Mum cries for justice

By CHARLES MOI
A MOTHER whose two sons died when the mv Rabaul Queen sank in seas off Morobe six years ago says the abrupt ending of the court case by the public prosecutor is discouraging and unfair.
Carolyn Maniot, from Arawa in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, and husband Max, from East New Britain, lost sons Adrian, 28, and Alfred, 20, when the vessel sank in rough seas on Feb 2, 2012, off Finschhafen.
They were among the 172 listed as missing.
“I cried when I heard the news (that the charges had been ceased by the public prosecutor),” Carolyn told The National from her home in Arawa. “It’s discouraging. It’s not fair because many people died. It’s not fair that the case ended just like that.”
Ship owner Peter Sharp and ship captain Anthony Tsiau were cleared of 172 manslaughter charges in July last year. Then the public prosecutor informed the National Court in Kokopo hearing the case two months ago that the remaining charges of sending an unseaworthy ship to sea and taking an unseaworthy ship to sea against the two, plus the ship company Kimbe branch manager Grace Amen, would not be pursued.
The National has been trying to get comments from Public Prosecutor Pondros Kaluwin, Attorney-General and Justice Minister Davis Steven in the past week.
Carolyn and her husband who own a second-hand clothing shop in Arawa said someone had to be blamed for causing the tragedy.
She recalled that the last time she spoke to her sons was when they arrived in Kimbe via Buka on Feb 1. The school holidays had ended and her sons were returning to school in Lae, Morobe. She said her younger son Alfred told her on the phone that the weather conditions in Kimbe was bad and the sea was really rough. But he told his mother that he and his brother Adrian had to continue their journey to Lae because they had to register at the University of Technology. Carolyn recalls that on the morning of Feb 2, 2012, her (now only surviving) son Simon who was in Popondetta called her to say there were rumours that the ship had sunk. She left for Lae with her husband in the hope that their sons would be among the survivors. They are still missing. “It’s painful to lose two sons like that,” she said.
She thanked God for giving her and the family “strength and healing”. She urged the Government to take up the case again to find out who was responsible for the tragedy and give the families of the 172 victims some closure.