Gosh Banjo, is that your criteria for caring? It seems you've got a problem with brown people.

I don't think the people here who wish to dismiss this incident as ancient or of not local consequence have read any of the background material.

There needs to be an inquiry with judicial power to call witnesses and compel them to testify. It is not a case of just getting on, there was almost certainly a conspiracy to subvert the normal actions that Australia would take if there was someone in trouble in international waters, or even in waters that are controlled by Indonesia, by arrangement.

There is no statute of limitation on murder. Some of the senior public servants involved could face charges of this seriousness.

I have heard the survivors speak through tears and broken English. One woman watched as her son drowned and determined she would survive for his sake. "I do not come here to die," she said to herself.

There was no fair go for 353 people who drowned. At the very least there should be an official investigation into the incident. At issue is the politicisation of the public service - can-do people should not be permitted to break the law, simply because it is politically expedient. There should be a point at which these people say to the politicians, we are not prepared to act in this way.

Worse, no one should not be encouraged to abandon what to Australians is the normal human precepts that require compassion.

Everyone of the 353 people was like us, a human being, and potentially a bloody good Australian, of which there are too few.

It is high time we got a grip, collected the facts and compelled some testimony. If some do not care, the consequences of that should be explained to them.

You will note I do not have a nom-de-plume. This is a matter that requires serious and personal attention by Australians everywhere.

EMMA...your next earth shattering task..and of equal importance to the Seiv...? is..

SENATE INQUIRY INTO .. "Cain killing Abel"

Now..there are many diminsions to this relevant and horrific event.

"Did he do it because he was JEALOUS"...

"Did he do it because he was just 'evil'"?

Of course.. until we find the elusive answer to this pressing question.. the cosmos will surely be in imbalance.....

Conclusion... I just gave all the interest this issue deserves.

fancynancy and bennie,
Firstly bennie, no I don't have a problem with brown people. Whether they have brown eyes, hair or skin, or any other colour is irrelevant. I once met a woman with green hair which was interesting.

What I do have a problem with is idiots that will not accept reality when it is placed in front of them. Siev X is a matter for Indonesia not us.

fancynancy, good one and it is a joke, a bad joke, because Emmy and her friends want us to spend millions of taxpayer funds to hold an inquiry into an event that occurred outside our jurisdiction. You are offended because I clearly pointed out it was not our affair.

It was a tradgety, but so was the last train smash in India, the hurricane in Texas, the mud slide in China and hundreds of other events. The common link with all these is that they happened in someone elses domain. I feel sorry but each country is responsible for their own events and if inquests are held or not. We cannot hold an inquiry just because there may be a relative here to one of the victims.

I have a good idea as to why Emmy does not ask the Indonesians to hold an inquiry. Simply because they would tell her where to go and mind her own business. So they should, I wouldn't tell you how to run you own affairs.

I say again, it is up to Indonesia to hold an inquiry if the deem it so, some people shold live with that reality.

Banjo, you keep saying it is an Indonesian problem. It is not, and you have not read the background material provided. You should do that now.

The SIEVX sank in the Operation Relex area, where Howard and Hill had indicated that there would be saturation surveillance. To try to confuse the issue, there were official attempts to say that the vessel sank in the Sunda Strait. It did not. That is not consistent with the Harbour Masters report, or where the survivors were found.

Indeed there is a case for believing that the Orion Mission which seemed to search a smaller part of the area for longer than the others at about the right time probably found the sinking vessel. It is also likely that an Australian Navy vessel was less than 80nm away (at a top speed of 27knots that is a bit less than 3h). It is also likely that senior department and service officers knew this and obfuscated during the senate inquiry.

The truth needs to be obtained with certainty and some justice attempted.

Come back when you have the known facts and we can talk.

Polycarp

"I just gave all the interest this issue deserves."

What a mean and petty response. It's laughable really. You, of all people, deriding the unexplained drowning of 353 people as unworthy of discussion, after all the pathetic nit-picking topics you've put up for discussion on this forum over the years. You've just recently started a thread about a dog that didn't like you and grabbed your arm or some such rubbish. And you have the gall to belittle Emma's thoughtful and well-argued case.

Yes, Emma, I too would like to know the truth behind this tragic event and I congratulate your fine efforts in attempting to keep the issue alive and in the face of an overwhelmingly apathetic public. John Howard and Phillip Ruddock should be held to account on the deaths that occurred as a result of their so-called Upstream Disruption Program.

'Upstream Disruption' - benign sounding jargon, which, like 'collateral damage', completely and very deliberately belies the human cost involved. How many boats were, and still are, being turned back to Indonesia, and how many on board haven't made it? Were boats deliberately sabotaged at governmental behest to 'send a message'? And just what boats did those lights belong to on that fateful night?

There are enough Australians out here who do want answers to these questions, Polycarp, to keep them alive and burning, despite your best and most Christian attempts to write them off as of no importance.