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Jakarta Post 04 May, 2001
Vessel repatriating Maluku refugees goes missing
JAKARTA (JP): A boat carrying 107 refugees from the religious violence in the North Maluku islands back to their homes has been missing at sea for two days, a port official as well as a separate report said on Thursday.
"The ^YAnugerah^Y left Ternate Port off Halmahera island on Tuesday, together with two other boats, heading for Loloda subdistrict," an official from the Ternate Port Authority said from Ternate, the capital of North Maluku, as quoted by AFP.
The official, who identified herself only as Hasni, said the missing boat was carrying refugees home to two villages in Loloda, 100 kilometers to the north of Halmahera island, but she was unable to give the precise number of passengers and crew on board.
"The boat left without the proper documents, and the owner of the boat had just begun the application process for the papers on Wednesday," Hasni said, adding that the port authorities had allowed the vessel to leave because of the humanitarian nature of its journey.
The Antara news agency said the boat was carrying 107 refugees.
The two other boats that left Ternate around the same time arrived safely in Loloda.
Antara quoted North Maluku Governor Muhyi Effendi as saying that the Navy had deployed a patrol boat to help search for the vessel while the Army had contributed a helicopter and several speedboats to comb the coastline between Ternate and Loloda.
Most of the refugees had been in Ternate for more than one year after fleeing violent clashes between Christians and Muslims in Halmahera, the news agency said.
The religious violence first erupted in Ambon, the capital of the neighboring province of Maluku, in January of 1999 and quickly spread to other islands in the region.
More than 8,000 people have since been killed in the violence in both Maluku and North Maluku provinces, with some half-a-million refugees being forced to flee to other provinces. (edt)
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