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Greece traces route of seized ship
ATHENS, Greece (CNN) -- A ship packed with explosives may have veered off course from Tunisia to Sudan before it was seized by Greek special forces, officials believe. Greek merchant marine minister Giorgos Anomeritis said the cargo of the Baltic Sky was "tantamount to the power of an atomic bomb." Greek forces boarded the ship Sunday after it entered its waters following a tip from undisclosed sources that it was acting suspiciously. About 680 tonnes (750 U.S. tons) of explosives and 8,000 detonators were discovered on board. The ship's documents showed the cargo was destined for a company in Sudan, but the address proved to be a post office box. A Tunisian company said late Monday it filed a complaint with Tunisian authorities against the owner the vessel, The Associated Press reports. The Tunisian Explosives and Munitions Company (SOTEMU) said in a statement that it had a contract to deliver the explosives, intended for civilian use, with Integrated Chemicals and Development, a Sudanese company based in Khartoum in Sudan. The transaction was approved by Sudanese authorities, SOTEMU said. The Tunisian company accuses the Baltic Sky of diverting the cargo from its original route and threatening not to deliver the cargo to its correct destination, AP reports. The statement said the vessel headed toward the Black Sea on May 21 and left those waters on June 2. SOTEMU said it notified Tunisian authorities on June 6 that the ship had veered from its course.
A source at the Tunisian Justice Ministry confirmed that the complaint had been received and that an investigation had been opened, according to AP. In Sudan, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said the shipment was approved by the government and was destined for "a number of Sudanese institutions" through a company owned by a Sudanese man named Essam Bakry al-Khalifa. "I am going to hand those documents to the Greek ambassador in Sudan," the official news agency SUNA quoted him as saying. The statement provided no details on al-Khalifa's company, the possible uses for the ship's cargo or why the ship did not travel directly to Sudan. The captain and six crew members, from the Ukraine and Azerbaijan, have been detained and charged by Greek authorities with illegal possession and transfer of explosives. No terrorism charges were filed, and the prosecutor gave the captain and crew 48 hours to contest the charges against them. Sudan is on a U.S. list of states accused of sponsoring terrorism despite the country trying to show it is cracking down on militants. Anomeritis said the ship was carrying TNT, but shipping documents provided by Greek officials described the cargo as a commercially manufactured ammonium nitrate-based explosive known as ANFO, which is often used in mining and construction, AP said. Baltic Sky had left Albania on April 22 on its way to Gabes, Tunisia, where it picked up the cargo on May 12. It then sailed around the Mediterranean where it had been spotted by Turkish officials near the Dardanelles. Greek authorities began tracking the vessel during the past five days before launching the raid Sunday. Rear Adm. George Papachristodoulou of the Greek Coast Guard officials wanted to know what the ship was doing in the waters between Turkey and Greece when it was supposed to be delivering its cargo. The 37-year-old cargo ship, owned by Alpha Shipping, had been sailing under a flag of convenience from Comoros, off Africa's southeast coast. Alpha is registered in the Marshall Islands, a Pacific Ocean nation. Baltic Sky was escorted by the Greek coastguard to the commercial port of Playiyali on the Greek west coast. While it was not unusual for cargo ships to carry explosives, this quantity was "extremely rare," said Merchant Marines spokesman Panayotis Tsianos. Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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