Milan Kundera said that the struggle of the people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting – which is why I’m writing this post.

“My wife and daughters were looking at me and crying as the boat capsized. I lost three children and my wife, but the 150 children are like my own too. Those who perished with their families have found reprieve, but as for us, we are mere empty shells, our souls went with them. Every time I saw a child I could not differentiate between it and my children. Anywhere I placed my arm, a drowned child or woman would emerge and lift my arm and the surviving women would cry more. My wife and children stayed under the boat – they never came out.” [HASSAN JASSEM](http://www.sievx.com/archives/2003_07-08/20030707.shtml)

I’ve been following the [SievX](http://www.sievx.com) tragedy for a couple of years now. On October 18 or 19 a boat designed to carry 100 people sank in [international waters](http://sievx.com/images/MapSeries1small.jpg) with nearly 400 people onboard. 146 children, 142 women and 65 men drowned. Although about 120 people initially survived the sinking, only 44 were rescued by an Indonesian fishing boat after spending up to 20 hours in the water. More first hand survivor accounts are [here](http://www.sievx.com/articles/disaster/KeysarTradTranscript.html) – please read them.

The boat sank right in the search area of Operation Relex which had just been setup by the Howard government after the Tampa rescue. Australian Airforce Orion P3 surveillance planes flew over this area at least three times a day in search patterns and 5 extra navy ships also patrolled the area. Immediately after news of the tragedy broke John Howard stated that the ship sunk in Indonesian waters and was therefore not an Australian problem – he went onto to win the 2001 federal election. It was only some years later that the government started saying that the boat had actually sank in international waters. In fact the 353 people drowned in an area the John Howard himself had described as being under “saturation surveillance” (Brendan Nicholson, Age, September 2, 2001).

It gets worse. It [turns out](http://sievx.com/articles/challenging/20020325CTTonyKevin.html) that the boat had been stripped of all registration and identification marks, set to sea with a long crack in the hull and the refugees report being loaded onto the boat at gunpoint by Indonesian military or police.

So what gives? The Australian Federal Police knew the boat was coming and there were navy boats in the area – why wasn’t the boat intercepted? Why hasn’t the government (AFP) released the full list of the names of the survivors and victims? Why did the government maintain that the first they knew of the existence of the boat was when it sank – which was a monstrous lie soon exposed in the Certain Maritime Incident enquiry? They knew when it left, how many and who was on it. They knew it was overloaded and in danger of sinking. They know who drowned and won’t tell anyone. Why not? What is served by keeping the death list secret after four years?

[Tony Kevin's](http://www.tonykevin.com/psievx.html)
[book](http://www.safecom.org.au/tkevin-book.htm) offers a full account of the evidence that SIEV X was expected by the People Smuggling Taskforce in Canberra to arrive at Christmas Island over the weekend 20-22 October, that detailed intelligence reports had been coming down to Canberra from AFP on it, and that it had even been given a name, SIEV 8. The senate has called for an independant judicial inquiry each year for three years now and our “relaxed and comfortable” government ignores it each time.

In a Dateline program about SIEVX Greg Humphries of the Australian immigration department stated clearly that our government had them sinking boats in Malaysia to prevent them coming here. And there’s this from a [Channel 9 Sunday report](http://sievx.com/articles/challenging/20020901_SundayEnniss.html) into Mr John Enniss who was acting as a people smuggler while working for the Australian Federal Police in Indonesia:

“Last year Enniss boasted to myself and two other colleagues about how he had paid Indonesian locals on four or five occasions to scuttle people-smuggling boats with passengers on them. When we reacted with horror he was unrepentant, saying the boats were sunk close to land so everyone got off safely.”

According to the [Department of Immigration and All Other People We Don't Like,](http://www.immi.gov.au/facts/pdf/74a_boatarrivals.pdf) since 1989 13,593 people have arrived illegally by boat in Australia. Of these, 9,490 were granted visas. That’s 906 boat people landing per year over 15 years, hardly a flood – equivalent to two 747’s full of New Zealand and British immigrants. Of course boat people don’t look or sound like us white folk, do they?

[A lot happened](http://www.tonykevin.com/RawNerve.html) in the month leading up to the sinking of SievX and all of it during an election campaign. Palapa, the disabled adrift boat rescued by Tampa, nearly sank in a fierce storm the night before the resuce, with over 400 people on board. It had been twice spotted on the previous day by an Australian Coastwatch aircraft. The pilot reported the passengers waved clothing to indicate their distress, but no rescue boat was sent out from Christmas Island just 60 miles away on that day – a clear violation of Australia’s legal and ethical rescue at sea obligations. Eventually Arnie The Good rescued these people and the Australian government greeted them with SAS troops – made great TV footage.

Under direct orders from Canberra, over 200 people were left on board a crippled, unseaworthy SIEV 4 (Olong) during a 22 hour circular holding tow by HMAS Adelaide, just outside Christmas Island’s Australian territorial seas, When the boat suddenly began to founder, the people were instructed to jump into the water. They were then left up to 51 minutes in the water or in Adelaide’s rubber dinghies before Adelaide received permission to allow them onboard.

Arguments about reckless parents and queue jumpers don’t matter one iota here. What matters in these cases is that we, as a nation, did not do our best to help people in need. It’s that simple. If the cost of helping illegal immigrants is that it will only encourage more, then so be it. Contrary to what a small, lying man said some years ago – we do not, and can not, control how people arrive here. We can control how we treat them. John Howard has used refugees as political pawns and scapegoats. He has played with people’s lives to win votes, people with no power and often no state for support. A truly despicable act that reflects poorly on us all.

“…. the 150 children kept floating up looking for air to breathe inside their cabin – more water went in and they were drowned. We were a group of 28 doctors from Khuzistan. We lived in Iran for 11 years, only 5 remained. There were some children and some women amongst the group.” [Dr Haydar from Khuzistan](http://www.sievx.com/archives/2003_07-08/20030703.shtml)

“I boarded the boat with my wife and four children and also my brother, brother’s wife and two children. One of my children survived, my wife, my brother and family all drowned. My brother screamed out to be rescued but I could not help him. He was too far from the children. One of my other children kept crying for water until the morning when he died of thirst. I kept two of my children on my shoulders all night. It was raining heavily, I did not know where my wife was. One of the children died in the morning from thirst … ” [FAWZI QASIM](http://www.sievx.com//archives/2003_09-10/20030911.shtml)

I like this article so much. I’m quoting it whole.

Turns out that Venezuala holds 90% of the world’s extra heavy crude oil which becomes economic to refine into synthetic light crude with the oil price at about $40 a barrel. Crazy (Canny?) Hugo of Caracas wants to set the world oil price to US$50 a barrell, about $15 down from todays price and also have Venezula’s official OPEC oil reserves lifted. This is [a man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Chávez) the US press generally [denegrate or lie about](http://www.alternet.org/story/16255/) so his street cred is pretty good. On the other hand he does have some of the [crazy-left-wing-dictator](http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR530032004?open&of=ENG-VEN) feel about him.

NO MORE CHEAP OIL SAYS CHAVEZ

By [Greg Palast](http://www.GregPalast.com)

The Guardian [article](http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1745467,00.html)

[BBC Newsnight](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm)

Monday April 3, 2006
The colourful Venezuelan leader hosts the OPEC meeting on June 1 in Caracas and he will ask OPEC to set $50 a barrel – the average price last year – as the long term level. During the 1990s the price of oil had hovered around the $20 mark falling as low as $10 a barrel in early 1999.

Chavez told Newsnight “we’re trying to find an equilibrium. The price of oil could remain at the low level of $50. That’s a fair price it’s not a high price”. Hugo Chavez will have added clout at this OPEC meeting.

US Department of Energy analyses seen by Newsnight show that at $50 a barrel Venezuela – not Saudi Arabia – will have the biggest oil reserves in OPEC. Venezuela has vast deposits of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco. Traditionally these have not been counted because at $20 a barrel they were too expensive to exploit – but at $50 a barrel melting them into liquid petroleum becomes extremely profitable.

The US DoE report shows that at today’s prices Venezuela’s oil reserves are bigger than those of the entire Middle East including Saudi Arabia, the Gulf states, Iran and Iraq. The US DoE also identifies Canada as another future oil superpower. Venezuela’s deposits alone could extend the oil age for another 100 years.

The US DoE estimates that Chavez controls 1.3 trillion barrels of oil – more than the entire declared oil reserves of the rest of the planet. Hugo Chavez told Newsnight’s Greg Palast that “Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world. In the future Venezuela won’t have any more oil – but that’s in the 22nd century. Venezuela has oil for 200 years.” Chavez will ask the OPEC meeting in June to formally accept that Venezuela’s reserves are now bigger than Saudi Arabia’s.

Chavez’s increased muscle will not go down well in Washington. In 2002 the Bush administration welcomed an attempted coup against Chavez. He told Newsnight that the Americans had organised it in an attempt to get hold of Venezuela’s oil.

Ironically by invading Iraq George Bush has boosted oil prices and effectively transferred billions of dollars from American consumers to Chavez. Up to $200 million a day – half of it from the US – is flooding into Caracas. Chavez is spending this on building infrastructure and increasing the minimum wage and improving health and education in the poor ranchos which surround the cities. As a result even his opponents accept that Chavez is extremely popular and will easily win the next Presidential election in December.

Chavez is also spending billions in the rest of Latin America – exchanging contracts for oil tankers and infrastructure projects and buying up loans in Argentina and Brazil. He has made cheap oil deals with Ecuador and the Caribbean.

He has also spent some of the dollars which have come in from the US supporting Fidel Castro in Cuba. In return Cuba has supplied the thousands of doctors and teachers who are transforming conditions in the barrios of Caracas. Washington accuses Chavez of buying influence in Latin America.

The Newsnight team had to endure the long speeches and marathon six hour TV shows which Hugo Chavez delights in. Chavez posed for Newsnight posing with the sword of Simon Bolivar the 18th century liberator who drove out Spanish imperialists from South America. The symbolism was clear but behind the showman is a clever political brain.

Chavez has not invaded any foreign countries. He does not have secret prisons at home or abroad. Chavez has repeatedly won democratic elections and the opposition operates freely although some members have been charged with accepting illegal foreign donations. Nonetheless George Bush’s administration repeatedly targets Chavez on human rights and finances his opponents.

Earlier this year US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld compared Chavez to Hitler – because he was elected democratically – and last year the influential American evangelist Pat Robertson called for his assassination. Robertson later apologized and said that he did not “necessarily” have to be killed so long as he was kidnapped by American special forces.

Chavez told Newsnight that he was still concerned that George Bush had not learnt the lessons of Iraq and would order an invasion to try to secure Venezuela’s oil. “I pray this will not happen because US soldiers will bite the dust and so will we, Venezuelans”. He warned that any such attempt would lead to a prolonged guerilla war and an end to oil production. “The US people should know there will be no oil for anyone”.

Chavez does not accept Tony Blair’s criticism of him for lining up with Fidel Castro. He told Newsnight “if someone is sleeping together it is Bush and Blair. They share the same bed.”