Refugees blame people smugglers in boat tragedy

Refugees blame people smugglers in boat tragedy

Annastashya Emmanuelle, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

Grief has turned to rage and bitterness for the middle eastern
refugees here who lost family members and friends when their
vessel, bound for Australia's Christmas Island, capsized in the
Java Sea on Friday.

Most of them blamed the traffickers, who they claimed to have
forced them at gun point to board the unseaworthy boat despite
their protests over its obviously poor condition.

"When I see these people again I will kill them with my own
hands..," Sadeeq Razak, an angry Iraqi, told The Jakarta Post.

"Because of them, I lost almost everything that matters to
me," he said while trying to calm his two-year-old daughter
Kautsar who had been crying constantly.

Another migrant, Jalal Mohsen, who had cousins killed in the
accident, identified the smugglers as Abo Kossi, an Egyptian
national, Kaled and Maytham from Iraq and three Indonesians whose
name he could not recall.

Abo Kossi is apparently the man identified by the authorities
as Abu Kasim, who is believed to be the mastermind of the human
smuggling operations in collusion with others throughout
Indonesia.

A total of 418 asylum-seekers -- most of whom were from Iraq,
while the rest were escaping oppressive situations in
Afghanistan, Palestine and Algeria -- boarded a boat which was
supposed to take them from Bandar Lampung on Sumatra, to
Christmas Island.

International refugee agencies had earlier reported that as
many as 30 passengers on the ill-fated voyage had already been
officially approved to receive refugee status, and sent to a
third country. However, that country was not necessarily going to
be Australia, which was the intended destination last week.

They left on Thursday morning under clear skies, but as night
fell, so did the rain. It poured into the boat unceasingly and
the tiny ship was tossed around by waves. Three hours later the
bilge pump failed as the engine died, and seawater filled the
boat.

"People on the boat were shouting 'We're going to die!'.. as
the boat listed radically to starboard, then completely turned
over with many people trapped inside," an Iraqi woman, Amal
Hassan, said.

"Some were thrown into the sea by powerful waves including me
and my son... I watched the others drowning with the boat," Amal
said as tears flowed.

While others were clinging to flotsam, Amal's 19-year-old son
swam to her and told her that he would like to kiss her goodbye
for the last time.

"He was so convinced that we would all die... but I told him
that we must have faith and told him to hang on to his piece of
flotsam," she told the Post.

Later, Amal said, her son took a life jacket worn by a
deceased woman who was floating near them, and put it on her.

He took another life jacket from a lifeless boy and wore it
himself while clinging to a piece of wood.

"The amount of life jackets on board was not near enough to
cover even half of us," Amal recalled with disgust.

Meanwhile, Kautsar, who was put on her father's shoulder,
witnessed her mother gasping for air in the turbulent water
before she finally let go of her piece of the shattered boat and
drowned.

"My wife and I were both clinging to some wood to stay afloat
while at the same time I was trying to keep Kautsar on my
shoulders," Sadeeq said through a translator.

After drifting in the water for about 30 hours, 44 people were
rescued by passing fishermen who later notified the police over
the radio.

The survivors were then taken to Jakarta, and were greeted by
the police and doctors who immediately began administering first-
aid to the survivors.

They were eventually taken back to Wisma Palar in Bogor, and
the Villa Ragal in Cisarua, West Java, which are being used as
holding facilities while their refugee claims are processed.