Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Indonesia boat tragedy: 55 Quetta youth missing at sea
By Shehzad Baloch
Published: December 20, 2011
QUETTA:
The crew and captain of an Indonesian boat – packed with illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran – grabbed life vests and swam away as it sank during a heavy storm, leaving more than 200 passengers missing, including 55 people belonging to Quetta’s Hazara community.
Surviving asylum seekers said terrified passengers on the boat that was heading for Australia were left to drown as it broke apart in stormy seas about 90 km off the coast of Java (Indonesia) on Saturday.
“The captain and six crew members took the life vests and started swimming away,” 18-year-old Pakistani national Saed Mohammad Zia told the Daily Telegraph.
According to elders of the Hazara community in Quetta, there were a total of 70 people from the Shia community onboard the ship — all illegal immigrants hailing from Quetta’s Alamdar Road aged between 19 and 22 years.
Meanwhile, Indonesian rescuers found 15 people alive on Monday in the area where the boat capsized, raising hopes of more survivors. Survivors found on a dinghy 100 km from the capsize are receiving medical treatment in a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Jember city in eastern Java and most cannot walk, an AFP correspondent said.
“I got on the boat in Java to go to Australia. After six hours in rough conditions, the boat capsized, and rescuers only found us days later,” another Pakistani survivor Muhammad Mehdi told AFP at the shelter.
The fibreglass vessel had a capacity of 100 but was carrying about 250 migrants – mostly Pakistanis, Afghans and Iranians – when it sank on Saturday, 40 nautical miles off eastern Java.
Back home
“I was informed by one of my relatives that my brother is missing along with 55 other people from Quetta after stormy tides hit the boat,” said Mehdi, who only gave his last name.
“I talked to my relatives who escaped unhurt and swam to the shore last night. They said 15 people are alive and they contacted their families in Quetta while the rest are still missing.” Quetta resident Nasir Ali said his brother Khadim Hussain was also alive and was admitted in a hospital in Jakarta.
“The boat was overloaded with over 250 people, including children and women,” Nasir told The Express Tribune, quoting his brother who he spoke to on Sunday.
Those escaping unhurt uploaded their photographs on Facebook and other websites in order to inform their families that they were still alive.
According to one of the survivor’s families, 30 people on average leave for Australia solely from Alamdar Road, an area dominated by the Hazara community and Shia Muslims in Quetta.
“We were just praying to God that someone would help us. We thought it was the last of our life story,” said Esmat Adine, 24, from Afghanistan.
“People were dying in front of us. The bodies were lying in front of us in the water, women and children mostly,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
How the immigration process works
Explaining the procedure of illegally migrating to Australia, Nasir Ali said his brother first travel to Thailand and then to Malaysia.
“An agent takes around $5,000 on arrival in Indonesia. Then the agent is paid $4,500 when the client reaches Australia,” he said.
Another member of the Hazara community told The Express Tribune that Shia Muslims, particularly Hazara people, show themselves as Afghan nationals in Indonesia in order to get Australian nationality citing threats to their lives in Afghanistan.
Rahem Jafferi, Ferhan’s cousin who is one of the missing illegal immigrants, said:
“A man can easily earn Rs0.5 million every month in Australia. Five boats left for Australia from Indonesia out of which four boats reached safely.”
Quetta region Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Assistant Director Sultan Afridi said most of the people travel to Thailand or Malaysia with valid travelling documents.
“The FIA cannot arrest people or stop them from travelling as long as they possess valid documents. We did, however, arrest two agents recently and their cases are in courts,” he said.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP, REUTERS)
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2011.
Published: December 20, 2011
QUETTA:
The crew and captain of an Indonesian boat – packed with illegal immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran – grabbed life vests and swam away as it sank during a heavy storm, leaving more than 200 passengers missing, including 55 people belonging to Quetta’s Hazara community.
Surviving asylum seekers said terrified passengers on the boat that was heading for Australia were left to drown as it broke apart in stormy seas about 90 km off the coast of Java (Indonesia) on Saturday.
“The captain and six crew members took the life vests and started swimming away,” 18-year-old Pakistani national Saed Mohammad Zia told the Daily Telegraph.
According to elders of the Hazara community in Quetta, there were a total of 70 people from the Shia community onboard the ship — all illegal immigrants hailing from Quetta’s Alamdar Road aged between 19 and 22 years.
Meanwhile, Indonesian rescuers found 15 people alive on Monday in the area where the boat capsized, raising hopes of more survivors. Survivors found on a dinghy 100 km from the capsize are receiving medical treatment in a temporary shelter on the outskirts of Jember city in eastern Java and most cannot walk, an AFP correspondent said.
“I got on the boat in Java to go to Australia. After six hours in rough conditions, the boat capsized, and rescuers only found us days later,” another Pakistani survivor Muhammad Mehdi told AFP at the shelter.
The fibreglass vessel had a capacity of 100 but was carrying about 250 migrants – mostly Pakistanis, Afghans and Iranians – when it sank on Saturday, 40 nautical miles off eastern Java.
Back home
“I was informed by one of my relatives that my brother is missing along with 55 other people from Quetta after stormy tides hit the boat,” said Mehdi, who only gave his last name.
“I talked to my relatives who escaped unhurt and swam to the shore last night. They said 15 people are alive and they contacted their families in Quetta while the rest are still missing.” Quetta resident Nasir Ali said his brother Khadim Hussain was also alive and was admitted in a hospital in Jakarta.
“The boat was overloaded with over 250 people, including children and women,” Nasir told The Express Tribune, quoting his brother who he spoke to on Sunday.
Those escaping unhurt uploaded their photographs on Facebook and other websites in order to inform their families that they were still alive.
According to one of the survivor’s families, 30 people on average leave for Australia solely from Alamdar Road, an area dominated by the Hazara community and Shia Muslims in Quetta.
“We were just praying to God that someone would help us. We thought it was the last of our life story,” said Esmat Adine, 24, from Afghanistan.
“People were dying in front of us. The bodies were lying in front of us in the water, women and children mostly,” he told the Daily Telegraph.
How the immigration process works
Explaining the procedure of illegally migrating to Australia, Nasir Ali said his brother first travel to Thailand and then to Malaysia.
“An agent takes around $5,000 on arrival in Indonesia. Then the agent is paid $4,500 when the client reaches Australia,” he said.
Another member of the Hazara community told The Express Tribune that Shia Muslims, particularly Hazara people, show themselves as Afghan nationals in Indonesia in order to get Australian nationality citing threats to their lives in Afghanistan.
Rahem Jafferi, Ferhan’s cousin who is one of the missing illegal immigrants, said:
“
Quetta region Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Assistant Director Sultan Afridi said most of the people travel to Thailand or Malaysia with valid travelling documents.
“The FIA cannot arrest people or stop them from travelling as long as they possess valid documents. We did, however, arrest two agents recently and their cases are in courts,” he said.
(WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM AFP, REUTERS)
Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2011.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Sydney dad desperately waiting for news of son missing on asylum seeker boat in Java
Gemma Jones The Daily Telegraph December 20, 2011 11:32AM
Sayed Nawruz holds a photo of his missing son Sayed Nazim in his Auburn home. Picture: Brett Costello Source: The Daily Telegraph
A SYDNEY father was desperately waiting for news about his missing son yesterday, two days after the asylum seeker boat he was on sank off Java.
Sayed Nazim, 24, called his wife Amina in Pakistan last week, telling her he was about to board the vessel for the start of what he hoped would be their new life in Australia.
Relatives in Auburn in Sydney's south west said he boarded with his friend Mohamed Zia, who was one of 34 people rescued.
"Mohamed called Pakistan and said Nazim was missing," his cousin Sayed Zahidi said.
"He last saw him on the ship and then the ship sunk and he lost Nazim.
"He called Pakistan. He said 'Nazim is lost."
His father Sayed Nawruz was distraught yesterday.
Mr Nawruz came to Australia by boat from Pakistan two years ago himself, Mr Zahidi said.
AUSTRALIA's borders are open to asylum seekers arriving by boat but closed to refugees waiting in queues, survivors of the disaster say.
A FURTHER 13 survivors and two crew members have been found after an overcrowded boat sank in
UPDATE: A further 18 survivors of the asylum seeker boat disaster have been found by a coal ship off an island in Indonesia's Jember region.
The family are Hazaras and claim they faced persecution or even death in their homeland.
Mr Zahidi said he was desperately trying to get a visa for himself and Mr Nazim's father to visit Indonesia but he had been knocked back.
Department of Foreign Affairs officials were assisting him yesterday.
"We want to access and see what is happening," he said.
Mr Nazim was travelling alone but had hoped his wife could join him in Australia.
"He was coming as a refugee, as a Hazara somebody could have killed him," his cousin said.
The family was yesterday gathered at Mr Zahidi's Auburn home and plan to visit Indonesian Consulate General in Sydney this morning.
Sydney refugee advocates expect more families will learn relatives are missing.
The Department of Immigration also expects some of those already in detention will know some of the hundreds of asylum seekers feared drowned in Saturday's disaster.
Officials have been preparing to support detainees.
The Telegraph
A SYDNEY father was desperately waiting for news about his missing son yesterday, two days after the asylum seeker boat he was on sank off Java.
Sayed Nazim, 24, called his wife Amina in Pakistan last week, telling her he was about to board the vessel for the start of what he hoped would be their new life in Australia.
Relatives in Auburn in Sydney's south west said he boarded with his friend Mohamed Zia, who was one of 34 people rescued.
"Mohamed called Pakistan and said Nazim was missing," his cousin Sayed Zahidi said.
"He last saw him on the ship and then the ship sunk and he lost Nazim.
"He called Pakistan. He said 'Nazim is lost."
His father Sayed Nawruz was distraught yesterday.
Mr Nawruz came to Australia by boat from Pakistan two years ago himself, Mr Zahidi said.
AUSTRALIA's borders are open to asylum seekers arriving by boat but closed to refugees waiting in queues, survivors of the disaster say.
A FURTHER 13 survivors and two crew members have been found after an overcrowded boat sank in
UPDATE: A further 18 survivors of the asylum seeker boat disaster have been found by a coal ship off an island in Indonesia's Jember region.
The family are Hazaras and claim they faced persecution or even death in their homeland.
Mr Zahidi said he was desperately trying to get a visa for himself and Mr Nazim's father to visit Indonesia but he had been knocked back.
Department of Foreign Affairs officials were assisting him yesterday.
"We want to access and see what is happening," he said.
Mr Nazim was travelling alone but had hoped his wife could join him in Australia.
"He was coming as a refugee, as a Hazara somebody could have killed him," his cousin said.
The family was yesterday gathered at Mr Zahidi's Auburn home and plan to visit Indonesian Consulate General in Sydney this morning.
Sydney refugee advocates expect more families will learn relatives are missing.
The Department of Immigration also expects some of those already in detention will know some of the hundreds of asylum seekers feared drowned in Saturday's disaster.
Officials have been preparing to support detainees.
The Telegraph
Deep interest
By Soumik Dey
Story Dated: Monday, December 19, 2011 14:4 hrs IST
It was nothing less than a diplomatic coup. Cocking a snook at the rival Chinese, hostile Pakistanis and murderous Taliban, and beating American and Iranian bidders, an Indian consortium has bagged three of the world's richest iron ore mines in the Bamiyan mountains of Afghanistan. The bid is awaiting a cabinet clearance for a $7.5 billion assistance from the Indian government.
The Hajigak mines in Bamiyan district, famous for the 6th century Buddha statues that the Taliban destroyed in 2001, store about 1.7 billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore. The consortium, called Afghan Iron and Steel Company and led by public sector steel giant SAIL, will get more than 1.28 billion tonnes of it. Exploiting blocks B, C and D in the mines would require a net investment of $10.8 billion over the next three years.
The consortium has sought a soft loan to set up mining facilities in Hajigak. “This would likely amount to $1.5 billion,” said a steel ministry official. Another soft loan of $6 billion is being sought to set up a 6.2-million-tonne capacity steel plant, a 800MW power plant and a 200km railroad link to an Iranian port.
SAIL and public sector companies NMDC Ltd and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd will hold 56 per cent stake in the project, and private players JSW, Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Ispat and Monnet Ispat and Steel the remaining. A team of experts from SAIL, NMDC and JSW will visit the project site this month. Mining will start next year, and the money will be needed over the next three years.
Once the consortium gets the nod, it will raise $75 million on its own to geologically map the three mining blocks. The steel ministry has already okayed the proposal and is awaiting formal clearance from the ministries of finance and external affairs. “We are expecting a cabinet note on this very soon, after which the finance ministry would specify the terms and conditions for the soft loan,” said a steel ministry official.
The project can change the fortunes of the war-torn area. About one per cent of the profit is to be earmarked for setting up medical and education facilities for the local people. “Negotiations are also going on with the Afghanistan government for fixing royalty contracts for mining iron ore in the area,” said C.S. Verma, chairman, SAIL. “They are optimistic and are very hopeful of the project creating a large number of employment opportunities.”
Once a hotbed of Taliban activities, Bamiyan is safer now and is inhabited by the Hazara tribes who have been friendly towards India. Most of these people were part of the Northern Alliance which fought against the Taliban and had received medical help from India. Hundreds of Hazara fighters have been treated in the Farkhor military hospital that India had set up on the Tajik-Afghan border. The Afghanistan government has also promised that it would engage the NATO forces, the India-trained Afghan Mines Protection forces and the Afghan National Police to provide security.
The consortium, however, is not willing to take any chances. It has demanded that the Indian government bear all damage costs in case of any adverse event at the project site. In its charter for aids, the consortium has also sought immediate relief from the government to minimise production losses or delays in execution of the high-value project.
THE WEEK
Story Dated: Monday, December 19, 2011 14:4 hrs IST
The Hajigak mines in Bamiyan district, famous for the 6th century Buddha statues that the Taliban destroyed in 2001, store about 1.7 billion tonnes of high-grade iron ore. The consortium, called Afghan Iron and Steel Company and led by public sector steel giant SAIL, will get more than 1.28 billion tonnes of it. Exploiting blocks B, C and D in the mines would require a net investment of $10.8 billion over the next three years.
The consortium has sought a soft loan to set up mining facilities in Hajigak. “This would likely amount to $1.5 billion,” said a steel ministry official. Another soft loan of $6 billion is being sought to set up a 6.2-million-tonne capacity steel plant, a 800MW power plant and a 200km railroad link to an Iranian port.
SAIL and public sector companies NMDC Ltd and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd will hold 56 per cent stake in the project, and private players JSW, Jindal Steel and Power, JSW Ispat and Monnet Ispat and Steel the remaining. A team of experts from SAIL, NMDC and JSW will visit the project site this month. Mining will start next year, and the money will be needed over the next three years.
Once the consortium gets the nod, it will raise $75 million on its own to geologically map the three mining blocks. The steel ministry has already okayed the proposal and is awaiting formal clearance from the ministries of finance and external affairs. “We are expecting a cabinet note on this very soon, after which the finance ministry would specify the terms and conditions for the soft loan,” said a steel ministry official.
The project can change the fortunes of the war-torn area. About one per cent of the profit is to be earmarked for setting up medical and education facilities for the local people. “Negotiations are also going on with the Afghanistan government for fixing royalty contracts for mining iron ore in the area,” said C.S. Verma, chairman, SAIL. “They are optimistic and are very hopeful of the project creating a large number of employment opportunities.”
Once a hotbed of Taliban activities, Bamiyan is safer now and is inhabited by the Hazara tribes who have been friendly towards India. Most of these people were part of the Northern Alliance which fought against the Taliban and had received medical help from India. Hundreds of Hazara fighters have been treated in the Farkhor military hospital that India had set up on the Tajik-Afghan border. The Afghanistan government has also promised that it would engage the NATO forces, the India-trained Afghan Mines Protection forces and the Afghan National Police to provide security.
The consortium, however, is not willing to take any chances. It has demanded that the Indian government bear all damage costs in case of any adverse event at the project site. In its charter for aids, the consortium has also sought immediate relief from the government to minimise production losses or delays in execution of the high-value project.
THE WEEK
Rescuers find 13 on island off East Java
Tom Allard in East Java, Kirsty Needham
December 20, 2011
Despite losing his wife and son Dawood Waladbegi says he would try again. Photo: Getty Images
AT LEAST 13 people have been found and rescued on an island 200 kilometres from where a boat crammed full of asylum seekers suddenly capsized and foundered. Remarkably they stayed alive for almost two days after the disaster unfolded off the coast of East Java.
Amar, a search and rescue officer at nearby Jember, said 13 were picked up yesterday, discovered by a tugboat that had been scrambled as part of an intensive operation on air and sea by Indonesian authorities to find anyone who was missing.
The survivors were "tired, stressed and bruised" but otherwise uninjured, Amar said. They had been taken to a hospital for treatment, he added.
Searching for his nephew … Sayid Abas Sultani. Photo: Kate Geraghty
Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities believe they have found two of the Indonesian crew from the boat. They were discovered at 10am near Sendang Biru, a town on the coast of East Java. One was unconscious, the other in a state of high anxiety, said Sutrisno, the head of the East Java search and rescue agency. They are now in hospital in Malang.
The rescue means at least 47 people have survived the disaster. It is a rare slither of good news for the grieving survivors picked up earlier and now under guard in temporary accommodation at a Blitar hotel, Grand Mansion.
Dawood Waladbegi, an Iranian man at the Grand Mansion, is consumed by grief and desperately hoping for signs his wife, two children, brother and family may have survived although the odds are they have died.
But even as he frets and sobs, he stops to state that he would catch another boat to Australia if the opportunity arose.
"We will continue this way again. We will go again by boat. Let the Australian government know that," he says through an interpreter. "I lost all my family members. I have no one here. I don’t want this life."
Nursing an injured leg and unimaginable torment, the decision seems simple. Mr Waladbegi's brother Kamran lives in Melbourne. Life in Iran has been a nightmare and with the prospect of detention in Indonesia he talks about a hunger strike and his fears of being killed.
Such sentiment is widespread among the 32 traumatised and confused Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers staying at a hotel in Blitar, two hours' drive from where they were brought ashore by Indonesian fishermen who discovered them 40 nautical miles off the coast.
Interviewed by Australian Federal Police and Indonesian authorities, all they want to know is what comes next. Is it possible they could be flown to Australia? Maybe the US or New Zealand could take them?
Esmat Adine, 24, an ethnic Hazara who speaks fluent English and used to work for the US government's aid organisation in Afghanistan, says Australia's policy towards asylum seekers is unfair. Those who catch a boat to Australia are resettled quickly. Those who do not make it, or apply through official channels, are denied.
Why, then, he asks, ''does Australia not close the border?''
''We will do again. Because we have nothing. If we are going to die, our responsibility will be
with the Australian government.'' Mr Adine says he tried repeatedly though official channels in Kabul to apply to go to Australia as a refugee.
''They just sent me an email that I should apply in 2013 or 2014. I cannot … my life was in serious danger but nobody would answer me.''
Mr Adine was one of the few survivors from below decks. He climbed out a window and, being a strong swimmer, found his way to some debris to hold on to.
Mr Waladbegi was asleep near the captain's quarters. He watched as the crew evacuated in a small dinghy but could not reach his loved ones amid the screaming and chaos.
About 80 of the 250 people on board got off the boat before it sank, but barely half survived.
Australia has sent a navy boat from Christmas Island, and an Orion surveillance plane, to help with the search and rescue operation. Federal police also interviewed survivors amid suspicions that the accused people smuggler Sayeed Abbas - now in prison awaiting extradition to Australia - was involved.
Survivors were shown pictures of known smugglers and two were taken away for questioning by Indonesian police.
The whereabouts of the Indonesian crew - who abandoned the boat before it foundered, according to accounts by survivors - remain unknown.
In Sydney yesterday, Sayid Abas Sultani said he planned to fly to Indonesia today to look for his Hazara nephew Sayeed, 27. Mr Sultani's brother-in-law, Mohamed Riza Almeri, survived the sinking but has lost five friends and family. The family comes from Ghazni in Afghanistan, and Mr Sultani, who came to Australia in 2000, said the situation was worsening for Hazaras. ''Everyone is leaving.''
He did not know his brother-in-law was coming to Australia until he received the phone call yesterday saying the boat had sunk. While the boat journey was dangerous, so was staying in Afghanistan, he said.
The Melbourne family of Dawood Waladbegi is distraught. His brother Kamran says although Dawood survived, his one-year-old son Daniel is lost, as is his wife, Samana, 24. Another brother Mohamed is dead along with his six-year-old son. ''Please help me,'' cried their sister Somya in the Melbourne home. ''Two brothers, two children, all dead.''
The family came to Australia in March. Another brother is in the Curtin detention centre. ''Our family is in Australia because my country, Iran, is no good. It is very bad,'' says Kamran Waladbegi.
Back in Java, Mr Adine describes the boat's last moments. ''All of us felt that it was the end of our life story. We were seeing everywhere died bodies,'' he says. ''Someone was shouting, 'Oh God. If you are the human's God, help us now'.'' His survival was ''a miracle''. Even so, as he surveys his bleak prospects, he is not sure his prayers have been answered.
SMH
December 20, 2011
AT LEAST 13 people have been found and rescued on an island 200 kilometres from where a boat crammed full of asylum seekers suddenly capsized and foundered. Remarkably they stayed alive for almost two days after the disaster unfolded off the coast of East Java.
Amar, a search and rescue officer at nearby Jember, said 13 were picked up yesterday, discovered by a tugboat that had been scrambled as part of an intensive operation on air and sea by Indonesian authorities to find anyone who was missing.
The survivors were "tired, stressed and bruised" but otherwise uninjured, Amar said. They had been taken to a hospital for treatment, he added.
Searching for his nephew … Sayid Abas Sultani. Photo: Kate Geraghty
Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities believe they have found two of the Indonesian crew from the boat. They were discovered at 10am near Sendang Biru, a town on the coast of East Java. One was unconscious, the other in a state of high anxiety, said Sutrisno, the head of the East Java search and rescue agency. They are now in hospital in Malang.
The rescue means at least 47 people have survived the disaster. It is a rare slither of good news for the grieving survivors picked up earlier and now under guard in temporary accommodation at a Blitar hotel, Grand Mansion.
Dawood Waladbegi, an Iranian man at the Grand Mansion, is consumed by grief and desperately hoping for signs his wife, two children, brother and family may have survived although the odds are they have died.
But even as he frets and sobs, he stops to state that he would catch another boat to Australia if the opportunity arose.
"We will continue this way again. We will go again by boat. Let the Australian government know that," he says through an interpreter. "I lost all my family members. I have no one here. I don’t want this life."
Nursing an injured leg and unimaginable torment, the decision seems simple. Mr Waladbegi's brother Kamran lives in Melbourne. Life in Iran has been a nightmare and with the prospect of detention in Indonesia he talks about a hunger strike and his fears of being killed.
Such sentiment is widespread among the 32 traumatised and confused Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers staying at a hotel in Blitar, two hours' drive from where they were brought ashore by Indonesian fishermen who discovered them 40 nautical miles off the coast.
Interviewed by Australian Federal Police and Indonesian authorities, all they want to know is what comes next. Is it possible they could be flown to Australia? Maybe the US or New Zealand could take them?
Esmat Adine, 24, an ethnic Hazara who speaks fluent English and used to work for the US government's aid organisation in Afghanistan, says Australia's policy towards asylum seekers is unfair. Those who catch a boat to Australia are resettled quickly. Those who do not make it, or apply through official channels, are denied.
Why, then, he asks, ''does Australia not close the border?''
''We will do again. Because we have nothing. If we are going to die, our responsibility will be
with the Australian government.'' Mr Adine says he tried repeatedly though official channels in Kabul to apply to go to Australia as a refugee.
''They just sent me an email that I should apply in 2013 or 2014. I cannot … my life was in serious danger but nobody would answer me.''
Mr Adine was one of the few survivors from below decks. He climbed out a window and, being a strong swimmer, found his way to some debris to hold on to.
Mr Waladbegi was asleep near the captain's quarters. He watched as the crew evacuated in a small dinghy but could not reach his loved ones amid the screaming and chaos.
About 80 of the 250 people on board got off the boat before it sank, but barely half survived.
Australia has sent a navy boat from Christmas Island, and an Orion surveillance plane, to help with the search and rescue operation. Federal police also interviewed survivors amid suspicions that the accused people smuggler Sayeed Abbas - now in prison awaiting extradition to Australia - was involved.
Survivors were shown pictures of known smugglers and two were taken away for questioning by Indonesian police.
The whereabouts of the Indonesian crew - who abandoned the boat before it foundered, according to accounts by survivors - remain unknown.
In Sydney yesterday, Sayid Abas Sultani said he planned to fly to Indonesia today to look for his Hazara nephew Sayeed, 27. Mr Sultani's brother-in-law, Mohamed Riza Almeri, survived the sinking but has lost five friends and family. The family comes from Ghazni in Afghanistan, and Mr Sultani, who came to Australia in 2000, said the situation was worsening for Hazaras. ''Everyone is leaving.''
He did not know his brother-in-law was coming to Australia until he received the phone call yesterday saying the boat had sunk. While the boat journey was dangerous, so was staying in Afghanistan, he said.
The Melbourne family of Dawood Waladbegi is distraught. His brother Kamran says although Dawood survived, his one-year-old son Daniel is lost, as is his wife, Samana, 24. Another brother Mohamed is dead along with his six-year-old son. ''Please help me,'' cried their sister Somya in the Melbourne home. ''Two brothers, two children, all dead.''
The family came to Australia in March. Another brother is in the Curtin detention centre. ''Our family is in Australia because my country, Iran, is no good. It is very bad,'' says Kamran Waladbegi.
Back in Java, Mr Adine describes the boat's last moments. ''All of us felt that it was the end of our life story. We were seeing everywhere died bodies,'' he says. ''Someone was shouting, 'Oh God. If you are the human's God, help us now'.'' His survival was ''a miracle''. Even so, as he surveys his bleak prospects, he is not sure his prayers have been answered.
SMH
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