Ransom debate

German politicians and parliamentarians criticized the owners of the "Hansa Stavanger" for paying over 2 million euros ($3 million) to Somali pirates to secure the release of the freight vessel, which was captured four months ago.

The container ship was released with its 24-member crew on Monday after Somali pirates received the multi-million dollar ransom from Hamburg-based shipping company Leonhardt & Blumberg.

The vessel was seized on April 4, around 400 nautical miles off the Somali coast, between Kenya and the Seychelles.

The crew on the container ship includes five Germans, three Russians, two Filipinos, two Ukrainians and 12 sailors from the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German foreign minister and Social Democratic chancellor candidate in up-coming elections, said ransom payments were not good "for dealing with kidnappings."

"The federal government will not allow itself to be blackmailed in this case or in future kidnapping cases," a foreign ministry spokesman said, expressing opposition to ransom payments made by the government.

Encouraging pirates

Parliamentarians also warned against encouraging Somali pirates to continue taking ships hostage by giving in to ransom demands.

The member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), sister party to Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, called for an end to "checkbook diplomacy," saying it would lead to further attacks.

Thomas Oppermann, parliamentary leader of the Social Democrat Party (SPD), which is part of the governing grand coalition in Berlin, was quoted by the daily Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung as saying: "The problem of piracy won't get smaller this way."

Meanwhile, the father of one of the crew members complained that the government did not do enough to rescue the ship.

"As associates of the government and the crisis group, we just felt abandoned in the end," the father of the officer, identified as Frederik E., told the Nordwest Zeitung newspaper.

He said he had written to Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Horst Koehler and other leading politicians, but never received a response.

The ship, en route to the Kenyan port of Mombasa, is expected to arrive there on Saturday.

Hamburg's chief prosecutor was quoted as saying that a group of officers from the German Federal Criminal Police were set to meet the ship in Mombasa. They are expected to carry out investigations and interviews with crew members to gather evidence about the pirates.

rb/dpa/AP

Editor: Kyle James