Swedish navy arrests pirates off Somali coast

Published: 26 May 09 11:25 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/19672/20090526/

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Swedish naval personnel arrested seven pirates in the Gulf of Aden in the early hours of Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Swedish Armed Forces.

The pirates were apprehended by staff from the HMS Malmö as they attempted to board a Greek cargo vessel halfway between Yemen and Somalia.

HMS Malmö was ordered to respond to a distress signal sent out shortly before 1.30am by the M/V Antonis. The cargo ship's crew said they had come under rocket-propelled grenade fire from two boats manned by pirates.

When the Swedish crew arrived at the scene the pirates were attempting to board the merchant vessel.

HMS Malmö fired warning shots at the pirates using cannons, machine guns and sniper fire in a bid to halt the attack, the Swedish military said.

When the pirates attempted to flee, the HMS Malmö took up the chase, focusing on one of the boats. After around twenty minutes, the pirates gave up and a Swedish crew was dispatched to board the pirates' fishing boat.

Seven men were handcuffed and taken on board the Swedish corvette. The boarding crew also seized two handguns, a GPS navigator and a grappling hook.

The pirates were to be taken to Djibouti on board the HMS Malmö, where
further instructions would be issued by the European Union's NAVFOR-Atalanta
mission command.

An agreement between the EU and Kenya stipulates that pirates arrested by EU forces are to be taken to Kenya to face trial.

Swedish naval forces began patrolling the Gulf of Aden on May 15th. The Navy's primary task is to watch over the transportation UN food aid to Somalia, though general marine supervision is also included in the force's mandate.

The Swedish naval force consists of the HMS Stockholm, HMS Malmö and the support vessel Trossö and is made up of 152 personnnel.



TT/AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

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14:33 May 26, 2009 by BCR
So are we, the tax payers, now going to give these pirates asylum, free accommodation and educate their litter too?
14:54 May 26, 2009 by eZee.se
Ah pirates caught!

Bet they were downloading the new Wolverine film via bit torrent... or may some of Britney Spheres crap...

Was the new FRA law used or the IPRED laws?

Wait a sec, why did these guys have RPGs and machine guns?

No dvds or music?

Can it be that theres actually a difference between raping and pillaging, stealing and killing... and a 16 year old pimply guy(or girl) copying a file from the internet?

Perish the thought.., that would mean the media industries have been lying to us for ages.

Which we all know would/could never be the case...

Right?
17:05 May 26, 2009 by oceans2ocean
About time some did something.
17:40 May 26, 2009 by freethinker
Way to go Sweden! I'm proud if your naval crew. Hmm.... perhaps next time it would be best to simply sink the pirate ship/s. It's just a thought.
17:47 May 26, 2009 by moh
good job!

it's a fact that somali lacks central gormening sytem.somalis on the other hand don't follow the laws of nature.most will always tend to be barbaric not because they want to be but due to the fact that they didn't have a goverment for almost 20 yrs,no schools,hospitals,law enforcements actually nothing...is such a situation not comparable to animal life in the jungle????

Back to the issue of piracy...Since it began, with all the media coverage has anybody tried to ask oneself the ROOT CAUSE of piracy?

Who really knows what was going on in the somali waters that might have triggered counter reaction from the somalis that transformed into piracy due to greedy individuals?

There has been claims that some companies have been dumping toxic and possibly radioactive waste there for a long long time,and also presence of Large scale fishing companies, illegal transpassing of somali waters.
18:02 May 26, 2009 by Weekend_warrior
Actually, chances are they depleted their own source of fishing. It was a viable source of income for the country, as fishing was their export to the rest of the world...most people in Somalia didn't eat fish. Then, their own CIVIL WAR greatly slowed all fishing practices in the country and yes perhaps foreign vessels trawled the waters to make up for the demand.

Somalians would soon discover how lucrative piracy can be, and hide behind the facade that foreign fishers are stealing their lively hood. While this may be true for some, they are not the majority, nor does it in anyway condone their actions. Especially attacking World Food Aid ships bringing shipments to their own f**king country.

@oceans2ocean: about time somebody did something? Wasn't too long ago the US kinda sniped the sh*t out of 4 of them. We don't speak ransom...poke the sleeping giant and die. Perhaps that is why we don't have any prisoners there, like so many other countries do.
18:07 May 26, 2009 by Jamtjim
I wonder if it was these pirates which the Swedish navy so couragously captured??

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/Somalia/
18:57 May 26, 2009 by Russ Cobleigh
Just like in the days of old.....HANG EM!
22:18 May 26, 2009 by tsiya
Sink them, the sharks will take care of them!
06:47 May 27, 2009 by odinmp5
well.. now what..??

where are they now?

hope is not in a swedish prison ,so they can wait donfortably for their asylum requests to get thru, for them and their bros,sisters, grandmas , and everyone in the neighborhood.
09:47 May 27, 2009 by Bender B Rodriquez
For god's sake you morons: EU has a deal to hand over all pirates for trial in Kenya.
09:59 May 27, 2009 by Markbase with an Invisible Q
I must admit that I'd be somewhat miffed if someone stole my lively hood.
10:13 May 27, 2009 by DidiE
Mine seems to be a little slow today.

I need a pirate history lesson. Hasn't Somalia been like, a pirate base, for centuries? In the dim recesses of my mind I vaguely remember that the Americans went after these guys back in the 1700s. Or was that another North African area?
10:22 May 27, 2009 by 7
i think i'd be miffed if the stole my understated, sedate hood too.
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