The hostages killed the pirates and escaped. But now the
life of the Somali cook, known only as Ahmed, is in danger.
Despite actions the crew described as heroic, European Union
nations, Syria and nearby Djibouti have all refused to take him, according to
an official who was not authorized to talk.
Ahmed has since disappeared. It is thought to be the first
time someone working for the pirates has turned against them to help hostages.
“Sending him back to (Somalia's) shore would be putting him
to death for his compassion,” said John S. Burnett, the author of “Dangerous
Waters: Modern Piracy and Terrorism on the High Seas.” “This smacks of a
bureaucratic bungle ... it's a line in the sand. No Somali pirate will ever
risk showing any modicum of compassion again if he knows he's not going to get
any help from the authorities.” The tale began Feb. 2, when the pirates
hijacked the MV Rim, a Libyan-owned, North Korean-flagged cargo ship in the
Gulf of Aden. The crew radioed international navies, but help arrived 15
minutes after the pirates seized the ship.
International naval forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden and
the Indian Ocean off Somalia generally don't intervene militarily after pirates
take a ship because of the danger to the crew.
During the first two months, the pirates gave food and water
to the crew of one Romanian and nine Syrians. But when talks about the $300,000
ransom went nowhere, the pirates grew impatient. The crew got little food or
water, Virgil Teofil Cretu, the 36-year-old Romanian crew member, said in an
interview in Costanta, Romania.
Cretu, who as the coxswain had steered the ship, and the
Syrian sailors drank rainwater and cooked rice in seawater.
Their diet was augmented by whatever Ahmed could sneak to
them.
Various pirate groups bought and sold the ship and crew,
Cretu said. One of the rotating pirate guards was a gun-wielding 13-year-old.
Ahmed bought a SIM card to use in a cell phone the crew had hidden from the
pirates, so the hostages could speak with relatives.
But the negotiations were not going well. No one from North
Korea, Libya or Syria would agree to pay a ransom.
On June 2, Ahmed told the crew that the pirates had decided
to kill them and harvest their organs to get some money out of the seajacking.
Ahmed secretly passed the crew three Kalashnikovs. That's when “all hell broke
loose,” according to Cretu.
“There were six pirates guarding us. We started shooting.
I shot like mad. The pirates were taken by surprise. They
opened fire, shot each other also by mistake,” said Cretu, who was wounded in
the back during the firefight. “This lasted for about 45 minutes. All in all,
we annihilated them pretty quickly. Some we threw overboard, to the sharks.” “It
was like being in a commando fight. In fact, my Syrian colleagues on board
nicknamed me Rambo afterward,” said Cretu. He credited his compulsory military
service with getting him through the fight.
One last pirate who had hid in a cabin jumped overboard
himself when the ship started sailing. All six pirates were killed or went
overboard.
The crew started their engines and steamed away, pursued by
more pirates in another hijacked vessel. The MV Rim's old engines stalled, but
an EU Naval Force helicopter swooped down just before the pirates closed in,
hovering between the two ships and buying precious minutes.
After the crew was taken off the MV Rim, the EU Naval Force
let the ship drift in the Gulf of Aden. Cretu said the ship was to have been
scrapped after delivering in India a load of kaolin, a soft white clay used in
making porcelain and many other products.
Now the crew has gone home, but Ahmed is nowhere to be
found. His last known location was the Dutch warship Johan de Witt.
“In my mind, cook Ahmed was an angel sent by God,” said
Cretu. “Without his intervention, without his courage, we would have been dead.”
The EU Naval Force won't say if he was set ashore in Somalia - where he faced
execution by pirates or clan members of the brigands who died - or sent away
alone in a small boat to navigate the high seas at the beginning of monsoon
season. EU Naval Force officials said they had investigated repatriation and
migration options for Ahmed but would not give details.
The MV Rim was Cretu's first job as a ship's crew member.
On Thursday, he boarded a ship on the Danube River in
Romania to start his second high-seas adventure.
Ahmed remains on his mind.
“I owe my life to my Somali friend and I want to take him
into my home if possible so he and his family can change their lives,” said
Cretu.
