Korean Fishermen Were Beaten by Pirates
By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Four Korean crewmen who were released on Sunday after 174 days of captivity in Somalia with another 20 Asian crew members described their lives in the African country as miserable and hopeless.
``Pirates are entities that have to be eliminated altogether,’’ said Han Seok-ho, 40, captain of the hijacked vessels, Mavuno 1 and Mavuno 2. He said, “It is hard to express how harshly we were treated,” recollecting his six-month-long incarceration.
The town we arrived at right after being hijacked was seemingly the headquarters of the militant group, he said. ``The village was made up of around 300 houses. All residents in the area were sponsors or members of the pirate crews.’’
When negotiations with the Korean government for ransom reached a deadlock, the culprits started threatening crewmembers, especially Koreans, the captain recollected.
Initially, the pirates demanded the government pay $5 million as a ransom but gradually reduced the amount to $3 million. As the owner of the vessels and family members of the captivities were not able to collect such a huge sum in such a short time, the money-for-release negotiation continued for several months without coming to any concrete resolution.
``The Somali pirates were armed with various weapons including rifles, cannons and other equipment. They did not lag behind any regular armed forces in scale and strength,’’ Han said. ``Among them were several retired military officers. Reportedly, the interim Somali government had designated them as a militia and supported them in secret.’’
Noting that its exceptional ability to gather information demonstrates that the African government supports the violent group, Lee Song-ryul, chief engineer of the Korean boats, said, ``We were captured along with other crewmen from Japan, Taiwan, Denmark, Brazil, Italy and India. I guess they have an information source providing them with routes of foreign vessels passing near the region.’’
He added they were familiar with negotiating with the Korean government for a ransom because they were experienced in hijacking Korean vessels.
The two Korean fishing boats were seized by Somali pirates off the coast of the African country on May 15, while sailing from Kenya's port of Mombasa to Yemen.
The ships, owned by Daechang Fishing Co., were operated by four Koreans and 20 other Asian nationals.