Rescuers search waters for accident survivors

Rescuers search waters for accident survivors

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): About 38 people were missing and feared
drowned on Saturday after a fiber glass boat crammed with at
least 80 people capsized in the Straits of Malacca on its way
from Indonesia to Malaysia, maritime officials said.

Rescuers from both countries have recovered eight bodies and
rescued 34 people so far and news reports said most of the
missing passengers - many of them women - may have drowned in the
rough seas.

The boat was hit by strong waves after it left Dumai on the
Indonesian island of Sumatra and went down close to the Malaysian
shore on Wednesday night. Passing merchant vessels noticed some
of the survivors and alerted marine police on Friday.

At least 27 Indonesians have been rescued by the navy and
fishing boats, said an Indonesian navy officer, Sgt. Mulyadi who,
like many Indonesians, uses one name. Seven others were rescued
by Malaysian boats.

Seven bodies were found by Indonesian rescuers while Malaysian
police discovered the body of a woman within the wreckage of the
boat, which was later towed to the nearby coastal town of Port
Dickson, about 60 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysian and Indonesian officials say between 73 to 80 people
were crammed in the fiberglass fishing boat, the kind often used
by poor Indonesians to sneak into Malaysia to find employment.

"The search and rescue is still going on. We've alerted all
merchant ships that are passing by the Straits of Malacca to be
on the lookout for survivors or bodies," said S. Arumugam, an
officer at Kuala Lumpur's Maritime Rescue and Coordinating
Center.

Arumugam said many survivors may have reached the shores
safely without the knowledge of the authorities.

"Because they are illegal immigrants, they might have tried to
make their own way back to Indonesian shores."

Malaysian police said search operations, suspended Friday
night, had resumed soon after dawn Saturday but no survivors or
bodies had been found until midday.

Three Malaysian marine police boats were involved in the
search, Abdul Rahman Mahamud, police chief of Port Dickson town,
was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.

Saturday's Malaysian dailies, quoting survivors, said the boat
was carrying about 100 people and at least 90 of them may have
drowned.

Six of the seven people who were rescued by Malaysian boats
had been admitted to a hospital near Port Dickson. All of them
were later brought to a district police station for questioning.

"Once investigations are over, they will be sent over (to) the
immigration office for deportation next week," said police
spokesman Khairuddin Harahap.

Cumbani, a woman survivor from East Java, told reporters that
the boat left Dumai for Malaysia late Tuesday but turned back
after it developed engine trouble. It capsized several hours
later.

"I don't know what happened to the others after the boat
overturned. Probably many died," said Cumbani. "I managed to
cling onto the boat."

She said she saw eight passengers who had been clinging to the
hull being swept away by strong waves.

"We saw them being washed away and screaming for help," The
Star daily quoted her as saying.

Malaysia, a country of 22 million, employs nearly 2 million
foreign workers, mostly from Indonesia. Thousands of Indonesians
also work illegally in Malaysia, mostly as house maids and
construction laborers.

Police routinely arrest illegal immigrants and deport them
across the 70-kilometer (44-mile) strip of water that separates
peninsular Malaysia from Indonesia's Sumatra island.