniards have been killed by the Indian navy attack.
"They two have been released", informed sources in the Spanish Ministry of Environment confirmed to Spanish news agency EFE.
The Spanish foreign ministry said Saturday it could not confirm the release of the two officers, and the media reports quoting government sources gave no further details.
Reportedly the two Spaniards are in the safety of assets from the Spanish fishing company PESCAMAR, a subsidiary of PESCANOVA. Company officials from PESCAMAR requested privacy for the two, the captain and the foreman of the fishing vessel, until they reach home safely and communicated to the Spanish Environment Minister, Mrs. Rosa Aguilar, only that the two are in safety. Their two wives confirmed meanwhile that their husbands are free.
Reports from Somalia, where the two where of recent held on a pirated tanker together with two Danish hostages speak of a massive ransom paid for the release of the Spaniards.
Pirates talking to a news-wire reportedly said a ransom payment was airdropped onto the hijacked Italian tanker on Saturday.
It was, however, not immediately clear if also the two kidnapped Danish seamen from weapons-carrier MV LEOPARD were freed or if they are still on that ship.
Analysts believe that the massive ransom payment was made in order to overcome the swap-demands for two Somalis imprisoned in Spain on a sentence of 439 years each.
BACKGROUND: (ecop-marine)
LAST 2 CREW OF FV VEGA 5 : Seized before December 28, 2010. The small Mozambique-flagged long-liner FV VEGA 5, which was at first reported missing by her owner, was only confirmed as being pirated in the waters between Mozambique and Madagascar on 31. December.
After first being held in Somalia and the negotiations broke down the vessel was abused again on a mission, which was a mix of piracy spree and people trafficking. The vessel was intercepted on 09. March and fired upon by the Indian navy. After the military attack by the two warships set the vessel ablaze, the people jumped into the water. 74 people were fished out of the waters - 61 profiled as supernumerary (Somali or Yemeni) and 13 crew-members (one Indonesians and twelve Mozambicans). The original crew manning the 140-tonne fishing vessel were 2 Spaniards, 3 Indonesians and 19 Mozambicans. While reports from Mozambique say that all were Mozambicans, information released by Spain and later by India speak of 12 Mozambicans and one Indonesian. The two Spaniards had reportedly remained as hostages back in Somalia and the remaining 11 of the original 24 men crew are so far not yet accounted for.
Susana Carimo, wife of crew member Olivio Alves, cited by independent daily "O Pais", said "I don't know whether my husband is alive or dead, if he is among the 13 crew members rescued, or is still in Somali, or is floating somewhere in the water".
Bibito Oliveira, the brother of Mozambican crew-member Olivio Oliveira, claimed that the Spanish ship-owner Pescamar is only paying the families of the 19 Mozambican hostages an allowance of 1,000 meticais (about 32 US dollars), a month, a sum that is grossly insufficient to maintain a family. But Mozambican Fisheries Minister Victor Borges said that in reality Pescamar is paying the families the full wages and allowances of the kidnapped crew members.
25 of the 61 persons arrested from this vessel by the Indian navy (60 Somalis and one Ethiopian) are apparently children under the age of 15 years.
While the Indian government has remained mum, the surviving Mozambican fishermen upon returning home in April 2011 revealed that except the two Spaniards all crew was on board on that fateful day, when their vessel FV VEGA 5 was shot ablaze by the Indian naval forces.
India detained the Mozambicans for questioning during two weeks until Mozambique's ambassador to India intervened to arrange their release.
The Mozambican seafarers stated then that all nine of the missing crew members are presumed to have died after they fell into the sea during fighting between the Somali pirates and the Indians.
"Our nine crew members who they say disappeared, I think they died there, because it was a tumultuous experience before we ended up being rescued by the Indians," seafarer Mandava told the newspaper.
Seven of the missing are Mozambicans, and two are Indonesian.
"We have mixed feelings of joy and sadness, because we would have wanted all 24 of the crew members to be reunited with their families," said the Sofala province governor Carvalho Muaria, at a reception held for the returned sailors.
While a Somali TV station broadcasting also abroad claimed that the hostage takers of the kidnapped Spaniards had demanded also the release of the over 80 Somalis in Indian jails, this turned out to be a mere rumour, while the return of the two Somalis held in a Spanish prison is said to be still a key requirement to solve this case.
The two Galician Spaniards from the vessel - skipper Juan Alfonso Rey Echeverry, (45) and crew member Jose Alfonso Garcia Barreiro (53) - were first held hostage on land near Hobyo at the Central Somali Indian Ocean coast and then were taken into the relative safety on one of the pirated vessels, but are said now to be back and kept on land. This was confirmed in phone communications with the captain and his mate and they revealed that none of the other 9 crew missing after the naval attack on FV VEGA 5 is still with them. Therefore it is now assumed that these 9 sailors (3 Indonesians and 6 from Mozambique) perished in the gunfire of the Indian navy, which set the ship ablaze. Also at least two Somalis were killed by the Indian naval attack.
Analysts feared that this ruling of a Spanish court, who sentenced two Somalis at the beginning of May 2011 to 439 years in jail each for the 2009 hijacking of a Spanish fishing boat FV ALAKRANA and the broken promise, given earlier by the former Spanish Ambassador to Kenya to return these two Somalis to Somalia for having obtained the release of all the crew of FV ALAKRNA , might have serious repercussions on the situation of the two Spanish hostages from FV VEGA 5. The Spanish court identified the two Somalis as Raageggesey Hassan Aji, of Ceel Maccan, Somalia, who was born in 1978, although his birth-date was not disclosed; and Cabdiweli Cabdullahi, of Marka, Somalia, with no age given, although the court determined before the trial that he was an adult. The two Spaniards were held recently together with the two Danish seamen from MV LEOPARD 5 on a previously sea-jacked tanker.
Source: www.International.to
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