Media release: Family of SIEV X Inc - A new national SIEV X family support group has just been formed, based in Perth..

- Media release by Tony Kevin, 21 January 2005, covering media release by Sue Hoffman of Western Australia Refugee Alliance:

 

I am pleased to offer my support, sponsorship and best wishes to a new community group Family of SIEV X Inc , that has just been formed in Perth.

This group is really unusual and important because it was inspired by bereaved SIEV X fathers themselves, men living in the Perth area. These men, who remain on temporary protection visas, are showing great personal courage in taking part with Perth-based refugee rights advocate Sue Hoffman (whom I have known since 2002) in setting up an organisation whose aims are very much focussed on the welfare of SIEV X families – families of survivors, and of bereaved refugees in Australia who lost their loved ones in the tragedy.

This is a very important dimension of the SIEV X tragedy not addressed organisationally to date, though individuals eg Arnold Zable, Marg Hutton, Keysar Trad, Mary Dagmar Davies, Steve Biddulph, have done a great deal in personal contact with individual survivor families.

This group will, as it grows and solidifies, help to establish a clearer picture of just how many people there are in this situation around Australia. Their most urgent needs are, in my view:

. firstly, proper community recognition of their grief – it is hard to grieve fully and to finality when the whole society around one is still in denial that anything of particular importance happened – that is why building physical memorials to SIEV X is so important ;

. secondly, obtaining official confirmation from the as yet unreleased passenger lists (which are certainly held by the Australian law enforcement authorities) of who lived and who died on SIEV X – amazingly, these lists are still being withheld by Justice Minister Chris Ellison and the AFP;

. thirdly, and. most important of all, giving the survivors and bereaved family members of SIEV X permanent refuge in Australia.

As I understand it from Sue Hoffman, all these things are part of the new organisation’s purposes – and other useful purposes as well.

I won’t be taking an active role in the organisation – my main work on SIEV X, writing the book, has been done - but I fully support its aims and I hope that everyone else with an interest in SIEV X will also do so.

It is very important that a civic association is now being formed in Australia built around the wishes of the SIEV X survivors and bereaved themselves. Too often , they have been seen as "objects" – objects of pity, sympathy, political activism . In the Family of SIEV X Inc, they will be subjects – and active participants. This is a wonderful thing !

Please, as soon as you can, indicate to Sue, Mohammed, Ghazi, Vanessa or Indra – their phone numbers and emails below - your interest in supporting this organisation, being listed as a Sponsor, and donating some start-up funds.

I will be pleased to be listed as a Sponsor, and I am about to make an initial donation of $200 to register my full commitment.to the new organisation’s aims. Please follow my example – help the Family of SIEV X Inc get off to a well-funded start.

Tony Kevin, Canberra 21 January 2005

MEDIA RELEASE:

Family of SIEV X Inc

From Sue Hoffman of West Australia Refugee Alliance

wara@optusnet.com.au

This is to let you know about a significant development in the SIEV X story, and to ask for your support. Please pass on through your networks.

There are four Iraqi men living in Perth who’ve suffered terrible losses – their wives, children and other family members drowned when SIEV X sank on October 19 2001.

At their instigation, a new group called Family of SIEV X Inc. has been formed to achieve certain outcomes and your support is welcome.

Projects include (there are others):

* arranging for the survivors and next of kin to met with each other 3 or 4 times a year;

* gathering their stories – recording, transcribing and translating them, making them available in Arabic and English;

* developing a SIEVX website in Arabic;

* translating some of the material about SIEVX from English to Arabic – not just for them, but more broadly for the Iraqi community and Arabic-speaking world;

* arranging a public memorial in Perth, easy to visit and so that others become aware of the tragedy;

* organising with other groups SIEV X anniversary memorial events;

* informing the wider community about SIEV X and the loss of 353 lives (146 children, 142 women, 65 men).

Family of SIEV X Inc. want to warmly acknowledge the dedication of many Australians in their unwavering support and advocacy of the SIEV X issue and work with them into the future.

You are invited to sign up as a Friend of the Family of SIEV X Inc. by going to

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FamilyofSIEVX/

or email me, Sue Hoffman, at wara@optusnet.com.au

There will be a Perth launch, details to be confirmed but at this stage Thursday 17 Feb 6pm to 8pm in a central location. Program to include guest speaker, short video on SIEV X, photographic display of memorial artwork submitted by schools from around Australia, and more about the projects, interspersed with music.

Inquiries: (Arabic speakers) Mohammad 0413 288 719, Ghazi 0403 285 364

(English speakers) Sue 0401 238 567, Vanessa 9378 1467 Indra 0409 181 998 or 9276 5947