Trauma of family's loss recalled

FARIS Kadhem is a lucky man, but his eyes tell a different story.

Five years ago, when a plane flew over the SIEV-X* - a slowly sinking fishing boat packed with more than 400 asylum-seekers off northern Australia - the Iraqi thought he was rescued.

Mr Kadhem was only hours away from a new life with his family in Australia.

Instead, SIEV-X sunk, and his wife and seven-year-old daughter drowned, along with 351 others.

Mr Kadhem floated for more than 20 hours, and was the first of 45 people rescued by Indonesian fishing boats.

Mr Kadhem arrived in Canberra yesterday to attend a fifth anniversary SIEV-X memorial ceremony at Weston Park today.

The boat sank on October19, 2001. The Australian Government has since come under pressure over what it knew about SIEV-X, and whether the survivors could have been rescued.

Mr Kadhem, 39, has since remarried and is a butcher in Thomastown, Victoria.

He says he still has nightmares of the night he lost everything of his previous life.

He's still haunted by the screams of the 150 children who called out for help as the boat went down.

He doesn't blame anyone for the tragedy, but believes the people on the SIEV-X could have been saved.

He said a plane circled above the boat for an hour before it sank, and two large ships approached the group in the water at night.

"I could see the ships and I could hear another smaller one.

"We were screaming for help - if they had helped us 200 people could have been rescued.

"We had life jackets and we used the whistles on the jackets.

"I know they heard us. But they just watched us."

When he was rescued by an Indonesian fishing boat he asked the captain to look for other survivors.

Nine months after his journey to Australia he was reunited with his son, Ali, who had arrived earlier and lives with his grandmother.

Three years ago Mr Kadhem married administration manager Silvana Luca on his birthday, and they live in Melbourne.

"I love Australian people, no, I am in love with Australian people," he said.

"I ask God to look after them."

Despite his ordeal, Mr Kadhem said he thought Australia's refugee laws were good.

He had escaped a life of persecution in Iraq and was sent to Iran, where he said he spent eight years in a refugee camp.

"I am 39 years old and I have never had citizenship ... I have had hard times and a hard life.

"Coming to the memorial makes me happy, but it is always very sad."

The ceremony's, decorated poles represent each person who died.

The fifth anniversary SIEV-X memorial ceremony will be at 2pm at Weston Park, Yarralumla.

*SIEV-X is an acronym for Suspected Illegal Entry Vessel X.