Five years after SIEV-X tragedy, tears fall

Worn out by five years of pent-up pain, Mohammad al-Ghazzi grasped the opportunity yesterday to cry for his family members lost in the 2001 sinking of the wooden boat SIEV-X, which was crammed with asylum-seekers.

Mr al-Ghazzi's wife, three children and 10 more relatives were among the 353 Iraqis and Afghans who died on their way to what they had hoped would be a new life in Australia.

Yesterday, a memorial service was held on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin at Weston Park in Yarralumla, featuring timber poles held up by mourners to signify each of the victims.

At last, it presented Mr al-Ghazzi with the chance to give way to the grief welling since the boat sank en route from Indonesia to Christmas Island on October 19, 2001.

Mr al-Ghazzi, a native Iraqi, has no family in his adopted home of Perth. In their place at the ceremony yesterday were two of his Australian friends, Sue Hoffman and Vanessa Moss.

Alongside them were a handful of other fathers who lost family in the disaster, as well as many hundreds of people from around the country so moved by their plight they joined the fight to create a permanent memorial in Canberra.

The organisers of the SIEV-X Memorial Ceremony and Raising of the Poles hope that it will help create that legacy.

Whether that wish materialises or not, the temporary tribute injected new strength into Mr al-Ghazzi.

"This is the first time I have been able to grieve for my family," he said.

"I am so tired by all that has happened, I am still looking for the truth."

He has been granted permanent residency, but has yet to find a job.

One of the founders of the movement to establish a permanent memorial, the Reverend Rod Horsfield, of the Uniting Church, said it was needed out of respect for the victims.

The campaign has so far been unsuccessful as rules regarding such tributes in Canberra, administered by the National Capital Authority, dictate that at least 10 years must have passed since an event before a permanent memorial to it is made.

About 250 schools, churches, Rotary Clubs and Country Women's Associations made the poles and wrote on them the name of the person they had chosen to remember, if known.

Among the guests yesterday were former governor-general Sir William Deane, his wife Lady Deane and ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope.