Government rules out ransom deal

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The government has insisted it will not make a ransom payment to Somali pirates who have kidnapped a British couple.
Paul and Rachel Chandler, aged 59 and 55 and from Kent, were taken hostage by gunmen as they sailed their yacht in the Indian Ocean early on 23 October.
A ransom demand of $7m (£4.3m) was made in a phone call to the BBC on Friday.
The Foreign Office said the couple were "blameless tourists" but said no payment would be made nor advice given to relatives on how to make a payment.
A spokesman for the Foreign Office added: "We are aware of reports that a ransom demand of $7m has been made. [Her Majesty's Government] HMG's policy remains clear: We will not make substantive concessions to hostage takers, including the payment of ransoms."
'Entirely unjustified'
The Chandlers, of Tunbridge Wells, had been travelling to Tanzania from the Seychelles. Their yacht was later found in international waters.
In the phone call to the BBC one of the pirates said: "If they do not harm us, we will not harm them - we only need a little amount of seven million dollars."


Rob Macaire, British High Commissioner, Kenya, told the BBC: "We are not in direct contact with whoever is holding the Chandlers.
"Our main concern is to make them understand that what they are doing is entirely unjustified and that they should release the Chandlers immediately and unconditionally."
Armed pirates boarded the Chandler's yacht, the Lynn Rival, in the Indian Ocean while they slept.
Mr Chandler's brother-in-law Stephen Collett has previously insisted that the couple are "not rich people" and that most of their money is tied up in their yacht.
'Divisions' reported
In an interview with the BBC, a local Somali official said through a translator that he believed a number of groups were involved in handling the couple.
He said the pirates had "many cars" and had hired extra people to help them.
He added that divisions had emerged among the groups and while all wanted a ransom paid, others wanted the release of pirates recently detained by European Union warships.
Earlier, the BBC's East Africa Correspondent Will Ross said in previous cases pirates had begun negotiating with an extremely high figure, and then settled for far less.
In a phone call on Thursday, the Chandlers said they were first moved from their yacht to a container ship, the Kota Wajar, which had also been seized by the pirates.
It is thought they were then moved to another ship anchored off the eastern coast of Somalia on Friday.
The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner has been told by Whitehall officials that the government has appointed a hostage negotiator who is on standby to deal with the case.





Looks like they are sending in Nick Davis instead:eek:
 
Why should the British government even entertain the ludicrous schnapps idea of bowing to the pirates' demands? Of course not! After all, they are only two simple British citizens on holiday FFS. Who should give a damn about them anyway the old fkrs apart mabye from their families and friends, yeah but fk them as well, they don't matter either. Good job that the asaid hostages are unimportant civvies. This means that we can rule out the silly, sublime possibility of calling in our SF/SFSG to get them out. In all honesty, why should we? Not as if they are some knob journalist or anyone special because THAT would really be worth putting our lads' necks on the line for, would'nt it?!:mad:
 
£4 mill is alot of wedge, especially for a retired couple whose main asset was found floating around the sea near Somalia. Even if all their family members sell their houses they will not find the money. The tax payer will end up paying for it or if things go pete tong someone will end up going in for them. I personallyreckon some secret benefactor will pay it in a few months. The Chandlers can recoup the money by writing a great travel book with expert advice on how not to be kidnapped by pirates.
 
[h2]Breaking News[/h2]

Pirates 'may accept smaller ransom'

Sunday, November 1 06:13 am

A hostage negotiator claims kidnapped Britons Paul and Rachel Chandler may be freed for much less than the Somali pirates' initial $7 million (£4.2m) ransom demand. Pirates 'may accept smaller ransom'
[h2]Related content[/h2]




Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme, said he was working with Somali elders to help free the couple.
He said the pirates had been persuaded that the couple were not rich and might now release them for £100,000.
In a phone call on Friday night, one of the pirates was reported as saying: "If they do not harm us, we will not harm them - we only need a little amount of seven million dollars."
The Foreign Office responded by saying that the Government would not make any "substantive concessions to hostage-takers, and that includes the payment of ransom".
Mr Chandler, 59, and his wife, 55, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured in the early hours of October 23 when armed men boarded their yacht as they sailed from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.
Leah Mickleborough, the couple's niece, said the family had been unaware of the ransom request before they saw it on the television news.
The caller is reported to have said the amount would cover damage caused by Nato.
He said: "Nato operations have had a lot of negative impact here, they have destroyed a lot of equipment belonging to the poor local fishermen.
"They arrest fishermen and destroy their equipment, in defiance of our local administrations."

Saward
 
7mio or 7 comrades, Somali pirates demand
Somali pirates who are demanding $7 million USD in ransom for a British sailing couple said Saturday that boats from other countries are plundering Somalia's fish-rich waters while navies shoot and arrest innocent fishermen.
Somali Prime Minister Omar Sharmarke said in London that his government was attempting to make contact with the captors, to explain to them that the couple did not have that amount of money.
Ahmed Gadaf, who described himself as a spokesman for the coastal defenders, said Western fishing vessels "harass" local fishermen and destroy their nets - and the demand should be seen as compensation. Another spokesman for the pirates said the group holding the sailing couple are "voluntary guards" trying to protect the country's natural resources from Western forces.
Pirate fishing exploits vulnerable fisheries and uses methods that cause extensive, "collateral damage" to non-target species, including sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and endangered sea birds like the albatross.
Gadaf says the British couple, Paul and Rachel Chandler, are safe and will not be harmed. He, however, warned military powers in the area of the Somali coast and in the Indian Ocean not to attack or try to rescue the couple. Paul Chandler had confirmed in a phone interview that the two hostages were treated correctly.
The British government reiterated daily its refusal to ransom the pair. The British High Commissioner to Kenya, Rob Macaire, has insisted that the government will not pay a ransom to the Somali pirates holding a couple from Kent. Mr Macaire told the BBC: "Our main concern is to make them understand that what they are doing is entirely unjustified and that they should release the Chandlers immediately and unconditionally."
Meanwhile it has transpired from the group, which took the Chandlers further inland on the Somali coast, that the negotiation is also open to have the British couple released against the 7 Somalis, which were captured by the German navy operating under EU NAVFOR recently.
Abdi Yare, a spokesman for the hostage-takers, said also yesterday that the pirates had moved the couple. “They were taken to a village and they are fine so far,†he said.
Local observers believe that reports leaked by a man, who identified himself as Ilka Gudud (red teeth) to the New York Times correspondent and claimed that the Chandlers had been taken to a small town called Buxdo, are false, but that they are held in a location under the control of the sub-clan of the hostage takers.
The seven arrestees and now potential exchange subjects were rounded up in a joint operation by the European Union Naval Force Somalia after they tried to seize a French fishing vessel 350 nautical miles east of Mogadishu last Tuesday.
Cmdr John Harbour of the EU naval force, said there was no precedent for captured pirates being swapped for hostages, but such a deal could not be ruled out.
The Foreign Office declined to discuss its plans, but repeated the fact that it would never make “substantive concessions to hostage-takersâ€.
Regional analysts believe that such an exchange deal plus some little money would be a feasible option, but fear that the window for this opportunity and to get the couple quickly free is closing rather fast. The hostage takers have told the BBC they will accept 110,000 euros ($163,000). Experiences from other sea-jacking cases show clearly that if such first possibilities are not responded to, the cases will drag on for months only to end with higher ransoms paid and hostages severely traumatized.Paul Chandler, 59, a retired quantity surveyor and his economist wife Rachel, 55, of Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured on October 23 when armed men boarded their yacht, the S/Y LYNN RIVAL, near the archipelago of the Seychelles. in the Indian Ocean while en route towards Tanzania. While their distress signal was apparently ignored by the search and rescue centres, the hunt began after the plea “please ring Sarah†was left on Rachel’s internet blog, but not answered by the Chandlers. Sister-in-law Sarah Collett had devised the message and posted it but when it was ignored, she raised the alarm. Mrs Collett, of Dulwich, south-east London, said: “It was me who posted the message.
A weeping Rachel told her brother Stephen Collett over phone from their hideout: "Please don't worry about us, we're managing. I'm bearing up. Thank you for everything you're doing."
Efforts to secure the unharmed and immediate release of the hostages through the mediation of local elders also have continued.
Four other foreign hostages are held inland in Somalia: Canadian freelance journalist Amanda Lindhout and photographer Nigel Brennan since nearly 15 month as well as Briton Murray Watson and Kenyan Patrick Amukhuma sind April 2008.
Open Source Information.

Saward
 
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