Authorities urged to help locate missing passengers

By JIMMY KALEBE
A RELATIVE of one of the six people went missing in seas of the Vitiaz Strait off the Tewai-Siassi coast in Morobe on Aug 20, is appealing to authorities and the public to help locate them.
The group had been on a motorised dinghy carrying two cows and were trying to cross the sea between Sialum and Siassi Island when their boat capsized in rough seas.
There were two survivors.
Max Weman, the relative of missing passenger and Seventh-Day- Adventist (SDA) pastor Robert Jangut said it had been two weeks now and there had been no sighting of any of the missing six or the boat.
Weman said Jangut had served at Gomlongon church on Siassi Island and had a pregnant wife and two-year-old son.
“The young pastor left the island to get his food rations and on his return went missing,” he said.
Weman had reported the matter to Morobe police headquarters in Lae on Thursday and a letter was issued by the police to the National Broadcasting Corporation Morobe to alert the local communities and authorities of the missing people.
“I am asking if the police crime investigation division (CID) could help assist and conduct an interview with the two survivors to verify this incident,” he said.
He claimed that the two survivors were the skipper of the boat and another passenger from Kampalap on Siassi Island.
Weman asked if the Tewai-Siassi district administration could help police fast track the investigation to give relatives closure.
Morobe police commander Supt Jacob Singura said yesterday that he had not received a report on the incident, but said police would look into the matter.