31 Mar 2010

Tonga cabinet discusses Ashika inqury report

3:16 pm on 31 March 2010

The Tongan Prime Minister and the country's Cabinet, along with King George Tupou the 5th, have received the report on the sinking of the ferry Princess Ashika last August.

74 people died in the disaster.

The final report follows five months of investigations with the Royal Commission hearing repeatedly that the unseaworthy vessel's purchase was marked by a lack of process, an absence of due diligence and the use of forged documents.

The spokesperson for the prime minister, Dr Feleti Sevele, says the Cabinet is now in a special meeting to discuss the report.

Ofa ki Levuka Guttenbeil Likiliki of the Women's and Children's Crisis Centre says it's important that the general public gets to see the report in its entirety, and that it's quickly translated into Tongan.

"At the grassroots level the first thing is that there will be a language barrier because the report is in English, so we are hoping that there'll be quite a quick turn around period for translating the report in its entirety and that it will be presented with the facts as they came out of the inquiry."

Ofa ki Levuka Guttenbeil Likiliki