Chaos Over At The Pirate Negotiations

Not enough rum:

The pirates want $20 million, though people close to the negotiations have said they are being bartered down and will probably settle for $5 million. Still, it doesn’t seem as if anyone is rushing to pay up.

“There are so many parties involved,” said a relative of one crew member. “It’s not clear where the responsibility lies.”

As if things were not complicated enough, one of the few people with experience in prickly pirate problems has been jailed by the Kenyan government on the suspicion he is a pirate himself.

Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator for the Seafarers’ Assistance Program in Kenya, a non-profit group that tracks pirate attacks, was arrested Wednesday night. Mr. Mwangura has extensive contacts up and down the pirate-infested Somali coast. Kenyan officials have accused him of making false statements and working with the pirates.

“Why is it he always finds out what’s happening on a ship before anyone else?” said Alfred Mutua, a Kenyan government spokesman.

Many seamen in Kenya insist that Mr. Mwangura is a good man, and that his only fault may have been being outspoken. He was the first maritime official to say that the hijacked ship was part of a secret arms deal between Kenya and southern Sudan. Kenyan officials have denied this, saying the heavy weaponry, including battle tanks, is for their use. But Western diplomats have said this is a lie.

...From the beginning, the whole story surrounding the MV Faina, which was hijacked Sept. 25 about 200 miles off Somalia’s coast, seemed a little suspicious. Why was the ship left unguarded while sailing through some of the most dangerous waters in the world, especially given its cargo of 33 tanks, 150 grenade launchers, 6 anti-aircraft guns and heaps of ammunition? Beyond that, why does Kenya, best known for its wild animals, not its wars, need so many tanks? And if it did need tanks, why all of a sudden switch from British armor, which the country has used for decades, to Eastern-bloc equipment, which is completely incompatible?

Kenyan officials have ducked these questions. Adding to the mystery is the fact that relatives of the crew disclosed earlier this week that right before the Faina set sail about a month ago, the cargo was suddenly switched from cars to tanks. Those tanks are now being closely watched by a half-dozen American warships that have boxed in the Faina against Somalia’s craggy shore. A Russian frigate is on its way. The Americans are determined not to let the pirates sell the weapons to Islamist insurgents, though it seems getting the tanks off the ship is beyond the pirates’ expertise.

...The trick now seems to be getting all the vested interests on the same page: the ship owner is Israeli; the ship operator is Ukrainian; the ship was registered in Belize; and the sailors are 17 Ukrainians, 2 Russians (on Russian has already died on board) and 1 Latvian.

“I don’t see anything moving,” one person close to the negotiations said on Friday.