Correction To Noonsite Previous Report On Kiribati Arrest

Created by doina. Last modified on 2008-04-18 06:38:05
Topic: Cruising Information
Countries: Kiribati

Noonsite published a news item on April 10 regarding the arrest of the crew German Yacht Atlantis in Kiribati after failing to clearing in to the country.

Walter and Gisela Mittasch of SV Atlantis have now contacted Noonsite to point out that this report was substantially wrong. It was due to engine problems they made the decision to stop on Butaritari without clearing, and although this did initially result in their arrest, once the Kiribati authorities had established it was a genuine emergency stop, they were permitted to stay until repairs were completed.

The fact remains that the authorities in Kiribati treat any failure of yachts to comply with the correct entry procedure very severely.

Their account of what happened is as follows:

"We had checked out in Majuro/Marshall Islands for Vanuatu. Under way we realized a overheating problem with our engine. On Rag Net(a daily net for cruisers in the pacific) we announced that we will sail to Butaritari without permission. We did not mention that we have an engine problem. The Kiribati Intelligence service was listening to the net and informed the Commissioner of Police. The commissioner organized our arrest one day before we reached Butaritari.

We had just anchored when a boat with about 8 policemen came alongside. The officer explained that we are illegally in the country and I had to follow him on land. The passports were confiscated. Our plea for distress, Gisela additionally sick in the night of our arrival, was refused. The answer was: we have our order from Tarawa.

We had been arrested for 30 hours, than a investigation team from Tarawa showed up. After a engine test and a couple of questions the team announced that we had entered in a case of distress. The team signed a paper that stated we entered Kiribati legal under distress conditions and we had been arrested illegally. Immigration gave us 3 days for the engine repair after that we had to leave Kiribati.

After 48 hours we got the possibility to talk with a lawyer and he proposed we should open a court case against the commissioner of Police. Giselas health situation deteriorated permanently. She had constantly 38,5 fiver in spite of antibiotics and Parazetamol. The immigration officer explained that he is not interested and we have to leave on Thursday otherwise we will get arrested again.

This forced us to open the court case against the commissioner of Police and we got an order from the judge that we can stay in Kiribati until our case will be decided. When Giselas fever went down under 38 we sailed to Tarawa. After three days in Tarawa we decided to stop the court case if we will get a letter of apology. In our mind we are still guests in Kiribati even they did not treat us like guests. Additionally we did not like to stay for another 4 weeks in Tarawa and killing time. On Tuesday, 15 April 2008, we got the apology-letter from the attorney general and we left Kiribati for Vanuatu.

Walter and Gisela Mittasch
SV Atlantis
on high sea
underway to Sola, Vanuatu"