Somali pirates threaten death in 4 days to two Brits if not paid £4.2 million ransom

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MrHands

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...-couple-face-death-in-three-to-four-days.html

Paul and Rachel Chandler, the British couple kidnapped by Somali pirates, said last night they fear they will be killed by their captors within “three to four days”.


By Murray Wardrop
Published: 6:50AM GMT 22 Jan 2010
Paul Chandler said he fears he and his wife Rachel will be killed within three to four days
Paul Chandler said he fears he and his wife Rachel will be killed within three to four days Photo: C4

The pair have been held in captivity almost 100 days but claim their kidnappers have now “lost patience” with the lack of progress in negotiating a ransom.

Mr Chander, 59, revealed that he has been separated from his wife after their captors whipped them and beat them with rifle butts.

In a plea for the British Government to secure their release, he admitted that they were losing hope and that his 55-year-old wife was at the point of “giving up”.

In a telephone interview with ITV News, Mr Chandler, a retired quantity surveyor, said: “They have lost patience. They have set a deadline of three or four days.

“If they don’t hear then, they say they will let us die. I’m just existing in hope. I’m afraid that they will just kill us and abandon us in the desert here."

He added: “We tried to stay together and they threw us to the ground and whipped us, and beat Rachel with the rifle butts and I was dragged off and taken to a different location.

“I was allowed to telephone her about 12 days ago. She said she was being tormented all the time and she said she was giving up.

“We’re held in solitary confinement effectively, just treated as a captive animal.”

In a separate interview, Mrs Chandler, an economist, urged the Government to meet the pirates’ ransom demands.

She said: “Please, please find a way of helping us because it really is a very desperate situation here.

"They've just told me that if they don't get the money within 4 or 5 days they'll kill one of us.”

Pirates seized the Chandlers on October 23 as the couple sailed from the Seychelles in their 38ft yacht Lynn Rival towards Tanzania.

They were later taken on land in Somalia and are being constantly moved around, living in vehicles, as their captors make various hostage demands.

It has since emerged that a Royal Navy warship manned by at least 10 Royal Marines and equipped with a helicopter was just 50 yards away but took no action as the pirates seized the couple.

Mr Chandler confirmed for the first time that the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship the Wave Night was very close when the couple were first transferred from their hijacked yacht to a captured container ship.

He said he did not blame the ship’s crew for failing to intervene, but suggested they could have called the pirates’ bluff at that point.

He said: “There was a warship only 50, 100 yards away.

"I don’t blame them because we were told to tell them on the radio to stand off otherwise we would be killed and there were men with guns.

“They took that at face value. With hindsight that might have been the opportunity to call their bluff.”

Mrs Chandler added that she had been injured by her captors. She said: “I've broken a tooth because I was hit on the head with something, probably the butt of a gun… I don't know... so we have been physically attacked.

Asked what message she wished to give to her husband, she said: “The message to him is hang on for me because I hope, my biggest hope is that I shall see him at least once more before we die.

"It's hard not to feel, well, dying would actually be an easy way out. It's hard to explain but it is when you're all on your own in this country and you've no idea where you are and no idea when something might happen and whether I'll see Paul again.

“It's just very, very despairing."

In November, the couple, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, appeared in a video being held at gunpoint by their captors as they pleaded for the government to negotiate their release.

They warned that the kidnappers were “losing patience” and that they “won’t hesitate to take our lives”.

The kidnappers have made various demands including a £4.2 million ransom and an offer that the Chandlers be freed in exchange for the release of fellow pirates seized by the German navy.

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, has previously urged the pirates to release the couple, describing hostage-taking as "unacceptable".

A Foreign Office spokesman said: "We are monitoring the situation very closely and are doing everything we can to help secure a release.

"We remain in regular contact with the family and are providing support. We call for the safe and swift release of Paul and Rachel."

A MoD spokesman said: "Wave Knight and those in command of this mission did exactly the right things.

"As in all situations of this sort they had to balance capabilities and possible actions against the risk to life. They did everything that they could in that operation and, could action have been taken, with a guarantee on the safety of the Chandlers, they would have done so.

"The decision not to intervene was unquestionably the right one in the circumstances and we should not second-guess that."
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Ran through the story 3 times but couldn't find the word "Muslim" except in ur caption.
 
Room112 said:
Ran through the story 3 times but couldn't find the word "Muslim" except in ur caption.
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good spot....OP title should be changed

or was this a deliberate attempt to start another bashing thread
 
Yea i was also wondering about the word Muslim. My understanding is they are capitalists and pirates
 
Mod_note: thread title changed. Keep it real please.
 
Wow. Of all the replies there wasn't one critical comment made about the "pirates" and not a single word of concern for the two British hostages..
 
MrHands said:
Wow. Of all the replies there wasn't one critical comment made about the "pirates" and not a single word of concern for the two British hostages..
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Yes because words of concern and rainbows and fairies will help these 2 unfortunate souls.
 
MrHands said:
Wow. Of all the replies there wasn't one critical comment made about the "pirates" and not a single word of concern for the two British hostages..
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If you hadn't made up your own title (clearly showing your "views") maybe you would have gotten a better reaction. But since you didn't and since it's you............ ;)
 
MrHands said:
Wow. Of all the replies there wasn't one critical comment made about the "pirates" and not a single word of concern for the two British hostages..
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/bad pirates...now return two men and go sit in the corner and think about what you've done
 
Stone Age

I remember one of the historical comments

"We will bomb them into the stone-age"

Unfortuantely Somalia and Haiti are ALREADY in the "stone-age"

Some places and some populations just do NOT deserve to exist.


In the "old-days" the Royal Navy would have sent in some "Jack-Tar" killed a couple of people paid some bribes to the RIGHT people and end of story.

All the Brits can do these days is whine and whinge -- I am ASHAMED of them.


MW
 
What is it with Somalian pirates and the Brits? They seem to be the only ones who get caught :wtf:
 
MrHands said:
Wow. Of all the replies there wasn't one critical comment made about the "pirates" and not a single word of concern for the two British hostages..
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We all have our own problems i guess.

They must not pay the ransom. If they must die so be it but paying a ransom for people will only lead to more kidnappings.

I can understand paying a ransom for a boat worth millions but paying for people is going to set a bad example.

Sadly for them they better hope the pirates are bluffing.
 
Somali Pirate Take Down

Last night I watched the Discovery Channel documentary "Somali Pirate Take Down" about the Mersk Alabama, showing how the three pirates were taken out by the Navy Seals snipers - fantastic !!!!

At first when the pirates learned that it was a US ship they'd hijacked, they danced with joy - what a mistake :D

http://military.discovery.com/pirates/pirates.html
 
DigitalSoldier said:
Can you imagine le outrage if it were French tourists ? :D
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Perhaps because the French don't play nice.

Hostage, 2 pirates killed in French rescue operation

Four hostages, including a child, were freed from the hijacked yacht after almost a week of captivity, Nicolas Sarkozy's office said.

The four adults and a child had been held aboard their yacht, the Tanit, since it was seized in the Gulf of Aden on Saturday, the president's statement said.

The military made its move after the pirates refused their offers, including one to swap an officer for the mother and child held aboard, and threatened to execute the hostages one-by-one -- and because the Tanit was drifting closer to the Somalian coast, the defense ministry said.

The possibility that the pirates could take their hostages ashore was a red line that prompted the mission. The same red line triggered two successful rescue missions by the French military last year, the ministry said.

According to French media reports, a special forces unit attacked the hijacked vessel from different directions in two motor-powered rubber boats. The pirates opened fire and the special forces team fired back.

Two of the five pirates were killed, along with Florent Lemacon, the owner of the Tanit, French media said. The military rescued Lemacon's wife and 3-year-old child along with two friends of the Lemacons.
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Morgoth said:
bah, who gives a damm about the brits!
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You have a hang up with us English speakers don't you :erm::D

Frankie said:
Last night I watched the Discovery Channel documentary "Somali Pirate Take Down" about the Mersk Alabama, showing how the three pirates were taken out by the Navy Seals snipers - fantastic !!!!

At first when the pirates learned that it was a US ship they'd hijacked, they danced with joy - what a mistake :D

http://military.discovery.com/pirates/pirates.html
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Damn I missed that :(
 
The Ross Kemp show about these pirates on Discovery was also quite an eye-opener. I could never understand why they were not simply wiped from the face of the earth but it seems (at least from the Brit perspective) that the rules of engagement has a lot to do with it. They can only engage when a ship is actively under threat. They do patrol and inspect the smaller vessels for arms but there are simply too many and they can't be everywhere at once.

I reckon the ships all need to carry specialised personnel onboard to deal with the threat (easier said than done I guess?) and blow them out of the water before they get a chance to board.
 
Flanders said:
The Ross Kemp show about these pirates on Discovery was also quite an eye-opener. I could never understand why they were not simply wiped from the face of the earth but it seems (at least from the Brit perspective) that the rules of engagement has a lot to do with it. They can only engage when a ship is actively under threat. They do patrol and inspect the smaller vessels for arms but there are simply too many and they can't be everywhere at once.

I reckon the ships all need to carry specialised personnel onboard to deal with the threat (easier said than done I guess?) and blow them out of the water before they get a chance to board.
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Same problem with taking on Islamic extremists. The [-]human[/-] criminal rights morons would have even worse hissy fits than they're having now.

Some ships do have specialists on board as well as fitted with hoses and other pirate defences.
 
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