SIEVX-NEWS: The Boat That Wasn't There

[owner-sievx-news]

The Boat That Wasn't There
by Marg Hutton
11 June 2003

[A hyperlinked version of this article can be found at 
http://sievx.com or
http://sievx.com/archives/2003_05-06/20030611.shtml ]

Last August I wrote two short homepage articles (1, 2) about the RAAF 
surveillance map of 20 October 2001, the day SIEVX survivors were 
plucked from the Indian Ocean by Captain Imam, the skipper of the 
Indah Jaya Makmur. I hypothesised that the fishing vessel spotted by 
the P3 Orion surveillance flight at 0819 that morning may have been 
the Indah Jaya Makmur, either on its way to the rescue or returning 
to Jakarta with the survivors safely aboard.

However, further evidence has come to light that almost certainly 
disproves this hypothesis. Earlier this year, Senator Collins put 
questions on notice to Defence concerning boats marked as spotted 
during this surveillance flight, including the fishing boat observed 
at 0819. Collins asked Defence:

`Please provide details, including any photographs, of the fishing 
boats that were identified by the P-3C Orions on the morning of 20 
October 2001 (in particular, the boats that were identified at 0752, 
0759, 0814 and 0819).'

The Defence reply to this question (W43) included a table, listing 
for each boat the coordinates of where it was observed, the direction 
in which it was headed and the speed it was travelling.

>From this table it can be seen that the fishing boat spotted at 0819 -
 the closest marked boat to the survivor rescue coordinates - was 
headed south towards Christmas Island and not east towards the rescue 
position. Also it was travelling at 4 knots which means that it was 
at least six hours away from the rescue position, assuming that it 
maintained this speed. (See map showing distance, 26 nautical miles, 
between this boat and the position where SIEVX survivors were 
rescued) No boats were shown on the RAAF map in the vicinity of the 
rescue coordinates.

This new evidence presents a dilemma:

On the one hand we have the Jakarta Harbour Master's report dated 24 
October 2001 that precisely records the claimed coordinates of the 
position where the Indah Jayah Makmur rescued the SIEVX survivors - 
(07 40 00S / 105 09 00E).

On the other hand we have the RAAF surface contact map combined with 
the subsequent Defence answers to questions on notice that shows that 
the nearest fishing boat marked as observed by the RAAF Orion was 
approximately 26 nautical miles from where SIEVX survivors were found 
and could not have arrived on the scene in time to rescue the 
survivors and be heading back towards Jakarta by midday.

We can assume the rescue operation was a difficult and time-consuming 
exercise; the survivors would have drifted away from each other 
during 16 to 21 hours in the water and the rescue boat would have had 
to carefully comb a large area of sea to ensure that all survivors 
had been found. 

We know that the rescue was completed by midday, so the fishing boat 
would have arrived on the scene several hours earlier.

So what are we to make of this contradiction?

The most benign explanation is that full coverage of the sector was 
not achieved and the surveillance flight missed the rescue boat. 
However, this seems unlikely. The flight used a tight track- 
separation in the western half of Charlie sector to ensure 100% 
coverage of the area where SIEVX survivors were rescued.

So there seem to be only two possible explanations for this anomaly. 
Either the rescue coordinates that were reported to the Jakarta 
Harbour Master on 24 October are incorrect or the surveillance map is 
not a true representation of what the P3 flight observed. Might an 
observed boat have been deliberately moved or simply not shown on 
this map?

Defence has form for doctoring evidence (eg 'Children overboard' 
photos); it also had a motive. If a fishing vessel had been observed 
and marked close to the rescue position then that would further 
bolster the case that SIEVX sank in the Operation Relex zone. At the 
time these maps were constructed, Defence was working very hard to 
sustain the government line that SIEVX had sunk in Indonesian waters. 
In contrast, the captains of the rescue boats and the Jakarta Harbour 
Master had no apparent reason to misrepresent the location where the 
survivors were found.

The RAAF surveillance maps of Operation Relex Charlie Sector were 
created as part of the Defence Review of Intelligence pertaining to 
SIEVX. This review was far from a disinterested exercise. As we have 
already proved, the conclusions it reached about the sinking location 
of SIEVX were only achieved through misrepresentation and concealment 
of vital evidence. (See SIEVX & the DFAT cable, pp.18-21)

The surveillance maps cannot be taken at face value because they were 
created as part of this seriously compromised review. Similarly, 
Defence's reply to Collins regarding the subsequent destruction of 
photographs of the fishing boats identified by the surveillance 
flight cannot be accepted without question:

'Digital photographs are taken to assist in the identification 
process. They are deleted once it is ascertained that the vessel is 
not a suspected illegal entry vessel and, therefore, no longer of 
interest. Consequently, there are no photographs of these fishing 
vessels.'

On what date were these photos deleted? Were only digital photos 
taken? The Commander of the P3 Maritime Patrol Group, Air Commodore 
Philip Byrne, implied in his July 2002 testimony to the CMI 
Committee, that wet film was the norm and digital film was a recent 
innovation. (CMI 2166). And according to Rear Admiral Bonser it can 
take several days for wet film to be developed (L&C 257). Whether 
these photos were taken on wet film or digital film, were any still 
in existence on 23 October 2001, the day the story of the SIEVX 
sinking broke? If they were deleted after this date it would be 
interesting to know when and why.



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