Talks begin with captors

Mohammed Rasooldeen in Riyadh

A senior member from a London-based insurance club will arrive in Jeddah today to initiate negotiations between the Somali pirates and the Saudi company, whose ship was hijacked in the Gulf of Aden last Monday.

Among the ships crew are 13 Sri Lankans.

“An official from the London-based Protection and Indemnity Club (P&I), which is coordinating action between the pirates and the insurance company, will be in Riyadh on Monday to discuss matters with the Jeddah-based International Bunkering Company (IBCO) which owns the Saudi ship Al-Nisr Al-Saudi,” Sri Lankan Consul General Sabarullah Khan told the Daily News.

“The Somali pirates have said they will not harm the vessel’s crew.

No progress has been made for their release,” Khan told the Daily News. He hoped that something positive will happen after today’s meeting between the shipping company and the P&I official.

It is anticipated that the talks between the two parties will focus on the ransom demanded by the pirates and arrangements made for the release of the ship and its crew.

IBCO has been working with its insurer, the Saudi IACI Cooperative Insurance Company to facilitate negotiations with the pirates.

Khan added that the shipping company had established contact with the pirates through satellite communication and that they had given reassurances that they would not harm the Sri Lankan crew.

Al-Nisr Al-Saudi was hijacked with a 14-member crew aboard.

The Sri Lankans are Jacob Xavier, Venis Robinson Parceloan, Hewa Pathage Ranga Jayasinghe, Wijemuni Elmo, Ansalam Soyza, Selvarasa Rajavel, Balakrishnan Jayarajan, Robert Joseph, Kanagasabapathy Thusyananthan, Arumai Sekeram, Basil Rajah, Lakshmikanthan Gajenthiran , Arockiasamy Pillai, Britto Lawrence, Saverimuttu Atputharajah and Rajagopal Jeyakumar.

The ship’s captains is Georgios Skalimis, a Greeek.

The tanker, owned by International Bunkering Co. (IBCO), was on its way from Japan to Jeddah when it was hijacked.

The hijackers have demanded a $20 million ransom. The ship is anchored on the coast of Somalia .

“We have held discussions with senior IBCO officials about the hijacked Saudi Arabian vessel and urged them to expedite the release of the 13 Sri Lankan crew members,” Khan said. Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Kenya Jayantha Dissanayake said the vessel was in the region of Gurey off the coast of Somalia.