[Cambodia-flagged] Cruise Ship in Distress in Sea of Japan, Crew Evacuated

VLADIVOSTOK, July 7 (RIA Novosti)

A Cambodia-flagged cruise ship is in distress in the Sea of Japan, a rescue coordination official said on Saturday.

The Star ship with 16 Russian crew members on board started taking on water in the early hours of Saturday, when it was some 90 miles off the port of Vladivostok, in Russia’s Far East.

The crew reported a leak in the ship’s engine unit.

All people have been evacuated from the ship on board another cruise vessel which was sailing nearby and rushed to the Star’s aid.

A rescue operation is under way.

ANALYSIS: North Korea nuke fears spare China on U.N. resolution violations

June 13, 2012
By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Staff Writer
Asahi Shimbun (Japan)

Security experts suspect that Cambodian-registered ships operated mainly by Chinese crews have been used to provide underground support to such nations as North Korea, Myanmar and Laos.

When North Korea held an elaborate parade to show off its military might, it inadvertently provided further damning evidence against its only ally.

Images of the April 15 parade in Pyongyang, held to commemorate the centennial of the birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, featured large 16-wheeler transport vehicles carrying ballistic missiles.

The vehicles were believed to have come from China, the same ones mentioned in a shipping report obtained by the Japanese government.

Japan, the United States and South Korea had solid evidence to prove that China, despite its repeated denials, had violated a U.N. Security Council resolution banning weapons exports to North Korea.

But the three countries decided not to pursue the matter in the Security Council, underscoring the complexities in international horse trading.

Ship flying Cambodian flag of convenience used to transport missile vehicles from China to North Korea

In this April 15, 2012, file photo, a North Korean vehicle carrying a missile passes by during a mass military parade in Pyongyang's Kim Il Sung Square. The enormous 16-wheel truck used to carry the missile was found to be exported from China. (AP photo)

Document confirms Chinese firm sold missile transport vehicles to N. Korea

June 13, 2012
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN (Japan)

Japanese government sources have confirmed that a Chinese company exported four large vehicles capable of transporting and launching ballistic missiles to North Korea last August, which would be a violation of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

While the Security Council mandate prohibits the sale of major weapons systems to Pyongyang, the official Chinese government position continues to be that it has never broken such a resolution.

Because the United States, Japan and South Korea need Chinese pressure on North Korea to prevent it testing a nuclear weapon for the third time, the three governments have not pressed Beijing on the issue, sources said.

On the urging of the United States, the three governments also decided not to publicize the shipment of the vehicles to avoid publicly embarrassing China.

The Japanese government obtained a document last October that recorded the export of the vehicles from China to North Korea.

The four vehicles believed to have been exported were likely the same ones that were prominently displayed by North Korea at a military parade in April commemorating the centennial of the birth of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder.

According to several Japanese government sources, the four vehicles were transported aboard the 1,999-ton Harmony Wish, a cargo ship registered with Cambodia.

Far East Border Guards Detain Foreign Vessel [flying Cambodia's flag of convenience] for Poaching

16/03/2012
Sergei Krasnoukhov
RIA Novosti (Russia)

Border guards in Russia’s Far East detained on Friday a foreign fishing vessel that carried some 16 metric tons of poached live sea urchins, Natalia Yershova, a spokeswoman for local border guards, said.

She said border guards detected Winner-2 vessel, flying the flag of Cambodia, in the exclusive Russian economic zone to the south-east of the Shikotan Island and asked the ship to stop for an inspection.

Ship [flying Cambodia's flag of convenience] sinks in Black Sea 10 missing

Feb 1, 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)

A cargo ship sailing under the flag of Cambodia has sunk in the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey.

The crew of the ship consisted of 10 Ukrainian citizens and one citizen of Georgia.

Nine people were reported missing and two sailors were rescued, however there are no reports as to their nationalities.

Flags of convenience coming down

Oct 17, 2011
Lyudmila Morozova
RIA Novosti

Russia, Cambodia and Sierra Leone have decided to fight against poaching seriously. Owing to agreements concluded by the Russian Fishing Agency, the so-called “flags of convenience” under which the owners of ships of some countries sail their ships to reduce expenses have lessened. Cambodia and Sierra Leon agreed to include the trawlers registered under their flags in the international register. This means that sailing ships under the flags of these countries has ceased to be suitable for poaching.

Sailing ships under foreign flags is quite common among the owners of trawlers. This makes it possible for them to sell their catch without red tape and paying large sums in taxes and customs duties only at the ports in South-East Asia. Ships under “flags of convenience” basically sail towards these ports.

Until recently, the ship owners preferred to sail their ships under the flags of Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Belize or Panama. In fact this was not so costly. To register a ship under, say Cambodia or Sierra Leone flag costs from 3 to 5 thousand U.S. dollars. The package of registration documents can be acquired any where, including at Russian ports and even in Moscow.

Cambodia's flag of "convenient SHAME"

Cambodian vessel detained in Russia for poaching

Moscow, July 25 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Russian border guards have detained a Cambodia-flagged vessel suspected of poaching crab in Russian waters, officials said Monday.

A border guards spokesman said the vessel was detained in the Sea of Okhotsk.

The fishing vessel Nardin with 18 Russian crew members onboard attempted to escape after it was discovered by the border guards.

After a six-hour pursuit, a Federal Security Service aircraft joined in and forced the suspected poachers to stop.

Four poaching vessels detained near Sakhalin [... all flying Cambodia's flag of convenience]

Jul 1, 2011
Ria Novosti (Russia)

Four poaching ships sailing under the flag of Cambodia have been detained near Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East by border guards over the past few days.

According to the FSB of the Russian Federation agents discovered more than 40 tons of illegally caught live crabs in the holds of the ships.

The captains and all of the poachers on board will be prosecuted.

In recent months, the border guards on Sakhalin Island have detained more than 20 ships which have violated Russian law.

Russia suspicious of [Cambodia-flagged] ship's SOS call

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Jan. 10 (UPI) -- No trace has been found of a fishing boat that sent out a distress signal off Russia's Far East, but the SOS may have been a hoax, an official said Monday.

The Cambodian-flagged schooner Partner sent out the signal off the west coast of Sakhalin Friday, the Uglegorsk police chief, Sergei Bushuyev, told ITAR-Tass. The coastline was searched by sea and land, but nothing was found and the hunt was called off.

Andrei Krainiy, head of the Russian Federal Agency for Fishery, told reporters in Moscow the ship was poaching, and "if the vessel did sink, it is impossible to find traces, but there is another version. The ship gave a false distress signal to escape to some port in the Asia-Pacific Region, most likely to Japan, be repainted and renamed, get a new package of documents and set off fishing as a new schooner."

Russia mounts air, land and sea search for [Cambodia-flagged] trawler in Far East

08/01/2011
RIA Novosti (Russia)

Two boats, a helicopter and 14 land vehicles are searching for a trawler last heard from off the coast of Sakhalin in Russia's Far East, a regional emergencies spokesman said on Saturday.

The Cambodia-flagged Partner, which has a Russian crew, issued a distress signal on Friday when it was near the western coast of Sakhalin. It had been fishing in the Tatar Strait between the island and the Russian mainland.

"A Mi-8 helicopter from the Sakhalin company Aviashelf is conducting aerial reconnaissance in the area where the distress signal was issued. There are two ships combing the area where the distress signal was issued," the Sakhalin Region Emergency Situations Ministry official said.

4 deaths in a ship flying Cambodia flag of convenience

4 Chinese killed in cargo ship fire off S.Korean coast: Chinese consular officials

January 07, 2011
Xinhua

Four Chinese were killed in a fire on a Cambodia-flagged cargo ship off South Korea's southeastern coast, Chinese consular officials told Xinhua Friday.

The fire broke out on the ship at around 6:50 a.m. Friday (2150 GMT Thursday) when the 1,412-ton Yunxing was anchoring in Busan port, South Korea's largest port located in the southeastern coast, consular officials said.

5 Killed after Ships Collide off Northeast China [-Another ship bearing Cambodia's flag of convenience involved]

2010-06-20
Xinhua

Five sailors drowned and two more were missing after a Cambodian freighter collided with a Panamanian cargo ship and sank off northeast China's Liaoning Province early Sunday morning.

Nine crew members were aboard the Cambodia-registered "Haijung" when the accident happened at 1:47 a.m. Sunday on seawaters off Lushun, a district of Dalian City, the municipal maritime affairs bureau said.

Bodies of four sailors - three Burmese and one citizen from the Republic of Korea (ROK) - were recovered while a Burmese crew member died after being pulled from the water.

The "Jingfeng" crew saved two other crew members, an Indonesian and a Burmese.

The ROK captain and an Indonesian sailor were still missing.

"Jingfeng" arrived at Dalian Port Sunday afternoon.

Rescuers are still searching for the missing sailors.

The sunken freighter, about one tenth the size of the Panamanian cargo ship, was carrying 2,000 tonnes of sodium carbonate (soda).

According to the Cambodian freighter's shipping agency, the non-toxic sodium carbonate does not pose a threat to the environment.

Two schooners flying Cambodia flag detained near Sakhalin

VLADIVOSTOK, June 11 (Itar-Tass) - The fishing schooners Tairy and Seiko flying the Cambodian flag have been detained for poaching near Sakhalin. Coast guard inspectors found on the schooners 8.5 tonnes of live snow crab, and the captains of the vessels had no permission for the catch.

The public relations group of the Sakhalin coast guard department of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that the poacher schooners were detained in the eastern part of the La Perouse Strait on June 10. In 2009, the same schooners had already been caught poaching when 16.5 tonnes of crab were found on them. Both vessels are currently under investigation.

An Indonesian body found in Yellow Sea [after collision with a ship flying Cambodia's flag of convenience]

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Seoul/Incheon (ANTARA News) - South Korea`s Coast Guard on Saturday discovered the body of a second crew member from a fishing boat that sank in the Yellow Sea while returning from a search for clues to last week`s naval disaster.

The body, found floating 50 kilometers southwest of Daecheong Island, has been identified as that of 35-year-old Yusuf Haaefa of Indonesia, a crew member aboard the 99-ton Kumyang 98 fishing boat that sank late Friday, the Incheon Coast Guard said.

The fishing boat, with a crew of nine including two Indonesian nationals, was one of several vessels employed by authorities to help search for evidence that could shed light on why the 1,200-ton Navy corvette Cheonan sank on March 26 near the maritime border with North Korea.

The Taiyo-1 -- a Cambodian-registered freighter -- has been detained by authorities in relation to the sinking of the South Korean fishing boat. Earlier in the day, the Coast Guard found the body of 55-year-old crew Kim Jong-pyong not far from where the latest recovery was made.

The Coast Guard is currently using helicopters and patrol boats to search for the other members of the Kumyang 98 crew, with the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to pitch in with three fishing control vessels.

The Navy, meanwhile, said it discovered the hull of the ill-fated fishing boat 48 kilometers southwest of Daecheong and attached a marker buoy to identify it location.

Collision between a Cambodia-flag cargo ship and a S.Korean fishing boat searching missing sailors

S.Korea Navy loses contact with fishing boat searching missing sailors

SEOUL, April 2 (Xinhua) -- South Korean Coast Guard lost contact late Friday with a fishing boat conducting search operation for missing sailors of a sunken warship in the Yellow Sea. The Coast Guard said it was feared sunken, according to Seoul 's Yonhap News Agency.

The Coast Guard said it received a signal of distress sent by the 100-ton fishing boat at around 20:30 p.m. local time (1130 GMT) .

A search and rescue mission was launched by the Coast Guard and the Navy immediately after receiving the distress call, but they have yet found the ship, reports said.

The ship, with 9 crew members onboard, might have sunken as the rescue group only spotted a belf of oil in the area, according to the Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard suspected that the boat "Kumyang 98" went down after it collided with a passing-by Cambodia-flag cargo ship, while returning from the search operation for 46 missing sailors of the Navy ship "Cheonan" that sank last Friday night near the South Korean island of Baekryeongdo off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula due to an unexplained explosion, reports said.

The Coast Guard and the Navy currently are pursuing the cargo ship.

HC orders arrest of Cambodian ship

Mar 2, 2010
TNN (India)

CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Monday ordered the arrest of a foreign vessel, M V Lady Alla, flying the Cambodian flag and now lying at the outer anchorage of the Nagapattinam port in Tamil Nadu, after two of its senior crew members complained that the ship's owners had not paid wages to the crew.

Acting on an application from Ukrainian nationals Kozak Pavlo and Palagin Dmtro, who have filed a suit for recovery of dues worth $11,993 and for arrest and sale of the vessel, Justice G Rajasuria said a prima facie case had been made out for ordering the arrest of the ship. He ordered the court registry to take steps to issue a warrant. The case was posted to March 8.

In their application for the ship's arrest, Pavlo and Dmtro, said the vessel was owned by Shipping and Trucks Company Ltd, London. The owners were in arrears of payment towards wages for the plaintiffs for several months. Besides, others in the 16-member crew on board the vessel had also not been paid wages, they said.

The ship arrived at Nagapattinam port on February 11, 2010 carrying a cargo of China clay for discharge at the port. Despite being promised that they would be paid before the vessel reached Nagapattinam, the owners failed to pay wages to the plaintiffs. As a result, they were unable to send money to their families, they said. The vessel was not being maintained properly, and it was becoming unseaworthy day by day. The crew were also not provided with food and water, they said. According to their information, the ship's arrest has earlier been ordered by the Bombay high court in two different suits.

As allowing the vessel to sail away without the crew receiving their wages would cause irreparable loss and hardship to them, the applicants wanted the ship to be arrested.

Nagapattinam port authorities had said the vessel entered the port illegally.

After finding that the crew were suffering from want of food and water, the authorities arranged for water, meat and vegetables to be ferried to the vessel, with the crew bearing the cost.

Cambodia ship held by court, not taken by Somalis

Sat Jan 30, 2010

HARGEISA (Reuters) - A Cambodian vessel reportedly hijacked off Somalia instead was detained in the Somaliland port of Berbera on court orders, a port official said on Saturday.
The Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Programme earlier in the week had said the MV Layla-S had been hijacked after discharging its cargo in the breakaway northern enclave of Somaliland last year.

However, assistant chief of Berbera port Bile Hirsi said the ship was held after a local businessman, whose goods were destroyed in a fire on board another ship that belongs to the owners Layla-S, asked the court to detain it.

"The ship is in Berbera port by the order of the regional court of Berbera, because Abdillahi Omar -- a businessman who had a lot of merchandise on the ship that burned outside the port last October -- made a complaint to the regional court and the court ordered that the ship should remain in the port," he said.

Bile said the businessman wanted compensation for merchandise destroyed in the Maria Star fire.

Somaliland, which declared itself independent in 1991, is proud of its relative stability compared with the south of Somalia, where hardline Islamist rebels control large amounts of territory and are battling a weak Western-backed government.

Somali Pirates Hijack Cambodian Cargo Ship

January 28, 2010

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Somali gunmen hijacked a Cambodian cargo ship, the MV Layla-S, off Berbera after it unloaded at the port in the breakaway northern enclave of Somaliland, a regional maritime official said Thursday. "Crew members on board the ill-fated vessel are ... Pakistani, Indian, Sri Lankan, Somali and Syrian nationals," Andrew Mwangura of the Mombasa, Kenya-based East African Seafarers' Assistance Program said in a statement.

"It is said that the vessel has a link with Syrian and UAE businessmen. We are informed that she was taken by gunmen after discharging her cargo." The hijacking appeared to have happened Wednesday, but few other details were immediately available. The seizure came a week after Somali pirates freed a Greek-flagged tanker carrying 2 million barrels of oil for a record ransom.

Somaliland, which declared itself independent in 1991, is proud of its relative stability compared with the south of Somalia, where hardline Islamist rebels control large amounts of territory and are battling a weak Western-backed government.

Worldwide, piracy attacks rose by nearly 40 percent last year, with Somali gangs accounting for more than half the 406 reported incidents, the International Maritime Bureau says.

Typically, pirates from the failed Horn of Africa state hold the captured ships and crews hostage until ransoms are paid.

The International Chamber of Shipping, which represents 75 percent of the global seaborne industry, said this month that it felt deepening frustration at the international community's "impotence" in combating growing piracy in the Indian Ocean.

(Reporting by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Cambodian Ship Hijacked From Gulf of Aden

2010-01-27
IndiaServer.com

According to a top maritime authority, a Cambodian cargo ship, MV Layla S has been hijacked off the Somalian port of Berbera in the Gulf of Aden on Wednesday. It is said that there might be some Indians apart from Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Somalian and Syrian nationals.

As per the information received from the Directorate-General of Shipping (DGS), the vessel is believed to be owned and managed by Al Hufoof, an agency based in either Syria or the United Arab Emirates. However, the details of the crew members are still awaited.

The DGS said that the ship was overpowered by the miscreants after the cargo was offloaded at Berbera Port.

It is also reported that, the owner of that ship has already abandoned the crew and hence, the crew members might have been held in captivity since the past few days.

The DGS has already informed about the incident to the concerned authorities including the Coast Guard and Indian Navy.

Cambodia-flagged ship rescued, arrives in Russia's Far East port [-Another ship flying Cambodia's flag of "shameful" convenience]

VLADIVOSTOK, January 3,2010
RIA Novosti (Russia)

Cargo ship with 24 Russians on board stranded in Sea of Japan

The Cambodia-flagged cargo ship with 24 Russians on board, which had been stranded in the Sea of Japan, arrived in Russia's Far East port of Vladivostok on Sunday, a local sea rescue center official said.

The MV Victor freighter carrying a shipment of Japanese-made cars transmitted a distress signal shortly after leaving the Japanese port of Otaru for Vladivostok on Thursday.

On Friday, two Russian tugboats arrived at Victor's location about 40 nautical miles from the Russian coast to tow the ship in distress to the nearest port.

A Russian coast guard patrol vessel earlier arrived in the area to monitor the ship's condition and to ensure the safety of 19 crew members and five passengers.

A rescue operation was successfully carried out despite high waves and a severe snow storm, which swept over the Sea of Japan.

"On Sunday, at 9:30 a.m. local time (23:30 GMT, Saturday), the Victor arrived in the port of Vladivostok," the spokesman said.