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A
Remembrance Gathering |
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We must remember all those who lost their lives, their loved ones, their dignity and hope in the process of seeking safety and security in Australia; it shames us all. We must continue to call for refugee policies based on human rights, justice, compassion and a fair go. We hope you can join with us at this remembrance.
The SIEV-X incident occurred during the 2001 Australian Federal election campaign. The Tampa affair had focused national attention on the issue of border protection and boat people. Prime Minister John Howard had made plain his policy of preventing people smuggling into Australia via Indonesia. The Howard Government had issued instructions to the Australian Federal Police AFP) to prevent any illegal immigrants from reaching Australia. The AFP set about a campaign of disruption by organising people smugglers to operate with overcrowded and dangerous boats, in the hope of ensuring any boats that did leave Indonesia would not reach Australia. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIEV-X The
SIEV-X story in brief:
These people, mostly refugees from Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, had traveled in some instance for years in search of somewhere safe to live their lives. Many of the women and children were on the boat because their husbands had come on ahead to Australia, only to be caught in our changing political tide and locked in detention, or a newly-devised Temporary Visa system which took away their rights to re-unite with their familes. Left without support, these mothers and young children were easy prey for people smuggling operators. Apart from that, it was perfectly natural for them to want to be re-united with their husbands and fathers, sooner rather than later.
Armed Indonesian military supervised the boarding. A patrol boat escorted the leaky vessel out of the port of Lampong. Another sped by the vessel later that day. As the boat got into difficulties, passengers heard a twin engine plane overhead and set fire to clothing to try and signal for help.
The people of SIEV-X were brave people, trying to give their children a decent life. They could so easily have been safely living among us now, their kids at school with ours. In a modern era, with planes going overhead, satellites, radar, GPS, such a mediaeval tragedy should never have been allowed to happen. And in an era of serious climate change, when millions more refugees will be created in coming decades, we need to have systems in place to manage this more competently. The SIEV-X Memorial takes a simple first step. It says - these lives were sacred. We won’t forget them. Over a thousand Australians, most of them children but also churches and community groups from every corner of the country, have made something beautiful, haunting, and full of power, to try and bring about a better Australia. http://www.SIEV-Xmemorial.com/the-memorial.html We hope your life will be enriched and your heart moved by visiting the SIEV-X memorial. It’s one of the most hopeful sights in Australia. The name SIEV-X is a naval acronym, standing for Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X – or unknown. The navy applied numbers to over ten vessels it intercepted around this time. SIEV-X was not numbered by the navy, but given the number X by Australian diplomat Tony Kevin who first queried the official account of the sinking. |
| Photos by Paul Dunn |
It
was widely believed that the Australian government was implicated in this
tragedy which occurred just weeks after the Tampa affair. Instead of honoring
our international obligations to provide a safe haven for asylum seekers,
Australia was implementing harsh policies to deter people from seeking
refuge in our country. 
SIEV-X
stands for Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X (the X means “unknown”).
It is the name, coined by Tony Kevin, commonly used to refer to a dilapidated
Indonesian fishing boat that was en-route from Sumatra to Christmas Island
carrying over 400 asylum seekers. It sank in international waters on 19
October 2001, just south of the Indonesian island of Java, killing 353
people, mostly women and children. The tragedy was politically controversial
in Australia, as it occurred during an election campaign at a time when
asylum seekers and border protection were major issues.
"Like
birds on the water." That’s how one survivor described the sight
of over 300 bodies of fathers, mothers and children, scattered over kilometres
of ocean when the sun came up on 20 October 2001.
Crowded
onto a fishing boat only 19.5 metres long, packed so tightly that teenagers
had to climb on the roof, and mothers hold children on their laps, the
passengers were terrified even before they left port. One man attempting
to take his family off was pistol whipped and forced back.
When
the engine failed in heavy seas, the SIEV-X tipped over and sank. Over
a hundred people survived the sinking, but no rescue came through a whole
afternoon and night. But something appalling and inexplicable took place;
reported by all survivors later to United Nations interviewers in Jakarta.
Two large military vessels arrived in the night, shining spotlights on
the water. A Zodiac style boat was launched. The people in the water started
calling and swimming towards the lights, but the boats restarted their
engines and sailed away. Dozens more people died, some giving up in despair
and just allowing themselves to drown.
Eventually,
the next day, after 20 hours in the water, fishing boats came across survivors,
including Faris Kadhem a father whose wife and seven year old daughter
had drowned, and Amal Basry, a mother who had lost sight of her teenage
son when a big wave dragged them apart. Both begged the fishermen to search,
and about forty more survivors were eventually found. Amal’s teenage
son was among those found alive. But 353 others had died, either in the
original sinking, or during the long night without rescue. Rescuers reported
an awful sight, the body of a tiny baby, born during the nightmare of
the sinking, still joined by its umbilical cord to its dead mother, afloat
in the water.