Police name captains as suspects of ferry accident

JAKARTA (JP) : Police have named Andi Kurniawan and Mualim I. Sumaryo, the captain and co-captain of an ill-fated ferry as suspects after intensive interrogation for two days.

Police have arrested them since Friday for questioning, one day the accident in waters of Thousands Island regency, killing at least 18 of it's passengers.

The number of passengers was still confused as three different institutions issued different figures -- 400, according to the Indonesian Red Cross, 316, according to Tanjung Priok seaportauthority, and 307, according to ship management.

Transportation Minister Hatta Radjasa said that the government has revoked permit of Levina ship because passengers on board are different from those registered by the ship management.

In the vast nation of 17,000 islands, ferries are the cheapest and most popular form of public transportation. But safety standards are poor, leading to hundreds of deaths each year. Indonesia has been hit by a string of transportation disasters in recent months.

In late December, another passenger ferry sank in a storm in the Java Sea, killing more than 400 people.