Megawati to donate rescue boat

DENPASAR, Bali: President Megawati Soekarnoputri is slated to give a 22-meter rescue boat to the Bali search and rescue (SAR) team in order to help the body to perform its daily tasks.

"The proposed donation was conveyed recently by Minister of Communications Agum Gumelar," said chairman of SAR Bali I Ketut Parwa.

The boat will be handed over by the government to the SAR body in December this year.

Parwa did not provide details on the boat, simply that it was sophisticated. He said that five members of SAR Bali would be dispatched immediately to Jakarta, to learn how to operate it.

Parwa said that Megawati promised the boat after she learned that the SAR team had limited equipment for rescuing people who went missing in Bali waters.

He said Megawati was impressed when the SAR team rescued one of two participants of the jet ski world championship event Bali International Offshore 2002 who went missing during the function in January last year, despite limited equipment.

The SAR team had no dedicated boat for search and rescue purposes. -- Antara