WA: Charges may yet follow asylum seekers' drownings
By Selina Day
PERTH, Dec 19 AAP - Like thousands of Afghans before them, 55-year-old Nurjan Husseiniand 20-year-old Fatimeh Husseini were desperate to flee their tumultuous homeland.
And like thousands before them, the women fell into the hands of illegal people smugglers,who promised them safe passage to Australia in a fully equipped boat.
After accepting smugglers' help to get out of Afghanistan, Nurjan Husseini and herson Musa, and the unrelated Fatimeh Husseini and her husband of 18 months, Sayyed, arrivedin the bustling Indonesian city of Surabaya.
From there, they planned to bid for a new life in Australia.
Indonesian-based people smugglers had pledged a solid boat, with excellent amenitiesand food. The travellers did not know the vessel was in fact leaking, and had little foodand no bedding.
With 156 other asylum seekers from Afghanistan, and led by four Indonesian crew, thefour Husseinis set sail from Surabaya on November 2 last year.
The 164 travellers were crammed into a 20-metre motorised Indonesian "coastal trader",the Sumber Lestari. Such boats are typically used to transport goods between Indonesianislands, and are not designed for long sea hauls.
It was eight days before the federal election, which was to return the Howard governmenton the back of refugee issues, highlighted by the so-called Tampa and children overboardaffairs.
After six days on the open seas, the Indonesian boat neared Ashmore Reef, north ofWestern Australia. The islands had already been excised from the Australian migrationzone, effectively making the asylum bid futile.
Customs vessel ACV Arnhem Bay, on a regular patrol, spotted the Indonesian boat.
Commander Bradley Mulcahy used a loud hailer to warn the vessel it was an offence tobring people into Australia illegally. He ordered it to turn back, and a boarding partythen handed a formal notice to the boat's company.
Immediately, passengers began donning life jackets - and disabling the boat.
Planks were ripped up from the hull and deck and thrown into the water, and fuel waspumped overboard.
And - in the most frightening act for passengers - a fire was apparently lit, causingan explosion.
The Australians inferred the incidents were acts of sabotage in a bid to force themto rescue the boat people and process them as asylum seekers rather than force them backto Indonesia.
In the hysteria that followed, the terrified passengers - most of whom could not swimand who had been given deficient life jackets - began jumping into the sea.
By this time, Navy patrol boat HMAS Wollongong had arrived at Ashmore Reef.
But instead of being able to carry out orders to board the refugee boat, officers foundthemselves engaged, along with Customs officers, in the mass rescue of 164 panicking peoplefrom the water.
Personnel spent the next 50 minutes working to pluck the human cargo aboard severalCustoms and Navy tenders.
In the chaos, the lifeless bodies of Nurjan and Fatimeh Husseini were found floatingin the churning water.
Despite the best efforts of the Australians, neither woman could be revived.
The West Australian coroner found this week that both women - forced to jump from theboat to escape the fire - had drowned.
Alastair Hope noted that Nurjan Husseini, whom he described as an elderly woman despiteher being only 55, apparently had preferred to take her chances in the water rather thanrisk staying on board the burning Sumber Lestari.
Fatimeh Husseini was scared and crying and told her husband she would not jump becauseshe was too afraid.
But her reluctance was overcome when the boarding party urged her to jump and, holdinghands with her husband, the couple entered the ocean, Mr Hope said.
Although the coroner found drowning was the cause of the women's deaths, he returnedan open finding into how the deaths arose.
He said Australian Federal Police were yet to determine whether anyone could be heldresponsible for lighting the fire which forced the passengers from the vessel - and thuswhether charges could be laid over the deaths.
Meanwhile, the coroner criticised the people smugglers, saying their attitude towardstheir desperate cargo was "grossly irresponsible".
Mr Hope said the crew - who were jailed for between nine months and seven years sixmonths for their role in the smuggling - did nothing to help the passengers after theblaze took hold of the boat.
AAP sd/cd/sb
KEYWORD: HUSSEINI (BACKGROUNDER)
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