SIEVX is the acronym for 'Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X' (the X stands for 'unknown'). It is the name by which we have come to know the dilapidated, criminally overloaded Indonesian fishing boat that sank en route to Australia's Christmas Island in October 2001 with the loss of more than 350 lives, most of them women and children.

There are many questions that have yet to be satisfactorily answered about the sinking of SIEVX:

• Is there a relationship between the sinking of SIEVX and Australia's People Smuggling Disruption Programme (PSDP) that was operating in Indonesia at the time the vessel foundered?

  This question was raised last September in the dramatic finale to a series of three short speeches by Senator John Faulkner, Labor Opposition Leader in the Senate. Faulkner recently revisited this subject in a speech to the Fabian Society, asking further questions posed by David Marr & Marian Wilkinson's Dark Victory.

• Why was Abu Quassey, who allegedly organised the deadly SIEVX voyage, able to return to Egypt after a short prison term in Indonesia for unrelated offences and a few months in immigration detention?

  Where does this leave the repeated pledges by Australian Justice Minister Ellison to pursue Quassey relentlessly until he could be called to account over his part in the SIEVX sinking? These pledges followed the Senate motion calling for the Australian and Indonesian governments 'to undertake all actions necessary' to ensure that Quassey was immediately brought to justice on his release from Cipinang prison on 1 January.

• Why are the Australian Federal Police (AFP) able to bring other alleged people smugglers who operated in Indonesia such as Kais Asfoor, Ali Al Jenabi and Hassan Ayoub to Australia to face charges yet Abu Quassey - referred to recently by Senator Faulkner as a 'mass murderer' - has so far managed to slip their net?

  Could there be some truth to Tony Kevin's as yet unproven thesis that Quassey is a witting or unwitting disruption agent whom the AFP fear may reveal too much about their PSDP operations in Indonesia?

• How could an Australian Senate Inquiry convened to investigate a cover up fall victim to another cover up?

  The Select Committee on A Certain Maritime Incident (CMI) which was tasked to investigate the cover up and misrepresentation of evidence in regard to the 'Children Overboard' allegations, itself succumbed to another cover up when it turned its attention to SIEVX.

• Why is it that the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) surveillance map of the day the SIEVX survivors were rescued by passing fishing boats does not show a rescue boat within 27 nautical miles of the rescue coordinates, when it appears that the RAAF Orion flew directly over the survivors as they were being plucked from the water?

  This question was first explored in an article that appeared originally on this site and in a later newspaper article that was published in the Canberra Times on 17 July.

• Why is Australia still cruelly punishing the SIEVX survivors and their families living in Australia?

  Australia is denying permanent residency to survivors living here unlike other countries who provided secure residency to those who survived SIEVX.

• Why can't the full list of SIEVX survivors & victims be made public?

  The AFP has admitted that it has this information but is refusing to release it.

• When will the Australian Government respond to the Senate motion moved by John Faulkner last December calling for 'a comprehensive, independent judicial inquiry' into the people smugggling disruption programme in Indonesia and the 'circumstances of the sinking of SIEV X'?

OTHER NEWS
Boatpeople spotted near Tiwi Islands ~ 4 Nov, AAP [2]

No direction home ~ SMH, 28 Oct

SIEVX second anniversary report ~ Margo Kingston, Web Diary, 22 Oct

Senator Bartlett's speech in the Senate commemorating the 2nd anniversary of SIEVX ~ 16 Oct

Democrats Leader, Senator Andrew Bartlett moves 4th SIEVX related motion - passed 16 October