A Captive Number 17

29-year-old Giorgi Chkadua is a 17th captive captured by Somali pirates. Giorgi is a resident of the village Vardisubani of the Telavi Region. He has a three-year experience working as a sailor. Very last he was hired by a Greek Company Enesel, an owner and an operator of the super tanker Irene SL. The connection was cut with the supertanker on February 9th. The pirates hijacked the tanker in 200 miles afar from the Omani coast.

33-meter supertanker was transferring 270 thousand tons of crude oil to the USA with an estimated value of 200 million US dollars. Built in 2004 in Germany, the supertanker cost reaches 60 million US dollars.

According to Tamar Ghvinadze, a Georgian consul in Greece and Croatia, out of 25 crew members of the tanker, 17 are from Philippines, 7 Greek and one Georgian citizen Giorgi Chkadua.

“At this phase, the state of all sailors is satisfactory. Their life is not under danger.” – noted Tamar Ghvinadze.

Mother of Giorgi Chkadua Neli Peikrishvili states that Giorgi left for Greece approximately four weeks ago. “He often navigated. The consulate informed us on his capture,” – she states.

Giorgi Chkadua contacted his family several days ago. According to his father Otar Chkadua, the pirates are requesting money for his release.

“We do not know yet how much the kidnappers are requesting. Giorgi called and said that he is doing well. He has not been assaulted physically or pressured psychologically, he stated.” – states Otar Chkadua.

According to the representative of pirates in Somali Mohamed Side, the pirates are bringing the tanker to the coast of small city Garakani located in the eastern coast of Somali. Garakani belongs to one of the uncontrollable administrative units of Somali – Muduki. Lately, this region along with the neighboring Puntland has turned into the refuge of pirating.

Since the September 8 of the last year fifteen Georgian sailors of Greek tanker Olib G have been under the captivity of Somali pirates. Sailors are requesting million dollars as a ransom. The negotiations have been underway for six months now with no results. One more Georgian – Oleg Nodia from Batumi has been captured at a Tunisian tanker Hannibal II since November 11.

In a conversation with the radio Voice of America the Minister of Economics and Sustainable Development of Georgia Veronika Kobalia admits that the state has not yet found the ways for the solution of this problem.

“It is a really disturbing problem for all of us. We do not pass a day without discussing the possible ways for helping Georgian sailors. When I visited International Marine Organization, we touched this problem; I talked to the commissioner on this topic while visiting European Commission; we raise this issue at every meeting. Unfortunately we do not yet how to solve this problem. As you know the state does not have right to pay ransom. We are not talking about the amount of money. The thing is that the state cannot allocate money for pirates. Therefore we are trying to solve this problem by the help of international organizations and assistance.”

According to Voice of America, the largest maritime corporations including Intertanko and The Baltic and International Maritime Council called on the countries of Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean Basin to intensify their efforts against the pirates or else they will change the India-Africa maritime route. This will result in the increase of oil import and correspondingly, increase of oil price.
“In the maritime history, Greek Irene SL is a number 4 supertanker hijacked by the pirates. For the release of three supertankers captured formerly – Sirius Star, Maran Cantarius and Simho Drim, pirates took 20 million US dollars in sum. Simho Dream made a record as its ransom amounted to 9.5 million dollars. However, today after the capture of Irene SL all experts are assured that this record will go down,” – informs Voice of America.