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Somali pirates bicker over British couple

Somali pirates said yesterday that a captured British couple had been moved on shore from a container vessel and that there was a dispute between different groups over the two Britons.

Gunmen kidnapped Paul and Rachel Chandler, both in their 50s, last Friday soon after they left the Seychelles archipelago in the Indian Ocean and took them to the Somali coast.

One pirate said on Friday they had agreed on a US$7 million ransom for the Britons, but others said it would only be decided once the couple were in a secure place on land.

The two Britons were moved from their yacht to a large container ship because the pirates feared foreign forces might try and rescue them. The gang that seized the Britons is finding a safe place on land to hold the two sailors.

“We were displeased by the men holding the British people. They were our friends. We helped them when a rescue operation was likely,” pirate Hassan said.

“But they disrespected what we did for them. They took the pair yesterday to land and broke off relations,” he said. “We are warning them it will lead to disaster for them. We will spare no efforts to foil them if they insist on separating from us.”

A Foreign Office spokesman in London said the British government was aware of the reported ransom demand, but could not confirm its authenticity.

The pirate gangs — some made up of former fishermen angered by the presence of foreign fishing fleets in Somali waters — and their backers within Somalia and abroad have made tens of millions of dollars in ransoms.

Pirates in northern Somalia also said yesterday they had seized a Yemeni fishing vessel after a gunbattle overnight that killed one of the hijackers and wounded another.

Ransom demands are usually high to start with, but tend to be whittled down during often protracted negotiations. Pirates initially demanded at least US$15 million for a supertanker with US$100 million of oil on board, but accepted US$3 million in the end.

Chandler, who is being held by Somali pirates with her husband after their yacht was hijacked, said in a phone call broadcast on Friday that the couple were “bearing up” and she described her captors as “very hospitable.”

Rachel Chandler told her brother Stephen Collett in a telephone call broadcast by ITV News that she was fine.

“They tell us that we’re safe and we shouldn’t worry and that if we want anything they will provide it in terms of food and water and everything like that,” she said, according to a transcript. “They are very hospitable people so don’t worry ... Physically we’re fine, physically we’re healthy.”

Abdinor, who identified himself only by his first name, said Paul and Rachel Chandler were healthy and his group took them to rest on land Thursday night at the coastal town of Harardhere.

British officials held a meeting on the hostage situation Friday in the government’s crisis briefing room, known as COBRA. The Foreign Office said a team from across several government departments was involved.

Both Foreign Office and Ministry of Defense declined to comment on whether any potential rescue was under consideration.

“We’re not going to comment on those issues,” said a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with department policy.

Over the past two years, France and the US have used military force to rescue hostages from Somali pirates, but all cases have involved small vessels — either sailboats or a lifeboat.

In an April French rescue, a hostage was killed. In the same month, the US navy killed Somali pirates and rescued a US cargo ship captain from the lifeboat where he was being held.

All navies patrolling the expansive waters off the Somali coast have avoided military action against pirates holding hostages on cargo or other large vessels.
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