The families of the victims of the Al-Salam 98 ferry have yet to receive death certificates, let alone compensation, reports Magda El-Ghitany Six weeks after the sinking of the ferry Al-Salam 98 and the survivors and families of those killed are still waiting to find out what caused the disaster. They are waiting, too, for compensation promised in the wake of the tragedy by both the ferry's owner and the government. When, on 3 February Al-Salam 98 sank in the Red Sea more than 1000 of its 1414 passengers lost their lives. Two weeks ago Transport Minister Mohamed Lutfi Mansour, announced that French and British experts -- working for the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) -- had recovered the ferry's black box, containing details of the ill-fated boat's final hours, including the direction of the ferry and weather conditions. It would, said Mansour, be sent to the UK for analysis. Mansour also announced that an initial report on the reasons for the disaster would not be ready for another two months, adding that a final version of the report would be submitted to the general prosecutor in four months time. The families of victims have grown increasingly critical of what they say is the government's sluggish handling of the investigation, and its subsequent handling of the crisis. "We expected the government to at least deprive the ferry owner [Mamdouh Ismail, a member of the Shura Council] of his parliamentary immunity so that he could be questioned by the general prosecution. We expected, too, that his company would have to cease operations while it was determined whether or not they were culpable. Instead, he has been allowed to travel abroad while the investigations are being conducted," said the brother of one of the victims. Last week MP Mustafa Bakri, the editor-in-chief of the weekly Al-Osbou, voiced concern in the People's Assembly that "Ismail might have chosen to travel abroad in order to escape from his responsibilities regarding the sinking of the ferry and the death of over a thousand passengers". Meanwhile, families of the victims have been unable to secure compensation from either the government or the ferry's mother company. Nor have donations from the public to a disaster relief fund, estimated to have reached around LE 50 million, been distributed. Instead, they are sitting in a government-held account. The personal status law was amended soon after the tragedy, at President Hosni Mubarak's behest, so families of victims whose bodies had not been found could receive death certificates after 15 days of being declared missing. The avowed purpose of the amendment was to speed up the payment of compensation. "We were promised death certificates 15 days after the sinking. Six weeks later we are still waiting," said Abdel-Aziz Hassanein, uncle of a six-year-old boy who lost his parents, brother and sister in the tragedy . "We are told that the Saudi embassy in Cairo has yet to prepare a full list of passengers and the government cannot release any death certificates until the list is complete and handed over to the Egyptian authorities. But it should be an easy task for the government to ask the Saudi authorities to speed up the process. I don't understand why the government is being so slow," he said. Without the death certificates the families of victims can claim neither the LE30,000 promised by the government, nor the LE150,000 that the ferry's mother company has announced it will give each family. "The ferry's owners are ready to provide the families of the victims with compensation -- calculated in accordance with the Egyptian maritime law -- but only when they submit the death certificates. This is a legal procedure that cannot be overlooked," Magdi Saad, a lawyer, told the Al-Ahram Weekly. But the compensation issue is itself becoming obscured behind a fug of vagueness. Two week's ago, during a parliamentary session, Social Insurance Minister Ali Meseilhy said, "the government compensation to the victims would be drawn from the donations of LE50 million," a statement that caused uproar among MPs. During the same session businessman MP Mohamed Farid Khamis claimed that of the LE570,000 he donated to the relief fund for victims of the 2002 train disaster not one penny had reached the victims. He voiced fears that donations to the ferry fund would meet the same fate. On Saturday Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif headed a meeting of the disaster fund. Following the meeting cabinet spokesman Magdi Radi said the fund had agreed to delegate the Grand Mufti to decide on the distribution of the funds. The mufti said that, in accordance with sharia (Islamic Law), the sums distributed would be LE66,000 for each person lost, and LE18,000 for those injured in the disaster. Radi emphasised that such compensations "are separate from, and paid in addition to, previously agreed government compensation," a statement many interpreted as an attempt to make up for the damage done by Meselihy's earlier confusion. According to official reports, the government has agreed to pay LE 30,000 to the families of victims and LE15,000 to survivors. Bakri, however, told the Weekly that he still "fears the separation between the government's money and public donations will not take place". In a show of solidarity the Egyptian Movement for Change (Kifaya) organised a peaceful protest on Monday in downtown Cairo. Lawyers who are members of Kifaya have announced their readiness to defend the rights of the families of the victims to receive all compensation in full.
