May 29, 2013
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - Divers have been sent to search for 23 people missing after a boat capsized in churning rapids on a remote Borneo river while overloaded with people heading home for a festival, police said Wednesday.
The accident occurred Tuesday morning on the Rajang river, Malaysia's longest, but search and rescue efforts have been hampered by the remote location deep in the rugged jungle interior of Borneo in the state of Sarawak.
"We know where the boat is but it will take our teams some hours to get there," said Bakar Anak Sebau, police chief of the town of Belaga.
"As far as we know, 23 people are still missing but we are hoping for some good news on that."
Bakar said a Malaysian media report that two bodies had been found was incorrect.
The boat was heading downstream from Belaga, massively overloaded with travellers on the move for the coming weekend's Gawai festival, an important annual cultural and religious observance for indigenous Borneo tribes.
Officials have estimated the boat's capacity at around 70, but they have said 181 people were rescued or made it to shore safely after the vessel flipped.
The festival triggers heavy travel across the state each year.
Sarawak is Malaysia's largest state by area but also one of its least developed. Along with Sabah, it is one of two Malaysian states on huge Borneo island, which also is shared with Indonesia and the tiny sultanate of Brunei.
Many members of the indigenous tribal groups who predominate in Sarawak still live in traditional wooden longhouses in the jungle, where fast-flowing but treacherous rivers are the quickest mode of travel.
The boat had run aground further downstream from where it capsized and was mostly submerged, authorities have said.
"The missing may still be stuck in the boat," said Liwan Lagang, state assemblyman for Belaga and an assistant Sarawak state tourism minister.
"We certainly hope that they made it out safely."
The Rajang river is an important Sarawak waterway, winding 560-kilometre (350-mile) from Borneo's wild central highlands to the South China Sea.
Authorities have yet to indicate whether action may be taken against the boat's operators for taking on so many passengers, saying they were focused on rescue efforts.
Bakar said passenger boat operators often come under intense pressure during the Gawai festival, as travellers demand to be allowed on already crowed vessels so they can reach home in time for the celebrations.
Thirteen people died in the last major boat accident in Sarawak two years ago.
Indigenous groups, typically Christian or animist, make up about half of Sarawak's 2.4 million people, in contrast to more developed and populous mainland Malaysia, where Muslim ethnic Malays are the majority group.
