"I pray to God that they don't catch us again," said skipper Jürgen Kantner, 70, in an interview with YACHT in 2009 after his hijacking by Somali pirates. His prayers were apparently not answered. Although there is still no confirmation from the German Foreign Office, there is no reasonable doubt that Kantner and his partner Sabine M. have once again fallen victim to terrorists.
In the Tawi-Tawi archipelago in the Sulu Sea, one of the core areas of the Islamist Abu Sayyaf, the terrorists reportedly attacked a yacht, kidnapped the skipper and killed his partner. "She tried to shoot at us, so we shot her dead," explained a spokesman for the terrorist group. According to the authorities, the female body on the yacht found early Sunday morning (local time) near the island of Laparan was indeed found with a rifle. The yacht flew the German flag and bore the name "Rockall".
At the latest after viewing the photos published by the Philippine authorities, it is clear that the hijacked ship does indeed belong to Jürgen Kantner. This is also the name given by the kidnap victim in a telephone conversation with the "Philippine Daily Inquirer". The age also fits. Everything therefore points to the victims being the two emigrants from Swabia.
The "Rockall" crew had already suffered a martyrdom in 2008. After their yacht was hijacked off the coast of Yemen, they were abducted to Somalia and held hostage for 52 days under barely humane conditions and tortured, including mock executions. According to "Bild", 600,000 US dollars were paid for her release at the time.
The two victims described the circumstances of the attack and their time as hostages in detail to YACHT. They announced their intention to continue their voyage (issue 22/08). After all, they had nothing of value left on land and all their savings were in the ship.
In fact, Kantner retrieved his yacht from terrorist hands under adventurous circumstances (YACHT 16/09) and reported directly from Somalia in a remarkable article for YACHT online. The couple then continued their voyage to South East Asia.
Here Kantner describes the course of the robbery and his retrieval operation:
After that, everything finally seemed to be going according to plan. The "Rockall" sailed to Thailand and Malaysia, and Sabine M. planned to write a book about her terrible experiences. But that never happened.
It remains incomprehensible why the "Rockall" was in the Sulu Sea at all. The skipper must have been aware of the risk so deep in terrorist territory. Since the kidnapping of the German crew of the "Catherine" two years ago to a location much further away from the criminal stronghold, the German Foreign Office has expressly warned against travelling in this region: "The Abu Sayyaf is responsible for kidnappings of both Filipino nationals and foreigners, which occur again and again, especially in Mindanao and in the Sulu Sea. Attacks on sailing and diving boats can also occur in the Sulu Sea....We strongly advise against travelling to central and western Mindanao including the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Mindanao Sea, the Sulu Sea including South Palawan and its islands as well as the southern island groups Cagayan de Tawi-Tawi Islands, Turtle Islands and all Sulu Islands (Basilan, Jolo, Tawi-Tawi, etc.) between Mindanao and East Malaysia."
YACHT is publishing a special on this topic in its 24/2016 issue (on newsstands from 16 November). In it, Henrike Dielen, who was also kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf from aboard the "Catherine" in the Sulu Sea, talks about the circumstances of the attack at the time. We also present a new study from which a very good guideline for the risk assessment of fishing grounds can be derived.
