An opposition MP in Kiribati says there is growing anger over the government's refusal to release a report into the Butiraoi sinking.
The inter-island vessel sank in January this year on a trip from Nonouti to Tarawa, claiming at least 80 lives.
The government has this week told parliament a commission of inquiry report will not be made public as they have just announced a police investigation into some of those allegedly involved in the sinking.
Nonouti MP, Sir Ieremia Tabai, who is a former president of Kiribati, told Don Wiseman the police inquiry is no excuse for not making the report public.
Photo: supplied
Transcript
SIR IEREMIA TABAI: They refused to release the report. They said there are issues there that first need to be investigated by the police. That's OK but that doesn't mean that they can't release the report. It's only an excuse - that's the first one. The second one is they say that when I was President I never released a report on a similar incident on a boat that got lost in the sea as well. And that is a total lie because I was not in government at the time. I was in Fiji and there was no need for the report to be release at the time. In this case nearly 100 people have died as a result and I always say that the government must be blamed, for two reasons. One - they allowed the boat to go into the open sea when it is unseaworthy. The second one, they were so late to go and rescue the people. They just went out after one week after the accident. That's why in my view the government is trying to avoid the responsibility that they fail to honour.
DON WISEMAN: You think this is the main reason they are not releasing it?
IT: In my view there is no other reason. Because it is public document. The people won't to know what happened and the government is saying no it is not going to release the report. They are not doing their job. In a democracy we are entitled to information and they are using excuses but we know they don't make sense at all.
DW: Sir Ieremia you are the MP for Nonouti. It is a small island isn't it and with this large number of people who died there must still be tremendous concern on the island, nearly a year later.
IT: It is very true. And only the other day two women came to us to asking us for help, seeking advice because they are very concerned that the government is refusing to release the report. This issue is going to continue. I don't know for how long but it is going to continue because many people are still suffering as a result of what happened and I simply don't know why the government is refusing to release the report. There is simply no reason at all. It doesn't make sense to me. And that's why we will continue to put pressure on the government to release the report. And people now are talking about taking the government to court. They are talking about compensation.
DW; Do you envisage that this police investigation will look at government involvement?
IT: I don't know because we haven't seen the report, so we don't know. But anyway the government is still liable in my view. They allowed the boat to sail
when it is unseaworthy and they failed to go to the rescue when the accident happened.
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