THE U.S.AMERICAN NAVY FINALLY ADMITS TAIWANESE FISHING VESSEL INCIDENT OFF SOMALIA (ecop-marine)
Only after ECOTERRA Intl. publicly reprimanded the non-transparency and non-reporting of the navies in their military actions off the Somali coast and in this specific case ECOP-marine had earlier reported that the Taiwanese captain of the vessel and others had been killed in the naval attack which the group already presumed to have come from USS STEPHEN W. GROVES, NATO finally felt obliged to go public.
NATO released now the following statement:
During an engagement between the USS STEPHEN W GROVES and the Taiwanese fishing vessel Jih Chun Tsai 68, a known pirate mothership, shots were exchanged before the pirates surrendered. Subsequently a boarding team from the STEPHEN W GROVES was able to access the fishing vessel where they found 4 dead and 2 injured people. The dead were identified as the master/owner of the fishing vessel and 3 pirates and the injured were the 2 remaining crew members of the fishing vessel. The surviving pirates have been returned to Somalia. The event is under review to determine how the fatalities occurred and no additional information is available at this time.
The NATO statement omits that the vessel was sunk during the incident and still does not reveal anything about the fate of the two Chinese deck-officers and one Indonesian, who were together with the now deceased captain after the Somali pirates had exchanged 10 Indonesians for the body of one Somali, who was killed during an earlier skirmish.
How NATO can state that they have no additional detailed information concerning an incident involving a warship under their command, can only be explained with a "bend-the-truth"-strategy as it is obviously applied for all NATO operations now – including the Libyan one under Danish NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and his – like always U.S.American – Supreme Allied Commander Admiral James G. Stavridis, whose Greek family tree goes back to the days when the Greek vassals of the Roman Empire tried to crush the Phoenicians and the coastal strongholds of Carthage (history repeats itself today in Libya). The first NATO Secretary General, Lord Ismay, famously stated the organization’s goal was "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down" – but today one can securely add "and the truth concealed!"
NATO’s present Commander of its Counter Piracy task force the Dutch Commodore Michael Hijmans on the Netherlands’ flagship can not be really proud on the outcome of the operations which occurred during his tenure, since – though 26 Iranian and four Pakistani hostages were freed – the overall result is rather disastrous.
The U.S.American warship USS STEPHEN W. GROVES, also under Commander Himan’s watch, had already in an earlier incident critically and deliberately endangered all the hostages on a group of pirated vessels who were commandeered together and included MV ROSALIA D’AMATO, MV ZIRKU and FV JIH CHUN TSAI 68.
Though surely the Somali pirates, which were responsible for the sea-jacking of that Taiwanese vessel, and despite the fact that it was one of the notorious fish-poachers, have to bear the biggest brunt of the hostage saga, the U.S.American action was not warranted if they kill innocent hostages.
Our heartfelt condolences go out to the family of the deceased Chinese captain, who bravely had stood through all the humiliations during the hostage ordeal for over one year – only at the end to be killed due to an ill-conceived U.S.American naval attack in which the naval commander of the U.S.American warship then even "returned the surviving pirates to Somalia", so the NATO press release.
The pirates were returned and set free instead of handing them to Somali authorities for further prosecution and mediacal treatment of the wounded. Was that decided because the U.S.American navy and NATO didn’t want anybody to hear what really happened?
It is hoped that a naval investigation of the incident will lead to some clear rules of engagement for the U.S.American navy to not endanger hostages in the first place and then also to follow legal procedures, which not only document each case properly but also bring the culprits to book and involve the responsible Somali authorities.
Still the U.S.A. have not admitted that they were responsible also for the unprovoked Labad incident. There (see HERE) at least five Somalis were killed directly at the coast of Somalia. Despite the fact that major media houses had requested to receive the details, NATO and CMF – thought they admitted that the incident took place – have so far declined to release the information as to who the naval force was. While the EU clearly stated that none of their naval forces was involved, insiders pointed at the USA and this was followed up (click to read about THE COWARDS OF LABAD).
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ECOTERRA Intl. is an international nature protection and human rights organization, whose Africa offices in Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania also monitor the marine and maritime situation along the East African Indian Ocean coasts as well as the Gulf of Aden. ECOTERRA is working in Somalia since 1986 and does focus in its work against piracy mainly on coastal development, marine protection and pacification. ECOP-marine (www.ecop.info) is an ECOTERRA group committed to fight against all forms of crime on the waters. Both stand firm against illegal fishing as well as against marine overexploitation and pollution.
ECOTERRA Intl. and ECOP-marine serve concerning the counter-piracy issues as advocacy groups in their capacity as human rights, marine and maritime monitors as well as in co-operation with numerous other organizations, groups and individuals as information clearing-house. In difficult cases we have successfully served as mediators.
For further details and regional information see the archive at www.australia.to and news on www.international.to and see the situation map of the PIRACY COASTS OF SOMALIA (2011).
EMERGENCY HELPLINES: sms or call: +254-719-603-176 / +254-714-747-090
– email: office[AT]ecoterra.net (First reponders: You will be requested to verify your mail)
East Africa ILLEGAL FISHING AND WASTE DUMPING HOTLINE: +254-714-747-090 (confidentiality guaranteed) – email: marine[AT]ecop.info
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The pirate daily life these days isn’t easy, they are often orchestrating large heists in the open ocean.