'Communication was not a problem between Patriot Hills and Chile'
By Jacqueline Ann Surin

PETALING JAYA: The Russian organiser of the South Pole Millennium Jump 2000 has refuted the Malaysian team's claim that communication was a problem between Patriot Hills in the Antarctica and Punte Arenas in Chile.

Vice-president of the Expedition Centre Antarctica, Valera Beloussov, said the Malaysian team at Patriot Hills was in constant contact with the Malaysian organising chairman G. Siva Kumar in Punte Arenas.

"Siva Kumar stayed in Punte Arenas during the expedition and had permanent telephone contact with myself and the Malaysian team," Beloussov said in an e-mail to The Star.

Siva Kumar had said that the sole satellite phone at Patriot Hills was controlled by the Russians, and hence he was unable to verify the Russian claim that the Malaysian team jumped at the geographical South Pole on Jan 13.

It was only revealed that there was no jump whatsoever on Jan 13 by Siva Kumar after he returned home on Jan 23.

Asked to comment on Siva Kumar's statement that Fikiran Syndicate would sue the Russian organisers for not fulfilling their end of the bargain over the jump, Beloussov said "the expedition successfully fulfilled all its tasks."

He said the expedition achieved one jump over Patriot Hills consisting of 32 parachutists at midnight on New Year's Eve, a 1,100km return trip on snow buggies from Patriot Hills to the South Pole, and a flight from Patriot Hills to the South Pole for people who expressed their desire to go.

He confirmed that the Malaysian team jumped over Patriot Hills on Jan 1 but said the team "decided not to wait for the flight to the South Pole" on Jan 19.

"It was a joint decision between Siva Kumar and the Malaysian team to leave the Antarctica on Jan 17," Beloussov said.

He said the expedition also achieved the first hot-air balloon flight over the South Pole and the first parachute jump from a hot-air balloon in the Antarctica.

Beloussov did not mention any Jan 13 jump over the South Pole as part of the expedition's objectives, even though e-mail messages made available to The Star show that other international participants wanted a refund when they knew, as early as Dec 12, that no such jump was going to take place.

He also did not answer the question why the jump was not carried out. He said the total number of participants for the expedition was 88 from 18 countries including 32 skydivers, and that the last members left Patriot Hills on Jan 27.

Siva Kumar's earlier claim that the Malaysian team had successfully skydived over the South Pole on Jan 13 is being investigated by the Sports and Youth Ministry.