THE COST OF WITNESS
Murder and the Maersk Dubai
A broadcast from CBC radio, Canada
BY BOB CARTY
HOST INTRODUCTION:
Two years ago, an RCMP "swat" force boarded a ship in the middle of Halifax harbour to put the captain and his officers under arrest for alleged crimes right out of another century.
The ship of course was the Maersk Dubai, a container vessel owned in Taiwan with a crew of 7 Taiwanese officers and 8 Filipino sailors. Four of those sailors claimed the ship’s captain and his officers murdered three Romanian stowaways on the high seas – in effect, threw them overboard.
This Morning producer Bob Carty has been reviewing the case of the Maersk Dubai. He found that, indeed, something terrible and evil happened on the high seas aboard the Maersk Dubai. But something terrible and unjust also happened here in Canada. Today, two years after the story first start to come the light, the only ones who have suffered the consequences of the alleged crimes on the ship are the men who blew the whistle. Here is Bob Carty with his document about Murder and the Maersk Dubai – THE COST OF WITNESS.
*****
SFX – harbour + water lapping (add some Spanish music, low)
SCRIPT: At the southern tip of Spain there’s a city called Algeciras. There, cool evening in March of 1996, Emilian Sorin crouches in the shadows near the docks. Across the bay of Algeciras, Emilian can see the silhouette of the Rock of Gibraltar. In front of him is a container ship with a seven-pointed star on the smokestack and the name the lettering, the Maersk Dubai.
Emilian Sorin is dark-haired, short, thin and in his mid-twenties. And he desperately wants to go to Canada – to escape the political instability and economic chaos of his homeland, Romania. Tonight, he plans to stow away on the Maersk Dubai.
Two friends are with Emilian - Petre Sangeorzan and Radu Danciu. And at 8 o’clock those two friends make the first move out of the shadows. Emilian watches them cross the dock and mount the gangway - disappearing among the containers stacked high on the deck of the Maersk Dubai. Then, it’s Emilian’s turn. He starts for the gangway - but just then spots a member of the crew. He retreats to the darkness, and waits. But the crewman doesn’t move. The hours pass, and at 3 in the morning of March 11th, the Maersk Dubai slips its lines and pulls away. Emilian Sorin is left behind – but he thinks of his two Romanian friends, stowed away on board, headed for Canada.
SFX – horn + bow waves
JUANITO ILAGAN: We left Algeciras on our way to Halifax. I’ve had better ships before, but this one is not really that bad. My name is Juanito Ilagan, Jr. I’m from Philippines.
ARIEL BORAS: I’m Ariel Broas. This kind of job I can save money because you cannot buy anything in the midst of the sea. Since I been in this kind of job, I never met a stowaway before – this is my first time.
LEE COHEN: These were professional seamen from the Philippines who were independently and individually assigned to the Maersk Dubai. And on one particular day, all hell broke lose for them. My name is Lee Cohen. I’m the Filipinos’ lawyer.
SCRIPT: All hell begins to break lose when the Maersk Dubai is just six hours out to sea. The bosun of the ship, in effect the foreman of the Filipino crew, is making his rounds.
RUDOLFO MIGUEL (videotape): I caught them at 0900 hours. I hear something going on – there is a commotion.
SCRIPT: As Rudolfo Miguel later recounts on a police video, he hears some noises coming from a crawl-space between the containers and the hull.
RUDOLFO MIGUEL: When I looked – oh – there is a passenger there. And I said "Amigo, mi habla espanol. Come out, come out (fades).
JUANITO ILAGAN: I was having my 10 am coffee break. One of the quarter masters told me they caught stowaways on board . At first I saw them mid-ship – and the captain is yelling at the stowaways, and his eyes were devil’s eyes, fuming mad. It was scary.
RUDOLFO MIGUEL: They have a passport, and picture for their family and children. The master, he said, "throw overboard." And now these people: "No, no, on – please, please, please, please captain, no, no, please." Crying. They understand that they will throw overboard.
JUANITO ILAGAN: When I saw the stowaways, one of them are kneeling on the floor, I think begging for somebody to spare their lives. And he’s kissing one of the boots of the crew. And I called my third officer, third mate, and I said, can you give us the distance right now. He said "oh, we are around 20 to 30 miles from shore."
LEE COHEN: The four Filipino sailors pleaded with the ship’s captain to put together a make-shift raft, toss it over, and that will give the Romanians some kind of vessel to cling to once they’re off the boat. And that captain OK’ed that, and very quickly they put together some wood and some barrels and some ropes and put together a make-shift raft. And they tossed the raft over the side of the boat and it collapsed as soon as it hit the water. So they got permission to build a second raft that did survive being tossed over the side of boat. And then the two Romanians were forcibly removed from the vessel.
JUANITO ILAGAN: He was saying "por favor" – that’s Spanish; in English it is "please". He was facing me, asking me. I said "what can I do?" I mean, in the ship the Captain is regarded as the lord of the ship, what he says is the law. I don’t usually cry, but that time I cried. I just turned my back on the stowaways because I didn’t want him to see me crying. What can we do? The first time I ever saw a guy dying. I know he is going to die but I can’t help him. It’s either him or me.
LEE COHEN: The horror, the fear and the terror that was going on in those moments when the Romanians were being pushed down the pilot’s ladder, off of the boat, and into the sea. The last my clients saw of the two Romanians was them in the water, one apparently was already on top of the make-shift raft and other was not. You couldn’t come closer and be more helpless at the same time.
ARIEL BROAS: When the first incident happened, we almost mute the boat. Every person in the boat are mute, are deaf; we doesn’t want to talk, to discuss for almost a week.
JUANITO ILAGAN. At night I couldn’t sleep. I can see them. Ariel and I decided to write a letter – to tell this story – to Father Randy Albano of Houston, Texas; he’s a port chaplain. Then, when we reached Algeciras, Spain, again – that’s when I mailed the letter.
SFX – HARBOUR SOUNDS AGAIN
SCRIPT: It’s now two months later, May of 1996. Once again the Maersk Dubai is moored at the container docks of Algeciras, Spain. And once again a certain Romanian is trying to sneak on board. Emilian Sorin has waited for this ship. He tried stowing away on another one, but after it set sail he found out it was headed for South Africa. So he came back to Algeciras to wait for the Maersk Dubai.
And on this evening in May, Emilian does finally make it on board. With him are two other Romanian stowaways – Gheorghe Mihoc and Nicolae Pasca. They all find hiding places among the containers of the giant ship. But Emilian is anxious. So he sneaks out of hiding to ask a crew member if this ship IS going to Canada. A mistake. The crew member throws Emilian off the ship. And once he watches the Maersk Dubai sail out through the straits of Gibraltar. But once again thinks about two more friends who are headed to Canada.
SFX – horn + bow waves
JUANITO ILAGAN: It was Rudolfo Miguel and the second cook who saw the third stowaway.
RUDOLFO MIGUEL: Saturday, on May 18, 1130 hours, I saw the captain, the chief officer, the second mate, chief engineer, the chief cook holding knife grab this person.
JUANITO ILAGAN: The second cook, who is a Filipino, knocked on my door when I was having a nap and he said they’re gonna get rid of him. I said I don’t think they’ll kill him. He said they were carrying knives. I said who – who was carrying knives. Well, them, the Taiwanese officers.
RUDOLFO MIGUEL: Then I hear screaming, begging – "no, he said no."
SCRIPT: Rudolfo Miguel, says he saw the struggle
from a hatch door. The captain and several of his officers seemed
to be trying to push stowaway Gheorghe Mihoc over the side. Mihoc
was never seen again. And the Filipino crew of the Maersk Dubai
again fell silent.
But then they found a fourth stowaway, Nicolae Pasca. The Filipinos decided they would not report him to the captain. They hid him below deck - and to keep the secret Ariel Broas suggested they refer to him only as "the bird."
ARIEL BROAS: Only one person who is going to know where he is; only one person going to feed him; only one person going to visit. And some of our food that we don’t want to eat, we split it and give it to the stowaway.
SFX – fog horn in Halifax
SCRIPT: Six days later, the Maersk Dubai enters Halifax harbour. It berths at the container dock expecting to unload. But the police are waiting. They want to look aboard the Maersk Dubai because they have come into possession of a certain letter.
CORPORAL TOM TOWNSEND: There’s one quotation here and it reads as follows: "The worst thing they did was the violation of human rights when they discharged two stowaways who came from Algeciras, Spain. The forced the two stowaways to go down from the ship in mid-sea. As far as we all know, human lives must be preserved and saved at all costs." Reverend Albano received this letter apparently on the 22nd of May, 1996, at which time he forwarded it to the Halifax Mission to Seafarers here in Halifax, and eventually it ended up in our custody. My name is Corporal tom Townsend. I’m an investigator with the RCMP major crimes unit.
SCRIPT: The police board the Maersk Dubai and find the fourth stowaway, Nicolae Pasca. When they take statements from the Filipino crew, they can barely believe what they hear.
But there’s a problem. The Maersk Dubai could sail at any time. So with a sense of urgency, the RCMP informs the governments of Taiwan and Romania to see if either is interested in seeking extradition. There is no reply from Taiwan. But Romania says yes – it would like to try those suspected of killing its citizens.
CBC TV NEWS: … it started with a Coast Guard surveillance helicopter buzzing the Maersk Dubai. Dozens of heavily armed …
CORPORAL TOWNSEND: On the 29th of May our Emergency Response Ream secured the vessel and the officers, at which time they were given the appropriate rights and placed under arrest.
SCRIPT: It’s now the summer of 1996, and lawyers with the federal Department of Justice are preparing the case against the Taiwanese officers of the Maersk Dubai. And they have just received a some help from a one-time resident of Algeciras, Spain. Emilian Sorin, the twice-unlucky stowaway is now in Halifax. He finally stowed away on a different ship, which uneventfully deposited him on the Nova Scotia shore. Emilian has told the RCMP his story. He has identified his missing friends from photographs. Their families have been contacted – they have not seen or heard from their sons in months. No bodies have been found.
The RCMP is now certain of one thing – four stowaways boarded the Maersk Dubai on two separate voyages; only 1 got off alive. But to win an extradition case the police need witnesses. They ask the eight Filipinos in the crew to stay to testify. Four of them say no – and they fly back home. But four remain: Esmeraldo Esteban, Rudolfo Miguel, Ariel Broas, and Juanito Ilagan.
JUANITO ILAGAN: We wanted to testify. We just don’t want them to get away with it. Like I know they killed them. All I had in mind was "put these guys away." I didn’t know what problem we were going to have.
ARIEL BROAS: The torture – torture in Halifax. I didn’t expect that I was going to be staying here, and stuck. I was expecting I was going home after they arrested the boat. So I called my family informing them that in a week I’ll be home.
SFX – courtroom
DIANE NOSEWORTHY: The court case was a horrible occurrence. And I knew these people were hurting – I knew they were afraid.
SCRIPT: Diane Noseworthy is the chair of the Concern for Seafarer Witnesses Society, a group set up by Halifax area church people and citizens to help support the four Filipinos.
DIANE NOSEWORTHY: The first day we that we went to court we were put in a waiting room. And one of the men while we were in the waiting room, received a telegram saying that his wife had been harassed. And the men decided they just could not testify while families were not safe. And when they went into court and were asked one by one to testify, one by one they refused until their families were safe. And then they were charged with contempt of court. And they said so be it. And each day they went to court after that they brought with them a small bag with a few belongings expecting to be arrested and put in jail.
JUANITO ILAGAN: We were about to testify, but then my wife phoned me and informed me about the threats. And I – oh, I CAN’T do this right now. I’m not going to testify if my family is at risk. Like, these guys are already dead; my family are still alive – they can be saved. So why not save them first then I talk.
SCRIPT: A half a world away, the families of the sailors have suddenly seen their lives shattered. Teresita Esteban tells of the strange incidents and direct threats she received since her husbands agreed to testify.
TERESITA ESTEBAN: Even in the morning, at one o’clock, two o’clock, like that, there are unidentified men knocking on my door and telling "You put your life in danger; you tell to your husband that he will not going to testify." The most scary incident that happened to us (was) when a red car hit our pet dog. And then after 30 minutes an unidentified caller called up on my cell phone and he told me that "do you know the dog was just an example and that might be happen to you and the rest of your family."
SCRIPT: The families of the sailors used to live in middle-class homes. Their kids went to private schools. Now they have abandoned their houses – two families have fled to relatives. Two have sought refuge in the Manila compound of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines..
DIANE NOSEWORTHY: You think of the two wives who went into one room for eighteen months with six children – children ranging in age from two to thirteen. As a mother just the thought of being in one room with my children for that period of time – how did they ever put up with it?
The wives certainly believed in their husbands. They also believed they were doing the right thing. At the worst times I guess they must have wondered – the children, particularly the older children - why did their dad have to speak up, why did they have to lose a year and a half at school, and their friends, and toys and homes, and everything.MARIPAZ MIGUEL: Sometimes we call them on the phone in Canada just to tell how their kids are. And telling them, if only you are here … (fades)
DIANE NOSEWORTHY: They need just to hold each other and be together even for a short while. We were willing to pay for the families to come over; we were willing to look after them while they were here. But once they had claimed refugee status they were not allowed any family members to come in, even visit. And it was extremely difficult for the witnesses to be disallowed seeing their families while the accused had their families brought over and they stayed at a hotel, paid for by the Taiwanese shipping line, the Yangming shipping line.
SFX – courtroom
SCRIPT: Back in the courtroom in Halifax, the four Filipino sailors have finally decided they will testify. They feel somewhat re-assured that their families will be protected by the Philippine Churches and private security guards.
In an extradition case, the prosecution has to show that the conduct of the accused was criminal – and that there’s enough evidence to send them to trial. But the defence argues that the court has no jurisdiction to even hear arguments. And they argue with force. The seven Taiwanese officers have nine lawyers – an estimated one million dollars worth of legal services purchased by the Yangming shipping company and the government of Taiwan.
WARREN ZIMMER: It was pretty clear that the alleged offences had occurred aboard a Taiwanese ship on the high seas outside any country’s territorial jurisdiction, certainly not within Romania’s territorial jurisdiction. And you know we always maintained that if justice was to be meted out, it was to be meted out in Taiwan.
SCRIPT: Warren Zimmer is the Defence counsel for the Cheng Shiou, the youngest captain in the Yangming fleet. His client and the other accused to not have to testify at an extradition hearing. So what the defence lawyers do is attack the credibility of the Filipino sailors. And that’s what the media reports. It is suggested the Filipinos made up a fantastic story in order to get refugee status in Canada. Defence lawyer Warren Zimmer points to discrepancies in their testimony.
WARREN ZIMMER: There were great number of inconsistencies within those statements. For instance, inconsistencies as to which of the officers or Taiwanese crew were present at various locations, what they did, what they said.
SCRIPT: Prosecutor James Martin, a lawyer with the federal Department of Justice, has faith in the credibility of his Filipino witnesses.
JAMES MARTIN: There should be inconsistencies. If there are not inconsistencies when you have this many people in this kind of event then I’m quite worried about the credibility of any type of story. There should be inconsistencies. The degree of the inconsistencies is of course the issue. But the stories were that on the March incident two stowaways were put over the ship. And in the May incident there were no inconsistencies because there were only a couple of witnesses who saw anything in relation to that particular incident.
SCRIPT: The lawyers for the accused Taiwanese officers do not, in fact, argue that nothing happened on the Maersk Dubai. But rather than what happened, while not proper, was not necessary murder. Defence lawyer Warren Zimmer.
WARREN ZIMMER: The most probably scenario was that the ship was turned around. It was brought to within half a mile of the Moroccan coast, it was basically stopped dead in water. There was a raft that was put over the side. The two stowaways, they got on the raft, they had flotation devices, they were given food, water. Certainly the suggestion they were 70 miles, 50 miles out to sea – I don’t think that is a correct version of what occurred.
SCRIPT: That hypothetical scenario is refuted in the courtroom by an expert witness for the prosecution – Master Mariner, Captain John Lewis.
CAPTAIN JOHN LEWIS: Having studied and done some mathematical calculations and plotted the ship’s noon position day by day from Algeciras to Halifax, there was no indication that this ship made any major alterations of course. Probably its nearest land would have been probably Cape Trafalgar which was about 50 miles away, maybe 40 miles. The sea state, and this is from their log book, was six, which gave a rough sea with about 10 to 11 feet wave heights. To be put on a raft in these weather conditions, that raft would probably have disintegrated within three or four hours and hypothermia would have set in. I don’t think they have a chance to survive.
SCRIPT: International agreements, when stowaways are found on board, they are supposed to be treated like the crew – given food and lodging and work. But Captain John Lewis notes that there are growing pressures on captains to simply "dispose" of stowaways. For example, he notes that the Canadian government charges ships $7000 for every stowaway that lands in Canada. And the Yangming company has its own list of "incentives."
CAPTAIN JOHN LEWIS: I have read the Yangming Transportation Corporation directives on the stowaways, and they do have a section that says "rewards and punishment". It states that "in the cases where stowaways are sought and discovered prior to departure of vessel, then the captain and crew members who assisted in this matter will be rewarded." It then goes on to say, "on the contrary if a stowaway is discovered after departure due to the captain or the crew members failure to take preventive measures, then the captain and crew will be punished according to their degree of fault." So you see there are some pressures here.
SCRIPT: IN March of 1997, the extradition hearing finally comes to an end. Justice J. Michael MacDonald gives his decision: if it were up to him, he’d send 6 of the seven Taiwanese officers to trial for second degree murder and/or manslaughter. But he won’t do that. He says he doesn’t have the authority to extradite the Taiwanese to Romania. They are free to go. Case closed.
It’s a decision that does not sit well with either Lee Cohen, the Filipino’s lawyer, or James Martin, the Prosecutor. But they disagree over what could have been done.
LEE COHEN: The Canadian government should have seized jurisdiction to try the seven ship officers for murder here in Canada. We should not have abandoned that responsibility. And I do believe that what Canada chose to do here was to be as inoffensive as it could – which is completely offensive to me – and essentially ignore the alleged murder of three Romania, and not offend Taiwan who is a significant trading partner with this country and not offend Romania which is a country that buys a great deal of our nuclear technology.
JAMES MARTIN: There is no provision in Canadian criminal law that would have given Canada jurisdiction to prosecute these individuals. It was not something that we decided all of a sudden – no we don’t – it was looked at and examined by the lawyers for the Department of Justice, and examined very closely. It was not a viable argument.
LEE COHEN: You know I use as an analogy the turbot - the fish war we had with Spain. This was a situation where the Canadian government through then Fisheries Minister Brian Tobin decided to exceed, go beyond our territorial waters to arrest a Spanish fishing vessel in order to ensure the fishing world knows that we are serious about protecting our species in Canada. But Canada didn’t give a moments thought to stretching its jurisdiction to ensure that the world realize that we are serious that people will not be murdered on the high seas.
SCRIPT: The Filipinos have now been in Canada for almost a year. But their legal odyssey is not yet over. They feel their lives would be in danger if they went back to the Philippines, so they have applied for refugee status. That involves meeting Canada’s definition of a refugee and arguing the case before a panel of two federally-appointed adjudicators. Watching the process is one of the members of the Halifax support group, Reverend Fleming Holm, a retired United Church Minister and a former official with provincial and federal human rights commissions.
REVEREND FLEMING HOLM: I have a new appreciation of the meaning of the phrase that "justice delayed is justice denied." Because these men and their families might almost as well have been in jail for the last two years. People who have blown the whistle have been punished they told the truth and they sought Canadian justice.
LEE COHEN: Frequently in the media reports the media describe the four Filipinos as having jumped ship to claim refugee status. That didn’t happen at all. They came to Canada because they worked on a boat that came to Canada and in the process of coming to Canada, three people are dead. And the RCMP officers and the Department of Justice strongly encouraged, almost begged the Filipino sailors to stay here to testify at any subsequent judicial process that was going to take place. We asked them to be here – they were here at the behest of the Canadian government. And as a result of reporting those murders, their lives became a living hell, and hence they claimed refugee status.
REVEREND FLEMING HOLM: And it just seemed to me that the whole system was bent on finding reasons why men should NOT be allowed into Canada. They gave up good jobs. They were willing to take this action for the sake of people from a different part of the world. And they did not want to see any more stowaways die in that manner.
LEE COHEN: The Refugee Board determined that the families of the four sailors were being intimidated and harassed but they were being harassed by corporate agents and not political agents. That intimidation was being exercised by an agent of persecution who they identified as being Yangming Lines or friends or agents of Yangming lines, but the sailors were not persecuted for political reasons. And therefore we didn’t meet the refugee definition.
JUANITO ILAGAN: The book says we’re not refugees. I felt so small. I thought they don’t think of me as a human. Gees, they value the dogs lives here (more) than us. The book says no. It was the book – it’s not them – I feel it’s the book.
SCRIPT: The Filipinos appeal the refugee board’s rejection of their refugee claim. But they’re turned down again. By the Spring and summer of 1998, there is only one recourse left. They ask the Minister of Immigration to let them stay in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
LEE COHEN: We had a tremendous amount of support from across Canada – support from average citizens, clergy, church organizations; we had letters written from politicians and from Senators. We know from our contacts inside the department that the case was highly politicized, that the file was very substantial, probably larger or as large as any one they’ve had in the past, and I think they also assessed the political fall-out of a yes and no decision. And about 10 days ago I was called by the manager of the local Immigration office. He said a decision had been reached, he’d like to set up a meeting with me and the four sailors.
DIANE NOSEWORTHY: The director of immigration came out and he took the four men and Lee into an inner room and left us standing in the outer officer. You know you’re hoping for yes, and trying to prepare yourself for no, and that long wait in the waiting room. And then we were taken in to the inner room and we were officially told. There wasn’t any great screaming and shouting. There was a hugging and holding onto each other – yes we were happy but so beaten down, so tired.
SCRIPT: On August 13th , 1998, two years and two months since they got off the Maersk Dubai and told their story, the four Filipino sailors become landed immigrants.
In the Philippines, their families are preparing to join their husbands in Canada.
In Romania, the families of three stowaways have lost hope of seeing their sons again.
In Taiwan, the six accused officers are still working for the Yangming company. No charges have been brought against them. The Taiwan government says it is still investigating the case.
And in Ottawa, Canada’s extradition act IS being amended to make it easier to extradite suspects. But little else has changed – in Canadian or international law - to prevent another tragedy like the Maersk Dubai. In Algeciras, would-be stowaways still wait in the shadows.
In Halifax, the Filipinos are each working at between two and three minimum wage jobs. But a couple weeks ago they made a little time for celebration with their support group – a meal, some speeches, and some singing around a guitar. One of Ariel Broas’ favorite songs is in his own Philippine language.
SFX – song in Tagolog
SCRIPT: The song is about impossible dreams, and families reuniting, and about a story that will never be forgotten. Though today, when you talk to Ariel Broas and Juanito Ilagan, they have quite different perceptions about how much they want to hold on to the memory of the Maersk Dubai and of the past two years.
ARIEL BROAS: For me, what I did already, I cannot bring it back again. On the other hand, it is not worth – doing the sacrifice for your family and your career and everything – it is not worth.
JUANITO ILAGAN: When I decided to do this, I knew it was a one-way ticket. My career as a sailor is gone, it’s all over. But I’ll do it again. Because I was think if I was one who was thrown overboard and no one will testify about my death, where will my soul rest – probably no where.
SFX – song to end.
EXTRO: Murder and the Maersk Dubai – THE COST OF WITNESS, was produced by Bob Carty.
| © Ellen Bakvis , ellen@sorcerystudios.com |
