Le Ponant hijackers arrested

Andrew Spurrier, Paris - Friday 11 April 2008

Gunmen onboard the Le Ponant Gunmen onboard the Le Ponant
SIX of the pirates who took over the French cruise ship Le Ponant have been arrested by French forces following the liberation of the vessel’s 30 crew members. 

The head of the French army Général Jean-Louis Georgelin said that the pirates were arrested after having gone ashore about one hour after the freeing of the crew of the Le Ponant. 

“We were able to track the pirates, which made it possible to intercept about half the commando through a helicopter action,” he said. 

The operation was carried out with the authorisation of the Somali authorities, according to General Georgelin, who indicated that warning and interception shots were fired but said that there had been no direct firing on the pirates themselves. 

The arrested pirates were being held off the Somali coast on the helicopter carrier, Jeanne d’Arc, according to a senior French navy spokesman. 

French military leaders, who were speaking in a press conference at the headquarters of the French presidency, the Elysées Palace, indicated that no state funds had been paid to the pirates to obtain the liberation of the crew of the Le Ponant but did not rule out the possibility that a ransom had been paid by the Le Ponant’s owner, the CMA CGM shipping group. 

Meanwhile, the Le Ponant is expected in Djibouti on Tuesday. CMA CGM spokesman in Djibouti Jean-Louis Gaudaire said today that he was not sure how the vessel would be crewed for its journey to Djibouti, where France has a major military base, but said that it was possible that the skipper would remain aboard with a French navy crew.

The French presidency announced that the Le Ponant’s 30-strong crew – 22 French nationals, six Filipinos, a Ukrainian and a Cameroonian – had been liberated after talks with representatives of the pirates.

Details were not given immediately, except to say that there had been no incidents or bloodshed.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy met the families of crew members at the Elysées Palace this afternoon and CMA CGM chairman Jacques Saade was due to brief journalists there after the meeting.

The three-masted, 32-cabin vessel, which is operated by CMA CGM cruise subsidiary, Compagnie des Iles du Ponant was taken over by pirates off the northern Somali coast in the Gulf of Aden on April 4.

It was taken under the pirates control to Garacad, south of the port of Eyl, where it spent the whole of last week while negotiations were under way between representatives of the pirates and CMA CGM and the French authorities.

Local sources indicated that it had probably been seized by the Somali Marines, described as a highly organised group of pirates with warlord protection and a separate “business” structure for ransom negotiations.

French foreign affairs minister Bernard Koucher called for more United Nations involvement in action by the international community to combat piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast.

“The international community must mobilise for a determined fight against acts of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and off the Somali coast,” he said.

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