Motorboat missing with 37 people on board

Motorboat missing with 37 people on board

PALU, Central Sulawesi (JP): As many as 30 passengers and
seven crew members were reported missing and feared dead when the
motorized sailing boat Lestari Abadi carrying them from Wani Port
in Palu to Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, in June never reached its
destination.

The vessel -- which was authorized to transport goods -- was
owned by a man identified as Saini. The boat set sail from Wani
Port at 11 p.m. on June 18 and should have arrived at the port in
Balikpapan on June 21.

Reports on the ill-fated ship surfaced only on Monday when
relatives of some of the passengers went to the Central Sulawesi
legislative council to demand information about the missing
vessel.

Three of the relatives, Kadir, Darso and Weli Lanake, told a
member of the council's Commission A, Muhlis Agung, that the
legislature was their last resort after their questions to the
Wani Port authority went unanswered for more than a month.

"I cannot believe that the port authority remained silent
about the fate of that many people," Muhlis said after meeting
with the three.

The head of the port, Sumadji, denied the allegations on
Tuesday, saying he had ordered his men to search for the missing
ship soon after the vessel's owner reported in June that it had
failed to arrive in Balikpapan.

With no publicity, Sumadji said he sent two teams of searchers
into the waters around Tolitoli regency. "The teams returned
without any results."

"Now a third team is tracing the route of the ship in the
waters of eastern Malaysian and the southern Philippines. We are
waiting for a report from the third team," said Sumadji.

He said the Lestari Abadi was carrying 129 cows, 100 goats,
three tons of corn and three tons of rice when it left Wani Port.

"Tamrin, the captain, did not report the number of people on
board," Sumadji said, confirming that the vessel was not a
passenger ship.

The head of the Central Sulawesi provincial office of the
Ministry of Communications, M. Suseba, said on Tuesday he was
shocked when a legislator phoned him to ask about the missing
vessel.

"We deeply regret this incident. Why didn't the port authority
report to us about the ship? I believe that the port authority
thought that he was not obliged to report such a fatal accident
to the provincial level." (24/sur)