Faina crew received as heroes
The four months of life in antihuman conditions are over. The sailors have come home at last. The Faina’s crew have returned from Kenya to Ukraine on a special presidential airplane. On arrival, the sailors were first of all taken to the Feofania clinic for medical checkup and treatment. Yet some of the seamen refused to be checked up. They said they were not feeling very well and declined to reveal any details about their life in the pirates’ captivity. At the same time, one of the crew said that the pirates brutalized the sailors from time to time.
“On some occasions they denied us food and water, switched off the light, did not let us talk or sleep, allowing us only to sit. And this is just one of the many examples,” he said.
“Did the pirates do so when the negotiations to free the crew reached a stalemate?” journalists asked.
“No, this happened even because of a pirate’s bad mood.”
In the airport, the sailors were welcomed by President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine. He stood by the plane’s ramp and hugged every sailor in a fatherly way.
“The main thing is they are all alive. The rest can be sorted out,” the president said.
Yushchenko emphasized that Ukraine had to pay a very heavy ransom for releasing the Faina because the pirates knew very well about the special nature of the cargo and, therefore, behaved brazenly. In his words, these negotiations were joined at a certain stage by the international mafia, and Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially requested the diplomatic circles of other countries to explain why representatives of other countries could take part in this kind of talks. The ship owner Vadim Alperin said that deals with the pirates had been foiled about five times.
The money was dropped to the pirates from an airplane in a special capsule as early as February 3. They were counting it for two days. But this was not the end of the Ukrainian sailors’ adventures: they finally delivered the cargo to Kenya after 133 days of captivity. Incidentally, there was an abortive attempt in Somalia to hijack the plane with the money for the pirates on board, as it was being refueled.
Those who arrived in Kyiv included not only 17 Ukrainian sailors but also two citizens of Russia—a sailor and the acting captain of the ship. Last Friday night the Russian seamen flew to St. Petersburg. The last job to do is to take the body of Captain Vladimir Kolobkov to Russia. This caused a small problem. The Russian media reported last Thursday that the Ukrainian side had allegedly refused to take the coffin on board the chartered plane that was carrying the freed crew to Kyiv.
In reality, there are certain rules about transporting dead bodies. It takes 12 to 14 hours to make out documents, perform an autopsy, and seal the zinc-coated coffin in compliance with international regulations.
The Russian side failed to meet the Kenyan side’s demands on time, a diplomatic source told Interfax-Ukraine. “And, to cover up their failure to solve this problem as quickly as possible, they put all the blame on Ukraine,” the source said.
But the Russians do not have to worry. The Faina’s owner Vadim Alperin has undertaken to have the captain’s body transported and pay all the expenses. The body will be flown by a regular flight.
