Graft often compromises marine safety, experts say
Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Corrupt officials frequently allow grossly overloaded
ferries and ships without adequate safety equipment to
leave seaports, shipping experts say.

"Ship captains usually bribe harbor masters at
seaports in order to get sailing permits although they
don't meet transportation safety requirements," public
transportation observer Agus Pambagyo said.

"Just look at the (many) vessels sailing in the
nation's straits and oceans. It's easy to tell they
are not well-maintained," he said.

Last Friday, the Senopati Nusantara ferry sank in the
Java Sea in rough seas, with more than 600 people on
board. More than 400 of them are still missing. The
vessel was licensed to carry 850 people.

Preliminary investigations indicate more lives could
have been saved if safety regulations were properly
observed on board, officials have said.

Under the 1992 Law of the Sea, captains are
responsible for the safety and security of ships and
their passengers.

Harbor masters are supposed to scrutinize ships
sailing permits and seaworthiness.

They are also supposed to check ships' nautical
equipment, radios, total loads, passenger numbers and
crew.

Captains granted permits must sail within 24 hours or
apply for new documents.

Agus said regional autonomy laws prevented the central
government through the sea transportation directorate
general to take action against negligent harbor
masters.

The Indonesian Transport Community (MTI) confirmed
many sea accidents in the country involved overloaded
vessels, and that many of them, particularly those
involving medium-sized boats, were often not reported
to the central government.

"There is more demand for sea trips than the supply of
ships or ferries. This has encouraged the captains to
neglect safety measures because of overloading," MTI
chairman Bambang Susantono said Friday.

Bambang said that most seaports lacked an effective
mechanism to control passengers boarding the ships
without tickets.

Other vessels changed their functions, loading
passengers or cargo without official permission,
Bambang said.

However, sea transportation director general Harijogi
denied reports overloaded vessels were common in
Indonesian waters.

Passenger numbers had dropped at seaports because
people were choosing to fly on budget airlines
instead, "... and to be more precise in analyzing the
seaworthiness of a vessel, we need a better system.
Seaports in Singapore and Malaysia for example have
been using an electronic system to issue sailing
permits," Harjoji said.

To increase passenger safety, the directorate would
issue temporary travel warnings if bad weather or
terrorism threatened voyages, he said.

"We realize that safety is a necessity and not just an
obligation. In November we issued a bad weather
warning to all ship captains."



Missing passengers' relatives desperate one week later
Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

Yuni Lalatu rushed up to a group of television
journalists reporting on the Senopati Nusantara
sinking with a picture in her hand.

"This is my husband's photo. Please show it on TV.
I've been looking for him in Semarang and now here in
Surabaya," the 32-year-old said at the Pelabuhan
Hospital in Surabaya, East Java Friday.

Yuni has heard nothing of her husband, 40-year-old
crew-member Akirahito, an Indonesian of Japanese
descent, a week after the ferry sank with 628 people
on board, on its way to Semarang, Central Java, from
Kumai in Central Kalimantan.

The seven-month pregnant woman left her rented home in
Semarang on a bus early this week to discover her
husband's fate.

She joined a crowd of grieving relatives of the ship's
missing passengers, searching for her husband's name
among the lists of survivors and the dead.

Yuni is determined to wait until Akirahito is found,
dead or alive.

"I and my unborn child will wait for news about him. I
don't care if it's raining or stormy outside, I don't
care about being tired, of waiting in uncertainty; I
want my husband. Even if he's dead, it's fine. I just
want to give him a proper burial," she said.

Occasionally Yuni has moments of hope, like when she
sees other families meeting their relatives.

"I will stay in Surabaya, even if I have to stay a
long time. I don't know what will happen to me when my
husband is gone. I'm pregnant," Yuni said and began to
weep.

Ani Lihawa, the 49-year-old mother of crew-member Andi
Akuba, 25, is also waiting until she knows of her
son's fate.

"We don't need money and donations. We just want
attention. Since the ship sank, no one has came and
apologized for the disaster," she said.

On Friday, a group of survivors -- 15 from the
Senopati and another 14 from another shipwreck, the
cargo ship KM Karlina Indah that sunk last week --
were picked up by the Navy's KRI Layang from waters
near Kangean Island, around 120 kilometers north of
Bali.

Survivor Nadi Hadi Soetrasno told ElShinta radio he
was depressed after failing to save a 5-year-old boy,
AFP reported. He was swept away by waves hours before
the Navy arrived.

The survivors had crowded onto a life raft and
survived on rainwater, he said.

"We were all on the crowded life raft waiting for help
but the first person to die was the boy's father,"
Soetrasno said, AFP reported. His mother drowned
shortly afterwards.

He said he had tied the boy's leg to a float but a
huge wave washed him away.

"A huge wave suddenly hit the raft we were on and it
was too powerful and I could not save the child
anymore ... Just three hours later a Navy ship came to
our rescue and I really regret not being able to save
the child."

Another survivor, 7-year-old Armansyah Putra, has
spent days clinging to a Conoco Phillips oil rig
platform along with 12 others before being rescued
Wednesday.

The escape was miraculous one as survivors in life
rafts were carried by strong winds and waves some 300
kilometers from where the ship was thought to have
sunk.

Apart from a blistered and sunburnt back, the boy
looked little the worse for his ordeal, after
reportedly drinking or eating nothing but a few sips
of sea water, saying he survived with the help of
others.

"When the ship was sinking, they asked us all to
remain calm," he told MetroTV from his bed in the
Soetrasno Hospital in Central Java, AFP reported.

"I tried to grab on to a float but I could not ... the
ferry was swaying ... I did not know anything. In the
end I was saved by people around me."



Search for ferry's passengers moves to waters off Bali
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta, Surabaya

Searches for missing passengers on the Senopati
Nusantara ferry that sank with more than 600 people on
board were expanded to waters off Bali on Friday as
more survivors were picked up from the sea a week
after the disaster.

"At this moment the search and rescue efforts have
expanded to East Java, including the straits of Bali,"
Central Java provincial rescue coordinator Eko
Prayitno told AFP.

"This is because of the currents, which are moving
with a speed of two-point-five to three miles per
hour. Those afloat would have also moved further east,
so our search has expanded to Bali today (Friday)."

Eko said the Navy ships conducting searches near
Madura Island, off East Java, were on the move Friday.

"We have also asked ships passing through Mandalika
(where the ferry sank) and Bali to help in the rescue
efforts."

The ill-fated Senopati Nusantara sank last Friday
along with 628 people on board on its way to Semarang,
Central Java, from Kumai in Central Kalimantan.

Around 228 survivors have been picked up from the
rough seas.

On Friday, two new groups of survivors -- 15 from
Senopati and 14 from another ship that sank, the KM
Karlina Indah -- arrived in Surabaya.

The 15 survivors from the Senopati were picked up by
fishermen Wednesday but taken to nearby Kangean Island
for medical treatment. They and passengers from the
Karlina were brought to the Pelabuhan Hospital in
Surabaya Friday on board the Navy's KRI Layang.

Two other survivors were airlifted to the hospital by
helicopter.

Karlina Indah owner Udi, 50, was grateful the ship's
crew of 16 were all safe. The vessel, which was
traveling from West Kalimantan's Pontianak to Central
Java's Juwana port, sank last Friday at roughly the
same time as the Senopati.

"I'm so grateful they all survived in the sea without
food and water. They're all my relatives so it's hard
for me to imagine losing them altogether at the same
time," Udi said.

A boy among the Karlina's survivors, Mohammad
Rohmadin, 12, said he wanted to go back home to
Kalimantan where he attends elementary school.

"I'll share my story surviving in the sea without food
and water for five days with my teachers and friends,"
he said.

More than 220 survivors of the ferry, including the
Senopati's captain, Wiratno, have been picked up from
the seas Friday, but at least 400 are still missing.

Eko said the search would continue for missing
passengers.

"Today was supposed to be the seventh and last day of
the search and rescue operation, but the President has
instructed us to continue the search and we are quite
optimistic that we can find more survivors," he told
AFP.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono earlier told
searchers to carry on their work indefinitely. After
the 2004 tsunami, people were found alive after
floating on rafts for up to three weeks.

The location of the Senopati's wreck is still unknown
and officials say the Navy will not begin searching
for it with sonar until the weather improves.

Government investigator Ruth Simatupang told AP on
Thursday she suspected the waves washed into the car
deck and became trapped there, causing the vessel to
capsize.




__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com