Tuvaluans Held Hostage By Somali Pirates

-Sourced From Tuvaluislands.com

Original Article written by Elenoa Baselala.

AFTER serving a breakfast of eggs and bacon, Olataga Safoka started on his next chore - lunch for the 24 crew members of the MV Hansa Stavanger.

It was just like any morning but this April 4 was going to be different.

Smoking a cigarette with a Kiribas band playing in the background, Safoka stared out into space as he prepared to recount his 122 days as a hostage.

"It's good to be home," he said. "It is so good to be home.

He was not really home as home was Tuvalu. But for someone who was holed up as a captive on a ship thousands of kilometres from his island, I understood what he meant.

"On April 4, at 9.05am the ship's pirate alarm or signal went off. I thought it was a joke, or just an exercise.

"We all went up to a room but the chief engineer later told us to go down to the engine room as it was unsafe to be where we were.

"Of course, we were all terrified. About 9.50am, there was a loud explosion and the boat shook, we knew something had happened. There were shots fired and at 10.15am the pirates took over the boat," the 56-year-old recalled.

Every crew member was summoned to the bridge of the ship and told to put their hands behind their hands and lie face down.

Two pirates stood over them, looking menacingly with their guns.

Part of the ship was on fire and the captain pleaded with the pirates to allow the crew to put it out.

"They agreed so we put out the fire with the two men standing and watching us with guns.

"It took us four hours to fight the fire. After that, we were summoned to the bridge again.

"They asked for our money, mobile phones, watches and took them away.

"We had been drifting for about three hours. The ship was 150miles from the Somali shore when it was taken.

"The pirates asked the captain to start the engine again and go to Somalia, near Parawa, where the commander of the pirates boarded the ship with 20 other Somalis.

"They asked for everything we owned and took whatever they wanted. They stripped our beds of bed sheets and clothes."

Being the chief cook, Olataga had the tough duty of budgeting their food.

"There's 24 of us and I prepared three meals a day. After the first three weeks, we ran out of eggs. They threw out all the pork meat on the day they came on board because it was against their religion. By the first week of July, there was no more meat and water.

"We drank the water for the air-conditioning systems and we fished for our meals."

At times, Olataga and the steward would not eat as the pirates ate with them.

"They would cook their own meat but would come to us whenever our meals were ready."

On May 26, Olataga was locked up with the Russian and German crew members as the pirates escalated their demands for ransom. "They told the ship owners that we had been taken inland but we were locked in a room for one month and 14 days."

This was a time that the crew members were most frightened. They were blindfolded and threatened. The pirates would check them at 15-minute intervals.

Jack Taleka, an able seaman on the ship, said they were reminded by their captain to keep their emotions intact when they contemplated taking down the pirates.

"Don't try to be a hero, the captain often reminded us. But, of course, there were times when emotions ran high and we were almost fighting amongst ourselves.

"We were just like one big family - the Russians, Germans, Tuvaluans and the Fijians. The captain reminded us that the German navy was going to rescue us. And we thank the German frigate, F209, that was always close by. We could see it on our radar watching us the whole time we were in captivity. It gave us hope in those days," Taleka said.

One meat that the sailors absolutely detested after the experience is goat meat. Ordinary seaman Malologa Bruce was known as the "goat killer", having to do it for the pirates. "Once it was dead, they would just put the meat in without washing or whatsoever in the pot as soup, even the waste, and we were told to eat that too," Olataga says.

"Those people (Somalis) were just animals. They manhandled us and laughed when we told them we were not used to people holding guns to our head. They said they were used to and even small children were taught how to use guns, without guns they can't survive. These pirates did not know how to use the toilets and our engineers had to clean and clear the toilets 10 times a day because of blockage."

On August 3, freedom finally beckoned but the seafarers didn't want to get their hopes high until after they were out of Somali waters.

At about 1.30pm, they were lined up on the deck as helicopters owned by the ship owners circled the ship to see if all crew were present.

Once, twice as they counted the crews and then they "practiced" the dropping of the money on to a small boat waiting nearby. The first attempt was successful and so the second was the dropping of the $2.75million itself.

"It took them only half an hour to count the money and distribute it," Olataga said.

The ship's engine was already warming up and they were soon allowed to go. Five pirates stayed on board to make sure the boat with the money reached its destination.

When that happened, the Hansa Stanavanger finally sailed for Kenya with the German navy escorting it.

From Kenya, the crew members parted for home.

For the Tuvaluans, some who have been away for more than a year, the trip home may not happen until August 27 when seats are available on Pacific Sun. Efforts are being made for a charter flight. The crew members do not want to go by boat just yet.

"We still have flashbacks and at the moment it is our family that matters, they have been through a lot, they will decide whether we will sail again," said Taleka.

More Images Of Climate Change In Tuvalu.

"Several times each year the regular lunar cycle of tides, riding on the ever higher mean sea level, brings the Pacific sloshing over onto roads and into neighborhoods. In the center of the larger islands the sea floods out of old barrow pits and even squirts up out of the coral bedrock. Puddles bubble up that eventually cover part of the airport on the main island of Funafuti and inundate homes that are not along the ocean."



"This February, the tides were driven against the shore by unusual westerly winds, and there was increasing erosion. The main asphalt road is only about 10 km long, yet it runs right along the lagoon in many places and was covered in water and coral rocks thrown up by the tide.
The islands are not going to go under immediately. Yet the effects accumulate, year by year. "Even if we are not completely flooded, " said Laupepa, "in 50 to 70 years we face increasingly strong storms and cyclones, changing weather patterns, damage to our coral reefs from higher ocean temperatures, and flooding of all our gardens." Not growing enough food and decreasing fish catch if reefs are damaged would mean "importing more food, "he said."

Tuvalu Stricken With Swine Flu

Tuvalu, it looks, isn't safe from the reaches of the current Swine Flu epidemic spreading over the world, and now even Tuvalu, whom has a very small tourism market, has recorded its first confirmed cases of the virus, 6 people, all of whom had recently been overseas. Out of these 6 people, 5 of them have been children, and the arrival of passenger ships to the islands or from it has been postponed until Government officials can determine what the cause of the Swine Flu is, and how they can contain it from spreading further. The Tuvaluan government has a stockpile of drugs for use for treatment against the virus currently.

Tuvalu, And It's Geography.

Tuvalu's formation was something discussed at length, by various scientific boards, because of the unusual nature of the coral formation around Tuvalu. Tuvalu's reefs are generally shallow, like most coral is, because the sunlight and warm water is neccesary to facilitate coral growth. The odd thing about Tuvalu though is, there is a vast amount of dead coral skeleton well below 80 metres in the water surrounding Tuvalu. This positively confused scientists, and evantually they came to the conclusion that Tuvalu had been formed on an area of volcanic activity, where cral had flourished, and over time the volcanic support for the area sank lower and lower, and more coral grew over it. It is this growth that formed the foundations of Tuvalu, this theory was put forward by Charles Darwin, in 1842, and was confirmed by The Royal Society Of London when they bored into the ground and took samples of the strata. You can still see these bore holes, and they are known as the tourist attraction, David's Drill.

Tuvalu is situated in a tropic, and has year long, warm temperatures [29c] , and is generally a humid climate.

Tuvalu: Forgotten In A Modern World.

So, Tuvalu is a country basically in the middle of nowhere, yes?
Well, yeah.

But Tuvalu is much more than just a rock and a pile of sand in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Tuvalu is interesting because they have a sheer lack of neccesity of anything considered modern by our conventions. Tuvalu lives off subsistence farming, fishes and that is about it. Tuvalu is so entirely disconnected from the hustle of the bustle, that despite its seemingly poverty stricken state, as far as records tell us, Tuvaluans in fact enjoy long carefree days in a picturesque location.

What is odd about Tuvalu, is the odd mix of modern social conventions, traditions, political prominence, and the sense of great global responsibility. As a nation Tuvalu sets itself apart from many other countries, in the fact that it has a loud voice in the world community, particulary the United Nations. Tuvalans have a great sense of identity and pride in the world because of the active role that Tuvalu's Prime Minister takes in the world.

Tuvalu, for a nation of just 12,000, has played an active role in the world for quite a long period, and even in global conflicts such as world war II, acted as a military outpost and base for the United States Forces, which provided intergral support to the Americans in their fight in the Pacific against the Japanese Army.
Tuvalu still uses the airstrip created by the Americans in WWII, and has many wrecks and other abandoned items reminiscent of WWII that can be found in and around the many atolls, such as shipwrecks and old excavation machinery.

More On TV.

As mentioned before, Tvualu pretty much has no industry, and next to nothing of an economy, with one of the smallest GDP ratings in the entire world. Tuvalu has certainly made do with what little they have, and gained millions of dollars in web hosting, using the net extension .TV . The majority of Tuvalu's revenue comes from this bizarre use of native property, and it was really quite and inventive solution to help link up Tuvalu with the world economy. In 2000, Tuvalu signed a contract for a 12 year lease of the domain, for 50 million dollars.

Tuvalu, The Universe And Other Things.

Tuvalu is one country that can't take climate change, and if the world leading scientists predict a water level increase of up to nine metres, global warming would decimate Tuvalu and force the entirety of it's inhabitants to migrate to different countries, most likely Australia or the other surrounding nations.

Tuvalu has not just recognised the threat of global warming like most other nations of the world community, Tuvalu has taken an active role in changing the impact they have in the world, and are attempting to make Tuvalu completely powered by sustainable, clean and carbon neutral means as soon as humanely possible,and have recently just installed solar panels on their national stadium. These panels have been accquired with the help of the US and Italy.

Within Fifty years, if no action is taken, Tuvalu will cease to exist.

Tuvalu is now also researching wind power.