Seven yacht crew released but boat burned

7:30 PM Fri 3 Jul 2009 GMT

'Pirates burned yacht because insufficient ransom paid' .

Last week there was rejoicing for the seven sailors who were released unharmed by Somali pirates and flew home to the Seychelles. However, celebrations turned darker when it was discovered that the pirates had burned their yacht because insufficient ransom monies had been paid.

The maritime research vessel Indian Ocean Explorer was captured by Somali pirates between March 28 and 31 in the Indian Ocean. The seven crew members returned home on Tuesday.

'We set fire to it three nights ago,' said Abdullahi Qaaray, a member of the pirate group who acted as an interpreter during the ransom negotiations.

'We had asked the owners for a million dollars but in the end he paid us only 450,000 dollars,' he told AFP by phone from a village near Haradhere.

'We said we would burn the ship because he was refusing to pay all the ransom. And the owner told us that we could sink it or burn it... We used some fuel and set it on fire, the ship is sunk now, you cannot even see it anymore.'

Qaaray said that destroying the ship was a decision made by the pirates to ensure the vessel could not be recovered.

Abdi Ganey, one of the gunmen in the pirate group, also confirmed the ship was destroyed.

'We released the hostages after an agreement was reached but the owners were really reluctant to negotiate,' he told AFP. 'They paid us a small amount and there was no way they were getting the ship, it had to go.'

Officials in Somalia confirmed that the ship was destroyed.

The release of the ship and the crew is generally negotiated as a whole.