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| Africa Horn | ||
| France frees yacht off Somalia, hostage killed | ||
| 2009-04-12 | ||
French Defense Minister Herve Morin said the father of the child, Florent Lemacon, died during Friday's rescue mission, which lasted a few minutes. And he now sez that it might have been "friendly" fire, there will be an investigation. A military official said elite forces shot dead two pirates who were on deck when they stormed the boat. Lemacon had been in the cabin at the time and it was not clear if he was killed in the crossfire or deliberately shot by one of his captives. The four French survivors were unharmed and put on a navy vessel bound for Djibouti. France has taken a leading role in international efforts to halt rampant hijackings off Somalia and its forces have captured at least 60 pirates since April 2008, bringing several of them to Paris for eventual trial. "France will never give into pirates' blackmail or to terrorism," Morin told a news conference. The French navy made contact with the pirates on Thursday and decided to launch the rescue bid after the gang refused to accept an offer of a ransom and tried instead to sail toward the coast. "We proposed everything we were able to offer, enabling them reach to land. We even offered them a ransom," Morin said, declining to say how much money was put forward. It was the third time in a year that the French military had intervened after a French-registered yacht was captured, and the first time a hostage has died. Chloe and Florent Lemacon left France with their son Colin last July aboard the Tanit, writing about their adventures in a blog. They picked up another couple along the way and were heading toward the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The French Foreign Ministry said earlier this week the French navy had urged the Lemacons not to sail through the Gulf of Aden but that the warning had gone unheeded. Morin said French sailors should avoid the area. "I repeat in the clearest manner and with the most forthright warning to any of our citizens who are thinking about venturing into this area of the Indian Ocean, I ask them to forget it," he said. The Lemacons mentioned the risk posed by pirates in their blog, but shrugged off the threat. "The danger exists but the ocean remains huge. The pirates must not destroy our dream," they said in a post from January. | ||
| Posted by:anonymous5089 |
| #6 Good for France. It is very sad that one hostage was killed, but it was better than allowing the fear of a non-perfect response to be the pirates best weapon. The message sent to pirates today was loud and clear: Attack Americans and French and expect to die. The French showed spine and despite it not being a perfect operation, they should be applauded for their actions. |
| Posted by: Gluting Fillmore6653 2009-04-12 15:58 |
| #5 That's setting the bar pretty low. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2009-04-12 09:05 |
| #4 If the French captured them to put them in one of their allegedly notorious jails, fine by me. That approach is better than what we're doing off of Somalia right now. |
| Posted by: Cornsilk Blondie 2009-04-12 07:41 |
| #3 Why were some of the pirates captured instead of killed? That sets a bad example. |
| Posted by: Keystone 2009-04-12 07:31 |
| #2 Lovely! We've now been out JSOC'd by the French. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-04-12 06:42 |
| #1 So, who'll be "cheese eating surrender monkeys" now? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2009-04-12 06:12 |