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Police Name 4 Suspects as Boat Tragedy Toll Nears 100
Ronna Nirmala & Amir Tejo | December 24, 2011

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exbrit
6:14am Dec 24, 2011

From what I understand, the passengers paid thousands of dollars for the trip. The investigators need to concentrate on the ringleaders who received this money

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Police said on Friday that they had named four suspects in connection with an overloaded boat carrying asylum seekers that sank off the coast of East Java, as the confirmed death toll reached 95.

The death toll, however, could rise significantly. The National Police said 61 people were still missing from the boat, which sank last Saturday amid bad weather as it tried to reach Australia.

Two of the suspects named by the police are believed to have provided the boat, while the other two were the crew members, said a National Police spokesman, Saud Usman Nasution.

The suspects have only been identified by their initials.

But more suspects could be named as Saud said it appeared that military soldiers had been involved in the transportation of the asylum seekers.

“From the [passenger] and witness testimony, it appears there were four military members who were involved,” he said. “The case will be handed over to the military police to investigate.”

Saud said the four soldiers are thought to have helped plan the intended route to Australia.

Rescuers have pulled 49 survivors out of the water, including the boat’s two crew members.

As hopes fade that more survivors will be found, rescuers extended their search to the neighboring provinces of Bali and West Nusa Tenggara.

“The search officially ends today but we might extend that according to our capabilities,” National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said on Friday.

At least 80 bodies have been taken to the East Java Police Hospital, which is struggling to handle the bodies.

A doctor at the hospital, Didi Agus Mintadi, said they were having trouble identifying the victims, mostly Iranian and Afghan asylum seekers.

Didi said only 17 people, all of them survivors of the sinking, had come forward and said they had lost family members. “Even if they are able to identify their loved ones, who’s going to identify the rest of the bodies,” he said.

With limited staff the hospital is bringing in medical teams from Airlangga University, Gadjah Mada University, Diponegoro University and the University of Indonesia to help with the identification process.

“We have requested help from forensic anthropologists and orthodontists,” he said.

The National Police believe some of the asylum seekers may have entered the country on tourist visas. “Once they enter the country they meet with people smugglers who can take them to Australia,” Saud said.

“The syndicate operates through various middlemen, some in their home country, some in other countries, some here in Indonesia and some in the destination country,” he said.

Asylum seekers often pass through Indonesia to connect with people smugglers and to get on boats for Australia’s Christmas Island, which is closer to Indonesian territory than mainland Australia.

Last week’s capsizing is believed to be the largest loss of life yet from a sinking of one of the many boats packed with Asian and Middle Eastern migrants who undertake the perilous voyage.

Additional reporting from Antara and AFP