Freed from pirate hell

AP

WORN OUT: Deborah Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari speak during a news conference|at the presidential palace in Mogadishu, Somalia, a few hours after they were released by their captors yesterday. The two South Africans were held hostage for 20 months after being kidnapped in October 2010 from a yacht by pirates. Picture: Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP

SHAUN SMILLIE, PETER FABRICIUS and REUTERS

FOR MONTHS, Dr Abdirisack Hasni would tell tribal elders in Somalia that the two South African hostages were their African brothers.

Hasni is the Gift of the Givers’ regional representative in East Africa and, for a large part of Deborah Calitz and Bruno Pelizzari’s captivity, was behind the scenes negotiating with their captives.

His hard work in part paid off yesterday when the two South Africans, held hostage for 20 months after being kidnapped by Somali pirates in 2010, were freed.

Gift of the Givers had withdrawn from the negotiations in January, but they had helped in establishing contact with the captors.

Looking thin and stressed, sailor Pelizzari told reporters the release followed a negotiated settlement. He did not say if a ransom had been paid. “Today we are happy to get our freedom back,” Pelizzari said at the presidential palace complex in the Somali capital Mogadishu. Pelizzari and Calitz later left the Horn of Africa nation for Djibouti, two sources in the Somali prime minister’s office said.

HAPPIER DAYS: Bruno Pelizzari and Debbie Calitz before their capture in October 2010.

INLSA

The SA government thanked the Somali government and Italy for their roles in securing the release of the couple. It did not give any details about the roles played.

Gift of the Givers became involved, said the organisation’s head, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, just after the couple had been passed on to al-Shabaab Islamist militants.

“When they changed location, we would locate the tribal elders in that area and negotiate through them,” said Hasni.

The couple had been traded down. When they were initially taken, the pirates believed they were the owners of the yacht and, therefore, wealthy. “You must understand, everything there is seen as a commodity, even human beings. So when they realised they would not get the price they wanted, they sold them to another group,” said Sooliman.

Communication was through middlemen or tribal elders; the captors never used cellphones.

Armed pirates hijacked the yacht Choizil in October 2010 as it was about to enter the Mozambique Channel south of the Tanzanian port city of Dar es Salaam.

CHEERS: Terry-Louise Hecht of Durban, Pelizzaris niece, celebrates after hearing of the release of Pelizzari and Calitz. Picture: Marilyn Bernard

INLSA

The bandits rerouted the boat north to Somalia, where a French warship began tracking it because it was sailing suspiciously close to the coastline. After attempts to contact the yacht failed, the warship launched a boarding team, which came under fire from the yacht.

The Choizil ran aground and the pirates took Pelizzari and Calitz ashore, but the captain refused to leave and was rescued later.

The pirate gang initially demanded $10 million (R83m) from the pair’s families.

Hasni said the kidnappers kept moving the couple to new locations.

“I kept on saying to them, these people are your African brothers,” said Hasni. “They may be white, but they were born in Africa like you.”

From al-Shabaab, Calitz and Pelizzari were handed to a Somali businessman. It was at this stage that the family of the two South Africans asked Gift of the Givers to back off and said they would continue with the negotiations.

Hasni said that by last week, the price for the couple was set at $880 000. Sources said the family had been able to raise R600 000, which fell short of the pirates’ demand.

The sources said they did not know if the Italian government had increased this ransom amount. “The Italians did a good job. Whether they paid or not, they got our people out,” an SA official said.