Hope for kidnapped South African cruising sailors

by Sail-World Cruising Round-up on 30 Nov 2010 While South African authorities have not yet heard from the Somali pirates who kidnapped two South African cruising sailor over a month ago they believe that the two are alive.

According to Andrew Mwangura, officer of a seaman's something in Kenya, and whose information in the past has been extremely accurate, Bruno Pelizzari and his girlfriend, Debbie Calitz, abducted from a yacht south of Dar es Salaam, were moved to Mogadishu. This followed a 'misunderstanding' between their captors and an Islamic pirate group which has a religious agenda.

'They (the gunmen) are now talking to find a solution,' Mwangura said.

South African International Relations spokesman Saul Kgomotso Molobi said yesterday that the kidnappers had not made contact with the South African government or the relatives of Bruno Pelizzari and his partner, Deborah Calitz.

'They have not sent any ransom demands so we don't know what they want,' he said. However, Molobi said hope for the couple's safe return has not faded, as pirates sometimes took a long time to make ransom demands.

'We believe they are alive. South Africa has not interfered with Somalia by sending military to that country, so we are taking this as a good sign that hostages from South Africa will not be harmed.

'In one incident, pirates made a ransom demand four weeks after the kidnapping so there's no reason to lose hope.'


Background:
Pelizzari and Calitz were aboard the yacht Choizil with skipper Peter Eldridge when Somali pirates boarded it on October 26 off the coast of Tanzania. Eldridge refused to leave his vessel but the couple were forced to go with their captors.

On his return to South Africa days later, Eldridge gave an account of his traumatic experience. He said the pirates had planned to use his 'beloved' yacht as their 'mother ship' to rob other vessels and take the crews hostage.

Eldridge, who lived on his yacht off the coast of Dar es Salaam, was returning to Richards Bay to visit his family when he asked the couple to crew for him.

The South Africans tried to convince their captors that they were working-class South Africans who could not afford a ransom.

On November 7, twelve days after they had been kidnapped, the pirates spotted a French navy vessel, the Floreal. Eldridge was able to tell the Floreal by radio that there were eight pirates on board.

The pirates motored the yacht until the engine seized and it ran aground.