FOUR ESTONIANS, two Latvians and two Russians were under armed guard aboard a Russian warship last night, accused of having hijacked the Arctic Sea cargo ship and forced it 2,000 miles off course.
But the mystery surrounding the odyssey of the 4,000-tonne vessel, which vanished from radar three weeks ago, deepened as the hijack saga petered out with no shots fired and no resistance apparent. The Russian defence minister Anatoly Serdyukov called it an act of piracy, but maritime experts questioned this.
Last night, officials in Malta said the Malta Maritime Authority had said that the ship had never really disappeared. Maritime Security Committee representatives from Sweden, Finland and Malta had monitored the ship’s movements. “The committee would like to clarify that the movements of the Arctic Sea were always known for several days, notwithstanding reports that the ship had disappeared,” the authority said.
The Finnish-owned vessel, with 15 Russian crew on board, was found by the Russian navy on Monday off the Cape Verde islands. Yesterday, Russian reports said that the eight detained, who were not crew members, had boarded the ship in the Baltic Sea off Sweden on July 24th. The “hijackers” approached the ship in a high-speed inflatable boat at 11pm, saying they had problems with their own boat. Once aboard, they forced the crew at gunpoint to follow their instructions, according to Mr Serdyukov.
“The ship then moved on the route dictated by the hijackers towards Africa, with its communication and navigation equipment turned off.”
But Mikhail Voitenko, one of Russia’s leading anti-piracy consultants, said he had spoken overnight with some of the crew, and remained puzzled about the sequence of events. There had been intense speculation the ship was carrying a secret cargo, perhaps of drugs or arms, or even nuclear material.
“Judging by the quality of the operation, then some serious forces were involved – not commercial or bandit structures.”
David Osler, industry expert for Lloyd's List in London, said: "No one buys the piracy line at all." He added that official reports that the crew, when found, were not under "armed control", added further mystery. "Everyone has been working on the theory that the crew were being coerced. If it turns out they weren't at all coerced, the story has taken another remarkable twist," he said. – ( Guardian service)