Why the Somali "pirates" "fined" the USSR and how much did the freedom of Soviet sailors cost?

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the middle of the summer of 1990, an unpleasant event for the Soviet Union took place in the waters of the Red Sea: the fishing vessel Cuff was seized by rebels opposing the legitimate rule of Somalia. The captive crew, who hunted for lobsters and lobsters under a license from the Somali authorities, spent almost a month on board their ship, waiting for the negotiations of the rebels with the diplomatic representatives of the USSR to end.

How did Soviet sailors end up off the coast of Somalia?

The actions of Ethiopian separatists in the late 1980s made shipping in the Red Sea a risky business. The various groups seeking to separate Eritrea from Ethiopia have not only fought with government forces - international ships that were in coastal waters with the permission of government authorities also suffered from their actions.

So, for example, at the very beginning of January 1990, the Polish dry-cargo ship Boleslav Krivoustyi, heading to the port of Massawa, which at that moment fell into the hands of Eritrean separatists, was fired on and destroyed. The crew, thanks to the lifeboats, managed to save their lives, but they did not manage to land ashore - almost immediately they were captured by the militants who participated in the attack on the ship. Later, under the influence of the outraged world community, the sailors were released from captivity and returned to their homeland, but their ship was declared unfit for restoration and excluded from the shipping register.

On January 10, 1990, the rebels hijacked and robbed the Yugoslav ship Hero Kosta Stamenkovic, and in May 1990 fired on a Soviet tanker. Despite repeated incidents, the Red Sea area did not become a zone of increased danger: the flow of international merchant ships to Ethiopia did not decrease, and fishing in the territorial waters did not decrease either. Six months passed, and the case of the seizure of sailors was repeated: this time it happened with the citizens of the USSR, who, on a completely legal basis, hunted lobsters and lobsters in the Gulf of Aden of the Red Sea near Somalia.

How and when Somali "pirates" hijacked the fishing trawler "Kaff"

In contrast to the incident with the Polish ship, which was attacked by the soldiers of the Eritrea Liberation Front, in the episode with the Soviet "fisherman" the participants in the seizure were partisans of the Somali National Movement (SNM).

The SND was organized in the spring of 1981 by a group of expatriates living in the British capital. Later, the members of the organization moved their headquarters to Ethiopia. The SNM took an active part in the civil war in Somalia - opposed the regime of President Mohamed Barre. On July 18, 1990, they seized the fishing trawler Kaff and anchored it off the small island of Maid, which was 9 kilometers from the coastline. At that moment, there were 27 Soviet sailors on board, who were engaged in fishing for marine crustaceans under an official license from the Somali government. At the same time, representatives of the country were present on the vessel throughout the entire time: three inspectors from Somalia monitored the observance of the rules of industrial fishing from the very beginning of production.

Taking the ship to the island, part of the crew (16 people) was released by the militants into the mountains, allowing them to have a small supply of food and water with them. The Somalis left the captain with the rest of the sailors on the guarded ship as hostages: until the USSR fulfills all the political demands of the terrorists.

How were the negotiations of the Soviet side with the Somali oppositionists

It is not known what the demands of the invaders from the SNM were, but, according to the specialist in international law Lydia Modjoryan, for the Soviet Union they were absolutely unacceptable and, therefore, impracticable. But this became known later, first, Soviet diplomats arrived to the Somalis, who insisted on meeting with Soviet representatives on the Geranta trawler.

The negotiations, which took place on the island of Maid, near which the hijacked "Cuff" was located with eleven captive crew members, took almost two weeks. Having received a refusal to comply with political demands, the Somali opposition found another reason to justify the pirated actions: they declared the fishing license illegal, because they did not recognize the government of their state, and the permit issued by them to foreigners was considered invalid.

From a further statement by the Somalis, it followed that the Soviet trawler was not supposed to be in the territorial waters and make commercial fishing without the consent of the SND, and therefore, as a punishment, it was obliged to pay a fine for violation. Despite the dissatisfaction, the Soviet parliamentarians had no other choice: the crew needed to be released and it was not possible to free them from captivity in another way.

How much did the USSR give to the Somali "pirates" for the freedom of their sailors

The result of the negotiations was a compromise: since it was impossible to fulfill the requirements leading to political decisions, the Soviet side agreed to pay the imposed "fine", the amount of which was 250 thousand dollars. The transfer of money was not delayed with the formalities - the still unprofessional "pirates" quickly received the ransom, and on August 2, 1990, the freed crew of the trawler left for their homeland.

This was the first time that the USSR, going through a period of liberal transformations, paid a ransom for its citizens captured by representatives of third world countries. Prior to this incident, the Soviet Union rescued Soviet sailors exclusively through diplomatic negotiations or force, sending professional military personnel on an operation to free them.

And on this wonderful island pirates used to stay, and now millionaires.