A documentary series ‘The negotiators’ is focusing on a hijacking case concerning the crewmembers of the Naham 3 fishing trawler who were taken hostages by Somali pirates back in 2012; the episode begins from the day of the piracy attack, explaining how the negotiations proceeded, the difficulties the negotiators faced and how it all ended.
How it all happened
In March 2012, a Taiwanese-owned trawler called Naham 3 was fishing a few hundred kilometres off the Seychelles with 29 crew onboard. The crew consisted of five Filipinos, five Indonesian, four from Cambodia, three Vietnamese and ten from china.
The pirates came in the middle of the night on two speedboats that circled the trawler. When the pirates boarded the vessel, the captain fought back but was killed, as Shen Jui-Chang, one of the crewmembers reported. The armed pirates blindfolded the crew and tied their hands on their backs.
In March 29, three days after the hijacking, the trawler was anchored a few kilometers off the coast of Somalia.
One of the pro bono team negotiators, John Steed, response coordinator hostage support partnership, stated
The pirates steamed the crew in the Somali waters. In Somali waters the pirates were close to home and supplies and they were safe.
Leslie Edwards, a professional negotiator, collaborating with the probono team, commented that the crew were largely from developing countries; they were not European or westerns so no government was taking care of them.
As Steed added, one of the major problems with the Naham 3 was that there was no insurance.
Governments do not pay ransoms, they do not negotiate with kidnappers. There were no money and with no money it’s not possible to negotiate.
Following, the owner of the trawler contacted the negotiators and advised them to assist their representative who was directly negotiating with the pirates.
- June 2021/ 3 months since the hijacking
The pirates said that if the owner didn’t do anything they would kill the crew.
- November 2012/ 8 months after the hijacking
The shipowner’s negotiations with the attackers broke down; Yet, the shipowner insisted that they would continue negotiating with the pirates on their own.
Steed highlighted that
Negotiating with Somalians is a very tricky operation.
In the meantime, George Lamplough, lawyer, hostage support partnership, was at the US base in Somalia monitoring the vessels on the area when he saw that the Naham’s 3 equipment wasn’t working properly and particularly the anchor system.
- June 2013/ 1 year, 3 months since the hijacking
After the anchor of the vessel broke, the vessel was dragged onshore, where the pirates forced the crew to move.
In light of this event, Steed stated
When the pirates are on dry land it is so much easy for them..now time was on their side.
Jui-Chang reported that when they were ashore, the crew would eat anything they could see crawling on the ground.
Yet, around 2014 the owners of the vessel understood that negotiations weren’t going as they would hope.
As in this case, there’s no cargo loss, there’s no vessel grounding, there was no insurance company that could do something. It is just the crewmen, mostly from Asian countries, that they are easy to forget.
That’s why the negotiators launched the hostage support program to get them free.
Beginning of negotiations
As Steed notes
The key rule when negotiating is that you don’t negotiate with money that you don’t have.
Yet, the negotiators through anonymous charities managed to gather some funds to be able to start the negotiation.
Leslie recommends that in a negotiation, the negotiators should:
- Prepare a plan with what you’re going to say.
- Written script, glass of water, time, waiting for them (pirates) to call.
After the initial demands fore the ransom, its important that you create some time and space.
In the two years of hijacking, the negotiators determined that from the 29 crew, only 26 were alive.
- May 2015/ 3 years, 2 months since the hijack
Although in the beginning the pirates asked for a hard-to-provide ransom, beginning with US $18 million, they then asked for a reasonable amount of money, almost achievable. After a pirate meeting, the negotiators had a verbal agreement with the pirates, set by the translator.
The negotiators begun making arrangements for passports, for money, and for all the paperwork.
Yet, the pirates after some time declined the agreement made. They wanted more money. When the negotiators reported this to the government and the charities, one of the charities pulled out a big amount of money.
Informing them about the money loss, the pirates made a new, but lower demand, followed by many ups and downs.
- December 2015/3 years, 9 months since the hijacking
The negotiators decide to cut off all communication with the pirates, following frustrated conversations and no results.
- February 2016/ 4 years since the hijacking
The negotiators tried to find new contacts from the local community, that would have any kind of relation with the pirates, to free Naham 3 crew. A community spokesman represented them the community leader, who was owed a lot of money from the pirates.
[The local community lend money to the pirates; something which was very common. But sometimes, pirates would either get killed or lost so the people of the community would never get their money back.]
- August 2016/ 4 years since the hijacking
The negotiators got the agreement of freeing the crewmembers. The written agreement, although had no legal basis, was supposed to be seen by mane people, from the chief pirate to the crewmembers. The purpose of that was so that if the pirates went back on their agreement, they would be seen as ‘dishonorable men’, something of a great importance for them.
The negotiators asked for a final proof that the crewmembers were alive. A six-week delay followed because of an internal conflict between the pirates.
- 21 October 2016: day of the drop of the money
The negotiators came to an agreement with the pirates concerning the ransom and the freedom of the crew.
Following, the negotiators communicated with the pirates, explaining them when they should light the bonfire so that the helicopter knew were to drop the money.
- October 22, 2016
This day was the day when George Lamplough arrived in Somalia, by a UN aircraft to pick up the seafarers and take them home.
A similar story was presented by ISWAN, when ISWAN’s regional director was once captured by Somali pirates and now explains his experience and journey.
Concluding, Dimitris Maniatis, Chief Commercial Officer, Diaplous Maritime Services, provides a recap on on the security status of areas that experience increased piracy incidents, such as the Indian Ocean region and West African waters.
