SIEV X

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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 to Christmas Island carrying over 400 asylum seekers. It sank in international waters on October 19, 2001, 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.

1 Background
2 Sinking
3 Senate Select Committee
4 Unresolved
5 SIEV X Memorial
6 External links

[edit] Background

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 asylum seeker boats from landing in Australia, and ideally preventing them from leaving Indonesia.

[edit] Sinking

On 18 October 2001, a small, unnamed 19.5m by 4m fishing boat departed Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, with 421 passengers onboard. On the 19th the boat sank in international waters, within Indonesia's zone of search and rescue responsibility, and also inside the Australian border protection surveillance zone. Approximately 146 children, 142 women and 65 men died. On the 20th 44 survivors were rescued by an Indonesian fishing boat, the Indah Jaya Makmur. A 45th survivor was rescued about twelve hours later by another boat, the Surya Terang [1].

Some survivors claimed that some passengers refused to board when they saw the state of the boat, but were forced aboard by Indonesian police.

[edit] Senate Select Committee

On 20 February 2002, the Senate Select Committee inquiring into ‘A Certain Maritime Incident’ met for the first time. Its primary task was to investigate the children overboard affair, however its terms of reference also included the job of investigating “operational procedures observed by the Royal Australian Navy and by relevant Commonwealth agencies to ensure the safety of asylum seekers on vessels entering or attempting to enter Australian waters”.

The committee investigated the SIEV-X sinking, and concluded that "... it extraordinary that a major human disaster could occur in the vicinity of a theatre of intensive Australian operations and remain undetected until three days after the event, without any concern being raised within intelligence and decision making circles." While no government department was found to be to blame for the tragedy, the Committee was surprised that there had been no internal investigations into any systemic problems which could have allowed the Australian government to prevent it from occurring.

[edit] Unresolved

There are many unanswered questions regarding the SIEV-X tragedy, some of which are chronicled at the website http://www.sievx.com, and in Tony Kevin’s book “Certain Maritime Incident: The Sinking of SIEV X”, published in August 2004. Most controversial is the suggestion made by those opposing the government and its policy on illegals is that the Australian government's policy of “upstream disruption” of asylum seekers could extend as far as the sabotage of people smuggling boats.

[edit] SIEV X Memorial

A few of the 353 memorial poles.

Detail from one of the 353 memorial poles

For the past three years Steve Biddulph has been working with the Uniting Church in Australia to build a suitable memorial for victims and survivors of the SIEV X sinking. On Sunday 15 September 2006, a 'temporary' memorial was erected at Weston Park in Canberra. The memorial consisted of 353 white poles, all decorated by schools, churches and community groups across Australia. While the ACT Government was supportive of the memorial with Chief Minister Jon Stanhope opening the memorial, the Federal Government, tried to stop the memorial being constructed. The National Capital Authority claimed that it was not an approved structure.