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EOHR Issues Its Report
The Railways Crisis…. Until When???
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24/8/2006
EOHR issues today Thursday the 24th of August 2006, its qualitative report with the title "The Railways Crisis…. Until When???" containing information and results of the fact-finding mission which have been delegated by EOHR to Qalioub city whereas the place of the crash of Banha train and Al-Mansoura.
The fact-finding mission team had met 16 wounded and one witness to this tragic incidence, and have listened to their testimonies .
Also the fact-finding mission obtained some results about the reason of the accident, it was as follow :
1. The absence of questioning of the chiefs and responsible in the previous accidents, was one of the main reasons of repeating such accidents.
In the upper Egypt train's accident, in which about 350 persons have deceased, and hundreds had injured, there wasn't any trial to any of the responsible, and 11 accusations were presented from the workers and the small employees in the railways association which the felony court has acquitted them.
2. Negligence, wrong management, and the absence of maintenance of one of the main utility in Egypt caused the deteriorating conditions of the train's cabins, and also the absence of the safety systems, which is the main reason of committing this accident and the increase of the victims number.
3. The overcrowding of people in the train's cabins was an essential reason of the increase of the victims number, and it's noticed that the overcrowding of people in the train's cabins was a common factor in all of the trains accidents.
4. The Egyptian government is still unable to manage its crises in a proper way, so the EOHR's delegation has observed the citizens suffering to get to the victims names among the wounded and deceased, whereas the victims were spread to more than a hospital, and the citizens kept moving between hospitals looking for their relatives, despite all of that, the EOHR's delegation has noticed that the mechanism of dealing with this disaster was better than the previous.
5. Obstructing information, and many of the responsible were prohibited from giving any information to the journalists and the delegations of human rights organizations present a hindrance to these associations to do their jobs, which is trying to reveal the truth to the public opinion. For example, the headmaster of the station rejected to give any information to the EOHR's delegation, and also the responsible for the transferring tower rejected to give any information to the EOHR's delegation and to some of the journalists, and it was about to reach a hand-fight between the journalists and the transferring responsible, who had forced the EOHR's delegation and the journalists to get out of the transferring building.
6. Discrimination between citizens in the railways utility.
One of the notes that is might be worthy that is most of the trains accidents which took place during the past fifteen years, were to the third class trains, not the distinguished second class, that's what can give us an important notice, that's:
-The Egyptian government and the railways utility give the biggest interest only to distinguished trains without any interest to the third class trains, and it's very clear that since 2002 when the Upper Egypt train's accident took place, the government have issued many statements promising to give a special concern to improve third class cabins, however, nothing has happened.
The EOHR's report pointed a collection of recommendations to many different concerned organs, as follow:
First : Recommendations to the Prosecutor General
Performing an immediate investigations on the incidence, revealing the reasons behind the disaster, punishing the responsible for it, and announcing that to the public as soon as possible, and also reopening the investigation in the previous disasters, starting from the train crashes in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995 three incidences, two in 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2002.
Second : Recommendations to the Egyptian Government
Forming a higher committee for searching for the crisis reasons, and the ways of avoiding it, through commanding the whole concerned ministries to form a special unit to manage the crisis, and the ways of dealing with them.
The necessity for the government to develop rules for the personal safety of the transport sector and the maintenance of this vital facility and the modernization of trains without burdening the poor any additional costs.
Work on compensating victims, injured and deceased in respect to the magnitude of the disaster and in accordance with the internationally recognized remedies in such cases.
The formation of a committee of experts and specialists to carry out periodical maintenance and to ensure the safety of trains and the conformity with the technical specifications necessary to permit the trains to work and also working on a scheme to develop rail-roads.
EOHR also demands the establishment of a higher council for transport safety to be responsible for carrying out the investigations on serious incidents that occur in the field of transport and sets standards and specifications for enhancing the level of safety, issuing recommendations, assessing institutions and bodies and relevant authorities on transportation safety studies and researches, issuing publications on transportation safety culture. Pursuant to the recommendation contained in the report of the Transport Committee and the People's Assembly's Special Incident "Sinking of Salam 98" are recommendations that have not been implemented yet.
Third : Recommendation to the Parliament
The Parliament should issue a law for the establishment of an independent council specialized in managing crises including a group of advisers in all disciplines related to humanitarian and natural disasters and to allocate an independent budget.
This committee should not fall under any supervision from the ministries of the state, and to establish a crises-management unit in each ministry under the supervision of the council.
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