Hostages eat scorpions and mice to survive incarceration by pirates
Taiwanese among 26 men freed after almost five years
TAIPEI // Hostages were forced to eat mice, scorpions and centipedes to survive during the nearly five years they were held by Somali pirates. Shen Jui- chang, one of 26 Taiwanese seamen freed from among the crew of the Naham 3, which was seized south of the Seychelles in March 2012, said a gun was often pointed at his head during his ordeal.
Mr Shen, the chief engineer on the fishing boat, was reunited with his wife and daughter yesterday in Guangzhou, southern China, after flying from Kenya with Chinese crew members after they were freed on Sunday.
An emotional Mr Shen arrived at Taipei’s main airport yesterday afternoon and said he was in very poor physical health. “Every day was nerve-racking. The pirates pointed their AK-47 rifles at me 24 hours a day,” the frail sailor said. Mr Shen said the hostages were given little to eat during their four and a half years in captivity and were sometimes denied water.
The crew, which included seamen from Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, were taken hostage at the peak of Somali piracy. Only one oth- er crew of fishermen has spent longer in the hands of Somali pirates.
Three hostages died during the hijacking of the Naham 3, including the Taiwanese captain who Mr Shen said was shot when he attacked the pirates with a chair. Taiwan’s government has been criticised for not doing enough to secure the release of the hostages.