FED:Christmas Island to reflect on tragedy

AAP General News (Australia)
12-19-2010
FED:Christmas Island to reflect on tragedy

By Bonny Symons-Brown

CANBERRA, Dec 19 AAP - The first memorial service for victims of last week's fatal
Christmas Island boat accident will be held before all their bodies are found.

Thirty asylum seekers, including 13 men, nine women, four children and four babies,
perished when their wooden boat hit rocks and shattered in heavy seas early Wednesday
morning.

A private memorial service organised by representatives of the survivors group, in
conjunction with immigration officials and an Islamic leader, was to take place on Sunday
afternoon (local time).

Further services are planned for Monday and beyond.

Although protests involving more than 100 distressed asylum seekers broke out on Christmas
Island on Friday, immigration department spokesman Peter Richards said he wasn't expecting
further action, just a "dignified, respectful" observance.

"It's a very difficult time for the survivors but for also other people within the
detention facilities," he said.

"There are a number that we've identified, for example, that have relatives amongst
this group (of deceased)."

Adding to their misery is the process of being interviewed and asked to formally identify
the victims.

Australian Federal Police Superintendent Gavan Ryan said that "excruciating" task was
under way, with about 15 bodies named so far and the rest expected to be identified soon.

"Some people react in different ways but it is an extremely traumatic thing to do," he said.

"It is very traumatic for everyone: everyone in the hospital, obviously, for the survivors,
the people who are there at the viewing."

Supt Ryan said he believed more bodies could be in underwater caves near the crash
site, but conceded the search for victims may be called off before they are all found.

"We are hoping by the end of tomorrow to have a definite answer of how many people
are missing," he said.

Supt Ryan said bad weather played a significant role in what led to the tragedy.

"I have no information from the survivors, or any other information, that the engine
was sabotaged in any way," he said.

However, a brief of evidence implicating the boat's crew in criminal offences is being
prepared and charges may be laid.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen said counselling services were being offered to asylum
seekers on Christmas Island.

"We have flown in extra counsellors ... Those people in detention who have lost loved
ones, they are the particular focus of that counselling," he told reporters in Sydney.

Welfare group Life Without Borders was helping young people and orphans from the tragedy,
Mr Richards said, while immigration officials and police were trying to identify them
and find their families.

"At this stage, our focus is very much around the immediate health and welfare of this
group," he said.

"The issues around asylum and what eventually will happen with the survivors, including
the orphans, is something that it's too early for us to speculate (on)."

Meanwhile, the political fallout from the accident continues, with Opposition Leader
Tony Abbott saying it was time policies cracking down on people smuggling were implemented.

"There's no one change that will of itself stop the boats from coming, but there is
a range of policies that have been proven to work and we need to go back to (them)," he
said.

Mr Abbott advocated a return to temporary protection visas, offshore processing at
the Nauru detention centre and turning boats around when it was safe to do so.

"In the last five years of the Howard government's life, we had three boats a year,
not three boats a week," he said.

"Obviously, there is far less capacity for tragedy if there are far fewer boats and
far fewer people coming in them."

However, Nationals Senate leader Barnaby Joyce warned politicians against using the
tragedy as a policy springboard.

"(The public) will be very reticent if you try to use (the accident) as some sort of
moral bulwark or leverage to try and change the policy agenda to an issue about immigration,"

he told Sky News.

"It's self-evident that if you go and try and pin this one personally to someone in
Australia, no matter who that is, inside or outside the political field, then people will
call you for it."

AAP bsb/cdh

KEYWORD: BOAT CAPSIZE WRAP

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