Pirates threaten to kill hostages
Source: Agencies |
March 2, 2011, Wednesday
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A DANISH family captured by pirates in the Indian Ocean will suffer the same fate as four American sailors slain last week if any rescue attempt is made, a Somali pirate said yesterday.
Abdullahi Mohamed said he has ties with the gang holding the family - a Danish couple with three children, aged 12 to 16.
Most hostages captured in the pirate-infested waters off East Africa are professional sailors, not families. Pirates are not known to have captured children before.
The Danish family was captured along with two adult crew members, also Danes, when their sailboat was seized by pirates last Thursday, the Danish government said.
Mohamed said any attack against the pirates would result in the deaths of the hostages, and he referred to the killings last week of four American hostages captured by pirates on their yacht.
Mohamed has provided reliable information in the past.
Just days before the hijacking, the family wrote on a travel blog that it was in daily contact with anti-piracy forces and had prepared a "piracy plan" in case of an attack.
Blog postings chronicling the family's round-the-world journey showed it entered the area well aware that the American yacht had been hijacked by pirates but comforted by the presence of counter-piracy forces.
"Of course, we talked quite a lot about it but this is far over thousands of kilometers away and the Arabian Sea that we sail in is the size of Europe," the family said on a February 20 posting on ING jordenrundt.info. ING is the name of their boat.
The blog identified the family as Jan Quist Johansen, his wife Birgit Marie Johansen, their sons Rune and Hjalte and their daughter Naja. They are from Kalundborg, 120 kilometers west of Copenhagen.
The chairman of the Kalundborg yacht club, Ole Meridin Petersen, confirmed their names.
He called them "experienced sailors" and said they were planning to enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez canal from the Red Sea.
That route would take the family through the Gulf of Aden, one of the most dangerous waterways in the world in terms of piracy.
"They expected to be home in August," Meridin Petersen said.
Abdullahi Mohamed said he has ties with the gang holding the family - a Danish couple with three children, aged 12 to 16.
Most hostages captured in the pirate-infested waters off East Africa are professional sailors, not families. Pirates are not known to have captured children before.
The Danish family was captured along with two adult crew members, also Danes, when their sailboat was seized by pirates last Thursday, the Danish government said.
Mohamed said any attack against the pirates would result in the deaths of the hostages, and he referred to the killings last week of four American hostages captured by pirates on their yacht.
Mohamed has provided reliable information in the past.
Just days before the hijacking, the family wrote on a travel blog that it was in daily contact with anti-piracy forces and had prepared a "piracy plan" in case of an attack.
Blog postings chronicling the family's round-the-world journey showed it entered the area well aware that the American yacht had been hijacked by pirates but comforted by the presence of counter-piracy forces.
"Of course, we talked quite a lot about it but this is far over thousands of kilometers away and the Arabian Sea that we sail in is the size of Europe," the family said on a February 20 posting on ING jordenrundt.info. ING is the name of their boat.
The blog identified the family as Jan Quist Johansen, his wife Birgit Marie Johansen, their sons Rune and Hjalte and their daughter Naja. They are from Kalundborg, 120 kilometers west of Copenhagen.
The chairman of the Kalundborg yacht club, Ole Meridin Petersen, confirmed their names.
He called them "experienced sailors" and said they were planning to enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Suez canal from the Red Sea.
That route would take the family through the Gulf of Aden, one of the most dangerous waterways in the world in terms of piracy.
"They expected to be home in August," Meridin Petersen said.
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