PETER CUNLIFFE-JONES, Lagos | Wednesday
FORCED to sea by Liberia? Shot at off Ghana? Pushed out by a gunboat off Benin?
Henning Kielberg, the Swedish captain of a cargo boat at sea off the west African coast with more than 150 passengers aboard for four weeks, recounted his version of the saga.
“This is not a slave ship. This is not a refugee ship. These were paying passengers for Ghana,” he told reporters crowded into the cramped bridge of his ship after it early on Tuesday docked in Lagos harbour.
“I did not want them aboard, but they came aboard. And then they were refused by everyone,” said the blond-haired sailor, his 35 years at sea mostly spent towing timber in the coastal waters off Sweden.
Kielberg said he had acquired the 46-year-old Alnar Stockholm three years ago and had been working with other boats on the west African coast for the past four years.
“I had a contract to deliver a food cargo for the World Food Programme in Liberia. You can check it out with them,” he said.
“All my papers are in order. The ship is dual registered in Sweden and Liberia. People who say it is not do not know what they are talking about,” he said.
The captain said that he had been on a trip to Sweden in May and when he returned he found the passengers on the boat.
The passengers had been sold tickets to Ghana by an official — “he calls himself an agent” — working the office of Liberian President Charles Taylor and that he had not been consulted.
“I negotiated for six days not to take these passengers because I am not equipped for them. I was forced. The ‘shipping agent’ had taken $75 from every adult for this passage. Initially that was around 250 and if I had not taken them, he would have had to refund over $18_000,” Kielberg said.
“I was told by the head of Liberian security that if I did not take the passengers I would be arrested and the ship would be sold,” he said. “As it was my car was stolen.”
“We got to Ghana and the Ghanaians let the Ghanaians in but nobody else. They shot at us to make us move out to sea again, 40 mm cannons,” he said.
“Then in Cotonou, the Beninois used a gunboat to chase us out.
“I heard on the BBC that Nigeria would allow us to come in. It is a great humanitarian gesture. These people have been suffering,” he said.
The captain, whose story was corroborated by passengers aboard the boat, said the trip had been “quite emotional” and the most difficult thing had been keeping everyone calm.
“Emotions ran high, they ran low, four times a day like the tide,” he said.
Dressed in a shirt and shorts, his arms and legs were covered by sores. He said he had not washed for five days after water ran out and before then he had been using only half a litre of water a day to wash.
“These are not the conditions normally on this boat,” he said.
I have a crew of 11. Me and my crew have been working hard to keep everyone healthy, and to keep the place clean.”
Saying he would welcome Nigerian officials aboard the boat to check his papers, he said he would head next to Equatorial Guinea for his next trip.
“I have no problem with West Africa. I have been here for four years. It is just this trip has been a problem. I have had a headache and I have made nothing at all.” – AFP
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