Rescue or ransom? That was the question hounding officials from Saudi Arabia and the naval units of the coalition navies patrolling the northeastern African coast after a hijacked Saudi super-tanker with a $100 million oil cargo anchored Tuesday off the notorious Somali pirate port of Harardhere. A statement from the ship's owner, Aramco subsidiary Vela International, quoted the company's president and chief executive, Salah B. Ka'aki, as saying the “first and foremost priority is ensuring the safety of the crew. We are in communication with their families and are working toward their safe and speedy return.” The crew on the ship, the Sirius Star, is composed of 2 British, 2 Polish, 1 Croatian, 1 Saudi and 19 Philippines nationals. “Nobody (is) harmed aboard the ship,” the Vela statement said, without mentioning specifically that negotiations with the hijackers had started. “Vela continues to monitor the situation and coordinate with the relevant embassies. At this time, Vela is awaiting further contact from the pirates in control of the vessel,” the statement added. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, stationed in Bahrain said that if the hijacking follows the pattern of previous attacks, “negotiations will begin between the pirates and the owners of ship” when the ship anchored. The well-organized pirates have almost never harmed hostages and rarely steal cargos, preferring to release for ransoms that some experts say can reach $2 million. Asked about a possible naval intervention, Campbell said: “Once the attack takes place, this is a hostage situation... As with any hostage situation, there has to be concern for those individuals.” Shipping experts said that a rescue attempt was unlikely because of the extreme danger both to the crew and the ship. A coalition of warships from eight nations, as well as from NATO and the US Navy's 5th Fleet, is patrolling a critical zone in the Gulf of Aden leading to and from the Suez Canal. That's where most of the more than 88 attacks this year have occurred. NATO also said it was not considering military action, But a spokesperson said it is considering extending its anti-piracy operation off Somalia beyond next month. And 14 hijacked ships remain in the gulf — the heavily armed hijackers still on board, with the crews, cargo and the vessels themselves being held for ransom. “They're still at sea and still negotiating,” said Noel Choong, the head of the bureau's piracy reporting center. As ransom payoffs have risen, he said, pirates have increased their demands. “They know the going rate.” Only a few years ago, the average ransom was in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now payments can range from $500,000 to $2 million. The pirates' profits are set to reach a record $50 million in 2008, Somali officials say. Shipping firms are usually prepared to pay, because the sums are low compared with the value of the ships. “The world has never seen anything like this ... The Somali pirates have hit the jackpot,” said Andrew Mwangura, coordinator of the East African Seafarers' Association, whose Mombasa-based group has been monitoring piracy for years. He thought a hijacked Nigerian tug was a “mother-ship” for the seizure of the Saudi vessel. Negotiations with pirates have often taken weeks or even months. A Ukrainian vessel hijacked in September, loaded with tanks and other heavy weapons, is still being held at Hobyo on the Somali coast, where the ship's crew remain captives, Commander Campbell said. An advisor to the president of Somalia's breakaway state of Puntland, Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, confirmed that the Sirius Star was off the coast at Harardhere, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Mogadishu, Somali fishermen and witnesses on shore said they saw the supertanker. “As usual, I woke up at 3 A.M. and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles (five kilometers) off the shore,” Abdinur Haji, a fisherman, told The Associated Press by telephone. He said two small boats floated out to the ship and 18 men – presumably other pirates – climbed aboard with ropes woven into a ladder. “I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one,” he said. “There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship, which they can see with their naked eyes.” There was discrepancy in statements over when the tanker was seized. The US navy said it was was seized on Saturday, to the south of the patrolled zone, about 450 nautical miles (833 kilometers) southeast of Mombasa, Kenya. However, the statement posted on Vela's Web site late Monday said the ship was hijacked Sunday. Somalia, a largely lawless state, has not had an effective government since the 1991 ouster of President Mohamed Siad Barre. Chaos onshore in Somalia, where Islamist forces are fighting a Western-backed government, has spawned this year's upsurge in piracy. The Islamists, who are close to the capital Mogadishu, say that if they take control they will stop piracy as they did during a brief, six-month rule of south Somalia in 2006.
