Following swingeing pressure for the refloating of the MV Barima, the Maritime Administration Department today invited tenders for the salvaging of the vessel.
The move came after the government had appeared hesitant to want to do this. The government had previously said that the vessel had sunk deeper and it had been canvassing relatives on the possibility of an underwater memorial as a permanent resting place. The government had even gone as far as to circulate a document to families of missing persons seeking their views on the underwater memorial.
This move had been widely condemned by some families and members of civil society who said that the vessel had to be retrieved to permit closure for families whose relatives might still be on board. It was also argued that refloating the vessel would be crucial to the investigation that will get under way as to the reasons for the capsizing which might have killed as many as 100 persons.
Opposition leader Azruddin Mohamed had also offered to have the vessel salvaged. The government did not respond to his offer.
Seventy-three bodies have thus far been recovered, 76 persons were rescued and a further 3o are believed to be missing after the July 18 tragedy that has seen unrelenting calls for the resignations or removals of Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill and Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation, Deodat Indar.
Yesterday’s editorial in Kiskadee Watch called for the salvaging of the vessel. It began with these sentences: “The MV Barima should be raised from the sea floor. It is as simple as that.
“In the first place it contains the remains of an unknown number of those who died in the disaster, and in the second it constitutes the sole source of physical evidence for what went wrong”.
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