MSN_052319

10 | May 23, 2019 | Malibu surfside news news
malibusurfsidenews.com
Author recounts harrowing tale of capture by pirates
Barbara Burke, Freelance Reporter
He spent two and a half years
in captivity after being taken by
pirates in Galkayo, Somalia in
2012, where he was researching
a book about piracy, for a
project funded by the Pulitzer
Center on Crisis Reporting.
German-American journalist
Michael Scott Moore recounted
his harrowing tale and discussed
his latest book “The Desert and
the Sea” at the Malibu Library
Speaker series on May 15 at the
Malibu Library.
Both Moore’s book and his
Malibu presentation thoroughly
discussed how he coped - often
in solitary confinement - and how
his mother, who helped negotiate
the release of her only son, and
valiantly went through the negotiation
process, holding onto hope
that he would return alive.
Ultimately, Moore was released
in September, 2014, much to the
relief of his many colleagues,
news organizations, family and
friends who had steadfastly supported
efforts seeking his release.
Moore spoke about why he
wanted to go to Somalia. “I
worked in Berlin and wrote for
Spiegel Online, the English edition
of the German Magazine,”
he said.
“I covered a long trial in Hamburg
about four members of a pirate
gang who were charged with
crimes because they hijacked the
MV Taipan, a German cargo ship
near Somalia.” That trial, he explained,
“was the first legal proceeding
on German soil against
any pirate in more than four centuries.”
His interest piqued, Moore
sought out to write a book explaining
Somalian piracy, the
politics in that region and the
dynamics between warring tribal
factions and the impotent central
Mogadishu government.
He travelled with Ashwin Raman,
a Indian-born film-maker,
whose documentaries about Afghanistan
and Somalia had won
several awards, Moore said. They
had arranged security through
Mohammed Sahal Gerlach, a
Somali elder, in Berlin because
Gerlach originally came from
Galkacyo, which had become a
latter-day pirate supply town.
“It’s easy for those in those in
the West to romanticize pirates as
people who defy the general order,”
Moore said. “There is some
truth to the fact that in the past,
Somalia’s shipping vessels and
beaches have been attacked.”
However, over time, Moore
noted, “those truths have been
merged with rumors and folklore
and obviously, piracy has transformed,
given that I was captured
on land and there were no vessels
or fishing grounds to protect.”
After ten days of filming, Ashwin
decided to deviate from their
travel plans but Moore stayed behind.
Moore and security guards
accompanied Ashwin to the Galcayo
airport and made that trek
safely. However, things took a
nefarious turn when, as Moore
and the guards were returning to
the hotel, they were met by two
“technicals,” SUVs armed heavily
with weapons, including a cannon.
Heavily armed men attacked
Moore and his entourage.
“My glasses were broken in the
dust. I was transported through
the desert for hours and ultimately,
I was placed on a cot and sat
there, hearing guards and other
hostages but unable to see very
much,” Moore said. “I realized I
had become a hostage.”
Moore recounted that over the
next two months, he lived on a
subsistence diet of bread, beans,
tuna from a can and water. “That
would be my diet for the next
several months, along with occasional
cooked pasta or rice,” He
said. “In two months, I lost 40
pounds.”
What followed, Moore said,
were 977 days of horror. Of waiting
and hoping that America’s
forces – or possibly, German
forces – would conduct a sting
operation to save him or that a
Michael Scott Moore (left) and Malibu resident Rocko Belic at the Library Speaker Series on May 15.
Barbara Burke/Surfside News
ransom would be paid to secure
his release.
Moore noted that, incredulously,
the pirates “had no conception”
that the United States and
Britain refused to formally pay
ransom. “They demanded a $20
million ransom for me,” he said.
Ultimately, Moore was relocated
to a long-line tuna fishing
boat anchored near Hobyo off the
Somali coast.
Months after being held hostage
on the boat, Moore, a surfer
and a good swimmer, decided to
make a run for it. “I told them that
I needed to go to the deck to get
some toilet paper and the guard
that they sent didn’t even bring a
weapon,” Moore said. “I jumped
into the water and began to swim
away very fast – the water never
felt so good.”
Unfortunately, however, although
the swell initially enabled
Moore to swim to a large distance
away from the boat, the pirates
stalled the boat and the same
swell pushed the boat toward
Moore.
After that, depression and a sense
of hopelessness sometimes overcame
him, Moore said. “A hostage
does nothing, but the long hours are
a crisis of longing,” Moore writes
in his book. “My sense of self, in
fact my sanity, would surge and
ebb. I tended to wake up in a stark
panic and pray for no greater mercy
than the dawn.”
Moore said that throughout
his ordeal, he would hear planes
flying overhead and would see
drones and was quite sure American
forces were keeping track of
his whereabouts.
Just as abruptly as when he was
captured, he was released. “The
morning of 23 September 2014,
was not unusual.” Moore said.
However, mid-day, he heard a car
at the front compound gate, was
told to pack his bags, and was
transported to the airport where
a bush pilot met him and flew
him to a safe place. There, he was
medically and psychologically
evaluated by physicians. And,
“that is where I asked for a beer,”
Moore said.