Crtd 06-04-01 Lastedit 15-09-14

Report By Captain on Malima TZ Police Raid

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In the Morning we left Bwiru bay Mwanza.
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We reached Etintama
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We reached Bugombe
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We reached Bukoba town 14:00 and went North to the border.
At 19:00 we anchored to sleep at the Tanzanian Duwafu peninsula less than 1 kilometer from the border.

Map: Positions of boat and of "Mr. Malima & His Camp"

At 20:00 we were approached by a TZ Police patrol boat. They asked where we were going. We told we were sailing a Tanzanian ship to its Ugandan owner in Jinja. Police was satisfied and the patrol boat moved away.
Then the patrol boat returned. Police ordered a mooring line, boarded us and ordered me to board the patrol boat.
Then, they took off with me and went on patrol. I was searched, my knife was taken from me. It was never returned. The patrol went on all night.
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They told me they could release me if I could pay money.
I told them I had TSh 40 000/= on board.
They said this was not enough. They wanted half a million.
At 08:00 hrs police took me to the boat. They took all the boat's documents.
They checked the seaworthy certificate and claimed they needed their money because there was no rescue boat, the fire extinguisher was in a box, not mounted, and the hull number had not yet been painted.
Then they returned to their camp, taking me, 1 crew and all papers. 5 crew stayed behind on the ship.
I repeated I had no more money and I could not pay.
While he held us there, Mr. Malima raised his ransom demand: "Tell your client to bring one million".
At 15:00 hrs 2 crew went off the boat to search for me and my 1 crew companion. They joined me at police.
On being asked, I told the police that the Ugandan resident owning the boat was a European. Police got very much afraid. They turned to me aggressively and reproached me with hiding that fact.
I answered I just had not been asked about it.
Police retired nervously for meeting.
On return I was ordered to cross, with 1 crew, both of us without our passports, to Kasanssero beach Uganda side and retrieve ransom from the boat owner. I left at 16:00 hrs with a fish boat, 3 operators unaware of the situation and 2 crew. We arrived 18:00 hrs. in Kasanssero. We did not find the owner. We called him and learned he had gone back to Masaka.
I heard from the owner that in the period we were in Kasanssero he received more than 10 times an SMS from a previously unknown cell phone number +255745389138 "we are held by TZ police WHERE ARE YOU????". My comment is  that we had called the owner from Kasanssero by land line only, because we had no GSM coverage on our Tanzanian SIM cards. So we were not the ones sending all those messages.
Now here in Kasanssero it is my expectation that TZ Police Mr. Malima & His Camp will release the boat if we pay him half a million Tanzania shillings.

All this I am ready to testify to any police or legal authority.