After 388 days, pirates free couple

Associated Press

NAIROBI, Kenya

The retired British couple were sailing the world on a 38-foot-yacht that represented most of their life savings when Somali pirates captured them last year, demanding the sort of huge ransom a multimillionaire or a multinational company might cough up.

The fact that Paul and Rachel Chandler couldn’t pay a big ransom helped stretch out their ordeal 388 agonizing days — until Sunday, when they were released thin and exhausted, but smiling. It was one of the longest and most dramatic hostage situations since the Somali piracy boom began several years ago.

The Chandlers were welcomed by the Somali community close to where they had been held, and later met with the Somali prime minister in Mogadishu. A private jet then flew them to Nairobi’s military airport, where they were whisked away in a British Embassy vehicle.

“We are happy to be alive, happy to be here, desperate to see our family, and so happy to be amongst decent, everyday people, Somalis, people from anywhere in the world who are not criminals, because we’ve been a year with criminals, and that’s not a very nice thing to be doing,” Rachel Chandler said at a news conference in Mogadishu.

She also said in a BBC interview that their captors beat them during their captivity after deciding to separate the couple.

“We were really distraught, very frightened at that point,” Mrs. Chandler said. “We refused to be separated, and we were beaten as a result. And that was very traumatic.”

When asked about their health, she said, “We’re OK.”

Pirates boarded the Chandlers’ yacht the night of Oct. 23, 2009, while the couple were sailing from the island nation of Seychelles. The couple, married for almost three decades, took early retirement about four years ago and were spending six-month spells at sea. They had sailed to the Greek islands, Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, Oman, Yemen, India and the Maldives.

They could not make it through the dangerous waters of East Africa, where pirate attacks have spiked the last several years. Despite an international flotilla of warships and aircraft, pirates continue to prowl the Indian Ocean seemingly at will, pouncing on pleasure craft, fishing vessels and huge cargo ships using small skiffs, automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

Somali pirates still hold close to 500 hostages and more than 20 vessels. The pirates typically only release hostages for multimillion-dollar ransoms.

But unlike the companies who own large transport ships, the Chandlers are far from rich. Paul Chandler has been identified in the British media as a retired construction site manager, while Rachel has been described as an economist.

Pirates had initially sought a $7 million ransom. The Chandler family said Sunday that during protracted discussions with pirates that it was “a difficult task” to convey that Paul and Rachel were “two retired people on a sailing trip on a small private yacht and not part of a major commercial enterprise.”

Repeated efforts to free the couple by the Somali diaspora, the weak Mogadishu-based government and Britain had failed over the last year until, the family said, “Common sense finally prevailed.” The family said it would not comment on questions about payment to the pirates, so as not to encourage the capture of other private individuals.

Conflicting reports from Somali officials about the Chandlers’ release said there was either a $300,000 ransom for “expenses” or a $1 million ransom that the Somali diaspora helped pay.

A spokeswoman for Britain’s Foreign Office said the ministry wasn’t immediately able to comment on the release, but it has always insisted that the British government never pays ransom.

British Prime Minister David Cameron called the Chandlers’ release “tremendous news.”

“Their long captivity is over at last,” he said. “I unreservedly condemn the actions of those that held the Chandlers for so long. Kidnapping is never justified.”