Yep: Speed up sinking probe

 By ELLEN TIAMU

POLICE Commissioner Tom Kulunga must speed up investigations into the sinking of the mv Rabaul Queen, Tommy Yep says.

Yep, chairman of the mv Rabaul Queen Disaster Legal Action Committee, said in Lae yesterday nothing had been said regarding the disaster since the start of police investigations months ago. He said the next step was to bring those responsible for the tragedy to face the law.

“Police investigations have stalled for some time now and we have been waiting for it to run its course,” he said.

Yep, whose son survived the tragedy in which more than 200 people died, said he was ready as a representative of the missing and survivors, to lay an official complaint at the Kokopo police station for and on behalf of them all.

“Let us not sweep this tragedy under the carpet,” he said. 

“These are our sons, daughters, wives, husbands and relatives and someone must answer for taking them from us … their place in our lives can never be replaced.” Yep said the law must take its course and those responsible must be held accountable.

He is appealing to the government to ensure that is done as soon as possible so people can have closure on “this sad episode”.

“It is totally unfair that those responsible are still living a free life while the small people are still grieving,” he said.

Yep questioned whether justice would ever be done to those responsible for the country’s worst maritime disaster.

The mv Rabaul Queen sank off Finschhafen, Morobe, on February 2 last year, with more than 200 people presumed drowned.