The Somali group are desperate to help
SOMALIS living in Redbridge have vowed to do “everything in our power” to help free a British couple kidnapped last year by Somali pirates stalking the Indian Ocean.
Yusuf Munye, 34, of Chester Road, Seven Kings, is leading a united front among the borough’s Somali population in the push to get Rachel and Paul Chandler released.
They were kidnapped while sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania in October.
Their captors have threatened to kill the couple if their demands for $7million (£4.4million) are not met.
Mr Munye said: “Some people think the Somali community in Ilford supports the pirates.
“The main reason we have come together is to show we don’t support them.
“We are totally against their actions and we support our British brothers and sisters.”
Video footage released of the couple at the end of January showed them appealing for help after almost four months in captivity.
Last week, members of the Redbridge Somali community met in the Cardinal Heenan Centre, High Road, Ilford, to discuss what they could do to help bring the couple home.
Mr Munye said: “The government has said they won’t pay a ransom but we’re thinking about raising money to help.
“We’re also talking about trying to make contact with these pirates to help bring the Chandlers home.
“If we’re able to talk to them or to others in Somalia, there’s a chance they will release them.
“We will do everything in our power to free them.”
Mrs Chandler, 60 and Mr Chandler, 56, are understood to have been separated by their captors and are being held in areas between the coastal village of Elhur and the small town of Amara, which is further inland.
Sourced from www.ilfordrecorder.co.uk
Tags: Redbridge, somali pirates, the chandlers, Yusuf Munye
Hello
I would like to start with expressing how touched I am by what’s happening to my fellow sail-mates, Rachel and Paul Chandler. However, no words of compassion can bring them home, nore can the expression of desire that they soon will be released. Nore do I think that any solution envolving money in any way, it being at the core of the problem, will help bring this ordeal to a happy ending, unless it serves an indirect goal like paying for the transport of people to go out there where they are held captive. I presume, the Chandler’s can be traced within a certain perimeter.
For what it is worth, I would like to share the thoughts I had a few mornings ago, while in my bunk on board my Rival 36.
It is about the power of words, when spoken out loud and directed directly to whom they are intended. In my woken dream, I saw a considerable amount of people demonstrating out loud, chanting out loud to free the Chandlers, so the hostage takers could hear it and were constantly confronted with it. I saw the local Somalians join in, urging their brothers’ in high voices to release these innocent people. There is no better pressure than social pressure. Imagine that the pirates, their faces, become known all over the world, that they are identified with this cruelty. I therefore think it is more productive to put the pirate’s faces on posters and the internet, than that of the Chandlers. Imagine the world press and attention drawn on Somali’s raising their voices while raising their brothers’ pictures.
In my view, as so much time has elapsed, I sincerely cannot imagine that the pirates themselves are not in an emotional termoil, an emotional termoil I do not believe even the cruelest among us can handle or sustain for such extended periods of time. It could therefore well be, that a ‘painless’ exit out of the situation they got themselves (till now unsuccessfully) into, is all they hope for right now.
One should consider therefore how to offer them ,together with the Chandler’s, an exit out of this predicament, without fulfilling the initial goals of their operation, as this will only endanger the lifes of future people. Money definately is not the way.
I would like to express my deep gratitude for all those offering help and putting effort into freeing the Chandlers. I do not know them, I only share a passion for sailing with them. But they should know, that I carry them into my heart
I cant understand why the family dont ask the public for help in raising this money. It seems to me that the powers that be help everyone else in this world except their own. I am quite sure that the good people of this country would come up to the mark and help this awful situation.
“`yes,let the chandlers exit with good grace and settle it with peace.thank god the people of somalia also care.bless them.please end this with good will,let them free,spare face and free them please.someone out there negotiate
Rachel and I are friends since childhood and there are no words to describe how devastating it is to see her and Paul in this horrendous situation. When paying a ransom is not the answer or the way out, there needs to be a way they can be freed peacefully and without the pirates losing face.
I am appealing to anyone who can assist us in going out there. have ex army and marines as friends and about 11 of us would happily go out there.Anymore personel?
to Tim Wookey ,
i am coming to this website for months finally one outcall for action to free them i am ex belgian para comando and active expert east to west africa problem solving i have somalian experience/contacts (search and recovery) i am based in Gibraltar if you need me for anything am just 1 email away get my email thrue this board or leave a new reply and lets get these people home
regards
last 1 standing