Posted on 11/26/2008 2:57:07 PM PST by MyTwoCopperCoins
New Delhi : The Thai fishing company, which claims it lost a deep sea trawler Ekawatnava 5 and 14 crew members in the Gulf of Aden on November 18, today said a British warship backed off after seeing pirates had taken hostages on board but the vessel was sunk hours later by the Indian Navy without verifying the identity of the sailors.
India, however, defended the action of INS Tabar with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying that international rules of engagement were followed by the Navy. “The ship was under the command of pirates. As per laws of the high sea, it is perfectly right that one can take necessary action if a ship is under the control and command of pirates,” he told reporters in New Delhi.
The statement came even as the International Maritime Bureau, the apex body that monitors piracy-related events, confirmed that the vessel sunk by INS Tabar was a fishing vessel with a Thai crew, hijacked off the Yemen coast.
The incident has sparked off a diplomatic exchange between Thailand and India with the former seeking an explanation. Sources said the Thai embassy in New Delhi has sent a ‘note verbale’, seeking clarification regarding facts of the Navy operation in view of media reports. The matter was also raised when Indian ambassador in Bangkok, Lata Reddy, went to meet Foreign Ministry officials this morning to discuss the East Asia summit, sources said.
1 rule to a flat stomach: I cut down 12 lbs of stomach fat AnnieWeightLoss.comShip Hijacked in Somali Was Allegedly Carrying Arms to www.russiatoday.comUS Dollar Crosses Rs. 50 Unmatched Exchange Rates, Overnight Remit2India.com/FreeMoneyAds By GoogleThe Bangkok-based Sirichai Fisheries, which has questioned the Indian Navy for not attempting to rescue survivors after blowing up the vessel in international waters, said the last GPS reading from the fishing vessel coincides with the exact position where the Indian Navy said it sank a pirate ‘mother ship’. A company spokesperson told The Indian Express that the vessel’s engineer, Sahat Chunsombat, died in the incident and 14 crew members were missing after it was sunk by the INS Tabar. One of the crew members, Mann Phalla, was picked up from the waters by Yemeni fishermen six days after the incident, the Thai company said.
“The Indian Navy has said that two speedboats escaped from the scene and one was later found abandoned. But there was no attempt to rescue survivors. It shows they do not value human life, even if they were pirates,” a company spokesperson said.
The Indian Navy has said there was clear evidence of pirates on board the ship (including the ammunition that blew up) and no survivors were found in the waters after the vessel was sunk. It said the warship fired in self-defence after it was attacked. A senior officer said that as far as the Navy was concerned, it was a pirate vessel operating in the high seas and the action by the warship did not cause any collateral damage.
Knitting together the sequence of events from the account of the surviving crew member and reports by NATO warships operating in the region, the Thai company said its vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates who came in two speedboats near the Yemen coast on November 18 morning and an international alert was sounded after NATO forces were informed about the incident.
The vessel was being forced towards Somalia when it was approached by a British warship at 6 pm. But the warship backed off after pirates pointed guns at three crew members and threatened to kill them.
An hour later, at about 7 pm, INS Tabar approached the fishing vessel. According to the statement of the rescued sailor, the vessel was struck by gunfire and three explosions occurred on board. He managed to jump off the vessel that caught fire and floated with the help of its debris.
“He found the engineer unconscious, floating in the water. He tied up the engineer with him. In the morning, he found that the injured engineer was dead,” the company said.
The Indian Navy, in its statement, said it approached a suspicious vessel at around 7 pm and asked for identification. The vessel, that resembled the description of a pirate ‘mother ship’, threatened to blow up the Indian warship.
“On repeated calls, the vessel’s threatening response was that she would blow up the naval warship if it came close to her. Pirates were seen roaming on the upper deck of this vessel with guns and rocket propelled grenade launchers. The vessel continued its threatening calls and subsequently fired upon INS Tabar,” the Navy said.
It looks like India is the only country with the courage to take on the pirates. As for the Thais, it appears more investigation is needed as to whether they were victims of the pirates, or had some other role.
How do you think the pirates acquire the mother ships they use as floating bases and for towing their sea-attack speedboats?
Do you think they build them in Somali shipyards? Buy them on Ebay? Purchase them at auctions in Kenya?
Do you think that after capturing their next mothership, they don’t use the captive crew to run the ship?
Probably not but I'm reasonably certain that very soon they'll be built at Newport News.
L
So I should put you down on the list as one not wanting to fire on the pirate ships?
Where pirates get their ships has not changed in 300 years, or in 3,000 years for that matter. What we need to do with pirate ships hasn't changed either, and I will continue cheering for India everywhere I can find an article on their successful and appropriate response.
Jack would have captured that ship.
“So I should put you down on the list as one not wanting to fire on the pirate ships?”
It’s a hostage situation, if you are a Thai captive.
Would you prefer to be rescued by Navy SEALs or the British SBS, or blown out of the water by the Indian Navy, if you were a captive?
That sounds great, as long as you’re not one of the captives held hostage on the ship.
If a bandit hijacked your wife’s car, and forced her at gunpoint to drive it, with your kids in the trunk, would you demand the police blow the bandit and your wife and kids up with rifle bullets and incendiary grenades? Just to make an immediate stop of the bandit?
Or would you prefer it be handled slightly differently?
I must have missed those reports of the actions by the Seals and the SBS. Have any links?
or blown out of the water by the Indian Navy
That might have the beneficial effect of encouraging merchant captains and crews to show a little more resistance to the pirates.
The merchent ships are unarmed, so encouraging them to show resistance to pirates who proclaim their intentions by firing RPGs and machine guns as they swarm aboard is stupid.
A British warship found the HIJACKED THAI SHIP and was shadowing it, while planning was going on at higher levels.
The Indians showed up and blew it out of the water, including the INNOCENT THAI HOSTAGE CREW.
Would you like it if the police handled car hijackings this way, if a gunman hijacked your wife’s car with her in it?
Its not like the innocent hostages were out waving to the navy saying they’re onboard as well like it would have been the case with the car analogy.
Besides, if it was one killer on board, that argument might have still stood. You can’t snipe every single pirate on another ship. It’s an unfortunate accident but India cannot be blamed for it. Neither was there a better line of action.
Two possibilities: The police should not avoid high speed chases on the off chance that an innocent person in the criminal's car or in another vehicle might be hurt, since that just encourages criminals to flee. If they know that there are hostages, shooting up the car requires more caution, but in no case should criminals be permitted to leave with hostages.
Based on recent history, he British British navy wasn't going to do anything. (except, perhaps, find some Iranians to whom to surrender.) Why don't you go whole hog and say that the SWISS navy was planning at high level.
The merchent ships are unarmed
A poor choice to make in a time of war.
By the way - were your innocent Thais Buddhist or Muslim?
The British ship backing off was 100% wrong.
The Indian ship did the right thing.
Pirates need to be exterminated and their ships sunk.
They certainly aren’t going to order a ship and wait for it to be built.
ALL pirate mother ships are captured vessels, thus, open to being fired upon and sunk.
India should be commended for her actions.
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