Word: semlow
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...Diplomats from Kenya, Sri Lanka, Tanzania and the U.N. took over negotiations. A delegation flew to Somalia to talk to the transitional government and clan elders, warning that food aid could be halted unless the Semlow's crew was released. Meanwhile, life on board the ship fell into a pattern. The crew was forced to stay at the rear of the Semlow where they passed the time fishing and praying. Food quickly ran low and the crew rationed water. The pirates ate well, though, bringing goats, potatoes, tomatoes and onions from the mainland and cooking WFP rice. Every four...
...That's what happened with the Semlow. After taking control of the ship, the pirates stole $8,500 from Mahalingam's safe and ransacked the crew's cabins. Then they forced the crew to set a course towards the central Somali town of Ceel Huur, where the Semlow dropped anchor within sight of land. "I told the pirates that we were carrying cargo that belonged to all Somalians," says Mahalingam. "I said, 'This is for your own people. Why are you doing this...
...Three days after the hijacking, he got his reply. A man arrived from the mainland with a note. It told Mahalingam to radio the Semlow's owners in Mombasa, Kenya, and give them two telephone numbers: one for a mobile phone, the other for a Thuraya satellite phone. Inayet Kudrati, 54, director of the Motaku Shipping Agency, which has had three of its four boats hijacked by Somali pirates since June, received the call and was eventually told he should pay $500,000 if he wanted the ship and crew back. "I told them I didn't have that kind...
...September, negotiations to obtain the crew's release had foundered. The hijackers had increased their ransom demand and reneged on an agreement to allow the rice to be handed over to the Somali government. When the Semlow's generator ran out of oil, the pirates accused the crew of hoarding it. One Somali fired a shot through the window on the bridge. "We thought this trip was the end of our lives," remembered able seaman Rashid Juma Mwatuga, 42. In late September the Ibn Batuta, an Egyptian ship carrying cement, appeared on the horizon. "The pirates told me they were...
...Lanka, he broke down. "I told her I was safe but did not know when I was coming home," says Mahalingam. He and the chief engineer were taken back to the ship. A few days later, the pirates gathered their weapons, piled into their speedboats, and abandoned both the Semlow and the Ibn Batuta. The WFP denies paying any ransom-"It would set a bad precedent," said a WFP spokesman-but the Motaku Shipping Agency's Kudrati told TIME that he had handed over $135,000. "In the end we had to give in to them," he says...