Bodies of Singaporean rowers return home from Cambodia
By Patwant Singh, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 27 November 2007 0116 hrs

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SINGAPORE : The bodies of five Singaporean rowers who died in the Cambodia dragon boat tragedy arrived home on Monday evening.

A C130 Hercules aircraft carrying the bodies of Chee Wei Cheng, Jeremy Goh Tze Xiong, Stephen Loh Soon Ann, Poh Boon San and Reuben Kee En Rui landed at Paya Lebar airport.

Relatives of the Singaporeans who died in the Cambodian Dragon Boat incident came back home late on Monday night.

Some 12 of them had gone to Phnom Penh, and all are now back in Singapore to make funeral arrangements.

Seven of the relatives arrived just after 10.30pm and were surrounded by police escorts.

Accompanying them, officials from the Singapore Dragon Boat Association and Singapore Sports Council.

And they were quickly whisked off to waiting vehicles.

This group comprised the families of the late Mr Jeremy Goh, 24, and Mr Chee Wei Cheng, 20.

Relatives of the late Mr Reuben Kee, 23, and Mr Stephen Loh, 31, returned home earlier in the afternoon.

The relatives of the late Mr Poh Boon San, 27, flew back with the bodies in a C130 aircraft which landed at Paya Lebar airport.

Yusof Lateef, Assistant Secretary-General of the Singapore Dragon Boat Association, said: "There are insurance policies that we have bought for them and we will be doing everything we can to assist the families in getting this done. It is a very trying time."

Earlier, 17 surviving members of the Singapore Dragon Boat team returned home on Monday afternoon.

Dr Lam Pin Min, Senior Vice President of the Singapore Dragon Boat Association (SDBA) and MP of Ang Mo Kio GRC, said: "The counsellors from MCYS (Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports) as well as the Institute of Mental Health are ensuring that the bereaved families and the survivors are being well taken care of psychologically."

Dr Lam said a post-mortem would be conducted after all the urgent matters are taken care of.

He added: "The committee will interview the surviving members to find out exactly what happened and to see whether there is any lapse in safety procedures, whether there are any areas we can improve upon so that such incidents do not happen again in the future.

"In SDBA's 20 years of history, we never had a single casualty or fatality like that and it is really unfortunate that this has happened."

Other government agencies will also assist in the investigations.

MCYS' Parliamentary Secretary Teo Ser Luck said: "MCYS is working closely with the other ministries such as Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MINDEF, and also trying to work at a coordinating level between the Singapore Sports Council and SDBA.

"We have to understand the situation better first. Some investigation needs to be done before we activate any councils or task force."

A memorial service for the deceased could be held after consultations with family members. - CNA/so/de