German captain defies Polish warning shots on Baltic (Roundup)

Oct 19, 2006, 17:34 GMT

Berlin - The Polish coastguard fired several shots with a signalling pistol this week as a German ship carrying 45 passengers fled to avoid confiscation of its stock of alcohol and cigarettes.

The captain of the Adler Dania, Heinz Arendt, said three to four shots had been fired Tuesday from the pursuing Polish patrol vessel while it was about 10 metres abeam of the Adler Dania. He alleged real bullets were used.

Marine Border Guard spokesman Tadeusz Gruchala told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, 'Polish officials fired green warning flares ordering the captain to stop the vessel, which he did not.'

Both Germany and Poland were at pains Thursday to avoid recriminations about the incident. Germany's Foreign Office said it and German interior officials were trying to settle the matter quickly 'in the spirit of good-neighbourly relations.'

Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrzej Sados declined comment, saying the incident was in the jurisdiction of Poland's border guard.

The operators of the Adler Dania, a floating shop which offers cheap goods from international waters, have been in dispute for years with Polish customs about the validity of the sales.

Three undercover Polish customs officers on the Adler Dania to investigate possible tax infringements were taken back to Germany against their will and had to return home by land.

This could be described as a 'mini-kidnapping,' said Marek Wieruszewski, consul for legal affairs at the Polish embassy in Berlin, but the incident had 'in no way' caused international tension.

The Adler Dania turned and ran just before it was to the berth in Swinoujscie, Poland, 12 kilometres from its home port of Heringsdorf.

The Sven Paulsen shipping company said it refused the order to stop because the Polish officers lacked European Union identity cards.

Alwin Mueller, the company's manager in Heringsdorf, said, 'The captain turned back because he had to protect his cargo, passengers and crew.' The trips to Poland would resume Friday with another vessel. 'We won't give up,' said Mueller. 'We're not at war.'

Gruchala told dpa, 'The captain has failed to provide a reasonable explanation why he did not stop for inspection after the signal in accordance with maritime regulations.' Both the captain and vessel would be detained the next time they entered Poland.

The captain could be fined for breaching maritime regulations.

Neither government spoke loudly about the incident Thursday.

Germany and Poland were at odds earlier this year over plans to build an undersea gas pipeline from Russia, bypassing Poland, and over a Berlin exhibition by ethnic Germans expelled from Poland after the Second World War.