Sunday 16 June 2013

'I lost my entire family to Sungai Dipang'


Pos Dipang was a tranquil Orang Asli village until tragedy struck 17 years ago, when the raging waters of Sungai Dipang almost wiped out the entire village and its residents, writes Jaspal Singh.

Whenever it rains heavily, Sapie Bahoi shudders. Despite having re-married and becoming a devoted father to three children, the memory of having lost his first family 17 years ago almost always comes back to haunt the 43-year-old rubber tapper whenever the rains come.

"I cannot forget my late wife, my three-year-old son and the unborn child who died when our village was wiped away by a sudden torrent of water and debris.

"In a matter of minutes, I lost them ... my only solace was being able to bury their remains," said the resident of the Orang Asli village of Pos Dipang, about 8km from Sungai Siput Selatan town.

With tearful eyes, Sapie recalled that fateful evening on August 29, 1996, when an unexpected gush of water from Sungai Dipang swept away nearly 60 homes from the village that used to be located along the river bank.

The tragedy killed 44 villagers, including six members of a Chinese family living about 6km downstream from Sungai Dipang. So extensive was the damage caused by the gushing river that only two Orang Asli houses were spared as they were located on higher ground, unlike the others.

According to Sapie, who is also the assistant Tok Batin (village head), most of the villagers were resting in their wooden huts after returning from the jungles nearby.

"It was the fruit season then, and the villagers spent most of their time in the jungles picking durian, plucking petai and harvesting rotan.

"We had returned home in the evening and were spending time with our families when the river overflowed its banks and the water suddenly gushed down and hit the village around 7pm," he said.

Sapie was visiting his father, several houses away from his own, when villagers started shouting and running helter-skelter, during which time he saw his wife and son trying to escape the murky and debris-filled river.

"I shouted at them to run to higher ground, but the force of the river pulled them in.

"That night, when the remains of the villagers were being recovered, I saw the bodies of my wife and son.

"I lost everything ... many families lost everything ... we lost our families, our belongings and homes.

"The sight after the water receded was like 'padang jarak padang tekukur' (total wilderness). Nothing was left."

For Sapie, who follows the traditional beliefs of his ancestors, the incident itself was a mystery because prior to 1996, the Orang Asli settlement was never hit by Sungai Dipang's raging waters, nor has the river risen since.

After the incident, the Pos Dipang village, with its population of about 400 people, was relocated to higher ground downstream, about a kilometre from its original site.

The present site sits on hilly terrain, part of which was once mined for tin.

Village Tok Batin, Bah Semu Bah Udin, said the incident had taught him to be more firm with the villagers as well as outsiders who pass through the village to go to a picnic spot upstream.

"I keep reminding the villagers to check on their children, especially when dark clouds start forming above Gunung Kinjang where Sungai Dipang originates.

"Villagers will sometimes remind outsiders to get out of the area when the skies threaten to unleash heavy rain.

"Although nothing similar to the 1996 tragedy has taken place since then, we are not taking anything for granted," said the 50-year-old security guard, who was appointed as the seventh village head about 10 years ago.

Bah Semu, who took the New Sunday Times to revisit the original site of Pos Dipang village, said the river water struck the village as its natural flow had been diverted by a dam-like trap of boulders and trees.

"It happened so fast. I had just returned from the jungle and was resting at home when I heard shouts and loud cries. When I looked out, I saw that muddy water had already engulfed the village.

"I quickly climbed a langsat tree near my house and stayed on it until the water receded. My wife and all our six children were unharmed. But I lost my brother-in-law."

Asked if it was raining heavily prior to the incident, Bah Semu said it rained lightly for about three hours, adding that it must have poured heavily upstream.

Describing the situation as chaotic, he said more than 500 rescuers from various agencies, including firemen, police, the army and the Orang Asli Affairs and Welfare departments were mobilised to help.

The search operation lasted three weeks, during which time rescuers recovered 39 bodies, mostly found buried under sand and debris at Kampung Sahom, downstream of Pos Dipang.

"The entire village was devastated. There was nothing left to be seen. Maybe it was 'takdir tuhan' (God's will). The survivors have moved on, but the memory of the tragedy remains.

"Of course, we now have better and safer homes. But when it rains, we still shudder. How can we forget such a tragedy? We can't," he said, pointing to the many large boulders which have made the river banks at the former village their home.

Sunday 16 June 2013

http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/i-lost-my-entire-family-to-sungai-dipang-1.301191

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Families identify schoolgirl victims of Pakistani bus attack


Weeping relatives gathered yesterday to identify the charred remains of loved ones killed in a double attack in Pakistan's south-west.

At least 25 people were killed on Saturday when militants blew up a bus carrying female students in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province, and then stormed a hospital where survivors had been taken for treatment.

A Sunni militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), which is responsible for a string of attacks against Pakistan's Shiite minority, said it was behind both attacks.

A LeJ spokesman said a female suicide bomber struck the bus, a rare tactic in Pakistan, before gunmen attacked the hospital, claiming the strikes were revenge for an operation by security forces this month.

Militants occupied parts of the Bolan Medical Complex in a standoff that lasted several hours and ended when security forces stormed the building, freeing 35 hostages.

Authorities shut down the hospital yesterday, moving patients to another facility, as investigators combed the grisly aftermath of the violence.

The intensity of the blast and subsequent fire reduced the student bus to a blackened skeleton, and outside the mortuary of the Provincial Sandeman Hospital, weeping relatives gathered to identify bodies.

The state of the bodies added confusion to the relatives' grief, as some were given contradictory information about their loved ones.

Mohammad Hamza, 19, said that on Saturday he had been given the body of his sister, only to be told a mistake had been made.

"I came here after someone had given us the information that we had taken the wrong body and my sister's body was still here at hospital, but it is not true," Mr Hamza said. It appeared the body he was given on Saturday was indeed his sister.

An LeJ spokesman called newspaper offices in Quetta late on Saturday to claim the killings.

Sunday 16 June 2013

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/families-identify-schoolgirl-victims-of-pakistani-bus-attack

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Malda boat capsize toll rises to 10


The disaster management team retrieved eight more bodies from the Ganges on Saturday, a day after an overloaded boat capsized near Manikchak Ghat, taking the death toll to ten. However, five persons are yet to be traced.

Police sources said that rescue operations would continue till all the five bodies are found. But villagers challenged the figures and said that there were more people on board the boat and the exact number can only be confirmed by the boatman. They further alleged that some of the passengers were from Jharkhand and thus the police have no records of them.

Meanwhile, police have arrested the contractor of the bank, Sohardi Sk, but boatman Chintu Sk has gone into hiding. DM G Kiran Kumar said, "We have recovered ten bodies. But according to our records, five persons are still missing." Sources said both the IG of North Bengal as well as the DIG visited the spot to take stock of the rescue work.

Locals said that the arrest of Sohardi Sk, who used to collect money from boats as well as the passengers, has frightened the boatmen and thus there were no services along the ghat on Saturday. If this continues it would not be possible for the villagers to carry on with farming and grazing activities on islands located on the western side of the river.

Sunday 16 June 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Malda-boat-capsize-toll-rises-to-10/articleshow/20610404.cms

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No new survivors; divers fail to find sunken Philippino ferry


Navy divers have failed to find the seven missing passengers of the ferry M/V Our Lady of Mt. Carmel that sank off Burias Island in Masbate Friday with 70 people on board.

Sixty-one of those on board have been rescued, 39 of them passengers and 22 crew members, officials said. The bodies of two fatalities have been recovered.

Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Fabic told reporters the seven missing could have been trapped inside the sunken vessel.

There’s a slim chance that they had drifted to nearby islands, Fabic said.

Of the seven missing, only three are listed in the ship’s manifest: Abegail Barredo, Noan Manocan and Leticia Andaya.

Four are not in the manifest: Fe Rapsing, Jonas Comidor, Arianne Comidor and Jocelyn Danao.

In a phone interview, Coast Guard spokesman Commander Armand Balilo told The STAR they have not yet received news of any new survivors from the Coast Guard and Navy search and rescuers teams at the scene.

“They (survivors) may have been carried by waves to the island (Burias),” he said.

Balilo said the last report from the field showed calm weather was allowing the continued search and rescue operations.

“It is hard to give an assessment at this point,” he said.

Fabic said hopes of finding the remaining missing passengers were fading fast as strong currents thwarted attempts to reach the seabed.

“They still have not (located) the ferry and they were not able to go too deep,” he said.

Fabic said divers from the Naval Special Operations Group and the Coast Guard were continuously scouring the area but without success as of yesterday. “No new survivors were recovered so far,” he said.

Fabic said Navy and Coast Guard ships continue their patrols in case survivors had drifted to nearby coastal areas.

No deadline has been set for the rescue operations since the missing might still be alive, he added.

The Maritime Police in Masbate has deployed a motorized banca to help in the search.

Authorities are looking at the possibility that the ship capsized in Agua Point, some 11 nautical miles from Aroroy port.

The ship might have sunk in depths reaching 518 meters that professional divers may not be able to reach.

Local governments, fishermen and volunteers have joined in the search and rescue for the missing passengers.

As of press time, authorities had not received any report of the missing being found near the coastal areas.

The Navy has no equipment for divers to find the sunken vessel at a depth of about 1,000 feet.

Office of Civil Defense regional director Raffy Alejandro said the BRP Pampanga, which was supposed to join the Indonesian Navy in naval exercises, arrived at 3:17 p.m. Saturday at Burias Pass.

“The search and rescue operation immediately started as early as 9 a.m. Saturday and still continuing,” he said. Alejandro said the Navy has deployed two vessels and a plane; and the Coast Guard a motorized banca for the search and rescue.

Commodore Natalio Abinuman, Naval Forces Southern Luzon commander, has deployed a five-man team from the Naval Special Operation Unit on Saturday off Burias Pass.

Lt. Col. Johannis Leonardi Dimaano, Air Force Tactical Operations commander, has also deployed two helicopters with parachute jumpers for the aerial survey Friday at 3:30 p.m.

Ensign John Duruin, Navy deputy spokesperson in Bicol, said members of the Naval Special Operations Unit were able to go down to some 100 feet.

“The search was cancelled due to poor visibility,” he said. Duruin said the depth of the ocean floor where the vessel sank was about 1,000 feet.

“Our technical divers cannot go down to that depth,” he said. “They can only go as far as 330 feet.”

Duruin told The STAR in a text message the NAVSOU has no equipment for the conduct of that kind of search.

“Tomorrow it will be about 48 hours since they have been missing and we expect them to float toward the surface and will be carried by the current to the shorelines if they had not been trapped inside the vessel’s compartment,” he said.

Sunday 16 June 2013

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/06/17/954854/no-new-survivors-divers-fail-find-sunken-ferry

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