Rabaul Queen injustice

Weekender

By ELLEN TIAMU
IT was the last week of January in 2012. Reverend Oala Baru Arua and his wife Gewa were moving a few kilometers from their Porebada village to Metago United Church Leadership Training College at Papa. Oala had just gotten a posting to the college as the Principal and it was a busy week for them. During that week, on
Thursday 2 February, his older son, Mea called from Alotau to say that he had heard about the passenger vessel mv Rabaul Queen capsizing somewhere in Morobe. Reverend Oala’s younger son Arua Baru was the chief engineer on that boat. He told Mea not to worry about it too much
as Arua was a sailor and he’d know what to do.
Upon hearing the news that the vessel had sunk with over 200 people missing, a couple of their relatives from Porebada arrived at Metago on Saturday to urge the couple to return with them to their village. The couple politely refused.
The next day, the new principal held a special church service to declare the 2012 academic year at the training college open.
After service, a larger number of relatives arrived and Oala and his wife returned with them to Porebada.
They didn’t return to the college until seven weeks later.
When the Morobe disaster centre released a final missing persons list on Tuesday 7 February, five days after the boat capsized and sank,
Arua Baru’s name was on it. He was the only person from Central on the ill-fated boat. Yesterday marked five years after what was termed the worst maritime disaster in PNG’s history. MV Rabaul Queen sank in rough seas and bad weather off the Finschhafen coast in the early morning of Thursday 2 February. More than 200 people perished and 246 survived.
Like all other Papua New Guineans who were affected by the tragedy, Reverend Oala Arua has been hoping that the families of those who lost their lives or the survivors could find some solace in the justice system of the country.
“What can I say. I’ve repeated myself over the past five years and nothing has come out of it,” said the man who, for some years, became the spokesman for survivors and relatives of missing persons.
“I have spoken up for others previously, but I also tell them that I am as helpless as they are.”
It’s been a long five years of trying to get someone to answer and many have given up any hope of their ever finding a final closure to their heartbreak.
“I am sad more than disappointed,” he lamented.
“The only people who won in this matter are the lawyers. The system is unable to help grassroots people, people who struggle,” he said.
“I don’t believe in jailing a wrongdoer and leaving it there, that is not justice. Justice is bringing relief to people who have lost loved ones.”
It seemed, he said, that the government was no longer interested in their case.
“Our leaders have brushed this matter aside and are busy looking to build another road, another high rise building, another airport.”
“Is this real development or should they look at the silent cries and voiceless tears of their people?” he asked.
He likened the nonchalant actions of leaders to that of King Herod in the Bible.
Reverend Oala Arua says he is hopeful that something positive will come out of the tragedy and that many more lives at sea will be saved.
He wants to see the maritime college improve its courses so that captains, crew members and engineers can speak up against ship owners who make decisions that will put the lives of passengers and crew in danger. “In my tears, there is no hate for Peter Sharp,” he said. Sharp is the owner of the doomed vessel.
“In my tears, I hope that the National Maritime and Safety Authority improves the safety of passengers who travel by sea. I look forward to PNG not losing any more precious lives.”
He said modern technology is now at hand and such tragic accidents should be a thing of the past.
Oala Arua is pleading with anyone out there who might help expedite the cause of the victims of the Rabaul Queen disaster in any way to get in touch with him.
Last weekend, Marama Gewa accompanied Oala Baru Jr to Milne Bay where he will start elementary school and live with his Uncle Mea and his family.
Oala Baru Jr, now eight years, is the eldest son of Arua Baru. His younger brother Willie lives with family at Porebada.
Their grandparents worry about their future. They also worry about the boys’ widowed mother who is unemployed and now living with her widowed mother in the village.
Most of all, they worry about whether there will ever be any retribution for the death of their son, and the many others on that unseaworthy boat five years ago.