12 Indonesians drown in Malaysia boat accident: Police

Wednesday, 01 October 2008 01:51 WIB
WASPADA ONLINEKUALA LUMPUR - Twelve Indonesians heading home for the holidays drowned early Tuesday when their wooden boat overloaded with more than 100 people capsized off the coast of Malaysia, maritime officials said.The boat, believed to be carrying 130 mainly illegal migrant workers, sank 1.2 nautical miles off Port Klang on Malaysia's west coast en route to Indonesia's Sumatra island."We suspect the boat was overloaded. It is a wooden boat meant for carrying goods and not for ferrying people. But it is usually used to carry illegals," local marine police chief Marzuki Ismail told AFP.Eleven of the victims were women, including one who was pregnant, said local police chief Mohamad Mat Yusop."This has been certified after a hospital post mortem," he said.Police said they believed the Indonesians were heading home for the Eid al-Fitr holidays, marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Survivor Nur Najihah, 22, said the boat capsized so quickly that she lost her grip on her 14-month-old son, Indra Putra Asli, the state Bernama news agency reported.She swam into the open sea to search for him before discovering that he had been rescued by other passengers.The bodies were found floating near where the boat capsized 10 minutes after setting sail from a forested area near Westport in Port Klang, heading for Tanjung Balai in northern Sumatra.Malaysia has launched a 60-strong search and rescue operation involving teams of divers and has recovered 112 survivors - 79 men, 30 women, two toddlers and an 8-month old infant.It is not known how many people remain in the water.Mohamad said the survivors would be brought to the local police station."We are investigating six of the survivors who are believed to have masterminded this operation of illegaly ferrying Indonesians across the borders," he said.There are an estimated 1.1 million legal foreign workers, mostly Indonesians, in neighbouring Malaysia, officials have said, and unknown number of illegal workers.(j01/ann)