Paying for poverty?

When the trial of 11 low and medium-ranking rail officials opened this week on charges of negligence in Egypt's worst railway tragedy, the accused protested that they are being used as scapegoats. Gihan Shahine reports
Last Saturday was not an ordinary day at Giza's Criminal Court. Security men lined the entrance to one of the courtrooms where the first hearing of the trial of 11 railway employees was about to take place. The defendants are low and medium-ranking officials -- mainly ticket collectors, train masters, supervisors and mechanical engineers -- charged with negligence that led to the death of 373 people and the severe injury of 64 more in the 20 February railway inferno that struck the Aswan-bound train No 832. The defendants are also charged with wasting LE1.6 million worth of public funds as a result of the damage caused by the accident. Two of the employees were accused of issuing reports that certified train 832 as being well- equipped and fit for transportation purposes, while, in fact, it lacked fire extinguishers and carried twice its capacity.
The courtroom was already packed and buzzing with activity almost an hour before the hearing started. At least 10 lawyers gathered in front of the podium preparing their papers while journalists and TV anchors, members of the Railway Syndicate and family, friends and rail colleagues gradually swarmed into the courtroom.
The air, thick with cigarette smoke, was also dominated by tension that erupted into expressions of rage on several occasions during the hearing.
"Those standing behind bars are innocent; their detention was no more than a political decision," scoffed Farouq Nassar, chairman of the General Syndicate for Egyptian Railway Workers, as he waited for the trial to begin.
One of the defendants screamed from behind the caged dock, addressing the public and the press: "We are innocent and we thank God for this ordeal for He knows we are not guilty."
Mamdouh Hassan Abdel-Rehim, one of the ticket collectors on train 832, suddenly burst into tears. "Listen and tell me who the real culprits are," Abdel-Rehim told the press.
"I am a ticket collector, not a train master as they claim, because second and third-class trains do not have masters. My authority does not exceed collecting money or tickets from the passengers. I don't have the authority to ban the train from travelling when it is too congested or to provide fire extinguishers. It is all in the hands of the railway chairman," he said.
Abdel-Rehim mentioned the fact that, in the aftermath of the disaster, the Railway Authority "quickly bought 800 fire extinguishers at the cost of LE50,000 to cover itself."
But why did train masters say the train was fit to travel in the reports they issued? The train mechanic and shift supervisor refused to talk to the press. Abdel- Rehim, however, provided some answers.
"We rank the lowest in the authority and have absolutely no power to change any of the bad conditions there," Abdel-Rehim replied in a strained voice. "Our superiors told us to say that the trains are fit to travel in the official reports. Now that we reveal the truth we are used as scapegoats. Why don't they put railway superiors on trial for the extremely dilapidated state of second and third-class carriages?" he asked angrily. "I am an Upper Egyptian and I lost family and friends in the accident. I would never do anything to harm my own people," he added.
Shaaban Salem, another ticket collector who was in carriage No 14 on train No 832's last journey chimed in:
"The real problem was that the carriages were extremely overcrowded with passengers who were mostly workers in Cairo heading to Upper Egypt to spend the Eid Al-Adha (the Greater Biram feast) with their families," Salem told the Weekly.
"I saved people's lives but I was unable to reach the hand brakes which were completely inaccessible to us. As for the fire extinguishers, I don't know if there were any. How are we ticket collectors supposed to function in such conditions? Why didn't the authority operate another train when the congestion became apparent? And why aren't railway police officers being tried for allowing prohibited luggage articles onto the trains?" Salem shouted.
According to a report issued by the technical committee assigned to investigate the accident, the blaze was caused by "an open source of fire," probably kerosene stoves that were used by passengers during the journey or by railway staff for cooking in the buffet. According to the report, the wooden wagon interior and the train passengers' luggage -- the bulk of which comprised highly-flammable synthetic blankets and clothes -- caught fire, causing the inferno.
"There was a strong smell of kerosene when we examined the train and several kerosene stoves in the wreck," committee member Elham El-Zanati told the Weekly. Each carriage had 104 seats and yet carried an average of 216 passengers, according to El-Zanati. "Seven carriages caught fire but victims were trapped in only two carriages, where the fire originated. We found no sign of luggage in the other carriages which indicates that the passengers managed to leap out."
No fire extinguishers were found in the carriages. Boulos Salama, head of the investigating committee, confirmed that most victims were incapable of jumping to safety because their actions were hampered by a debilitating and poisonous gas. "The gas erupted from the synthetic floors and paralysed the passengers," Salama said. "They were probably in such panic that they did not think of pulling the hand brakes," El-Zanati added.
Lawyer Ahmed Yousri El-Naggar explained to the Weekly that, "those who had the authority to operate an additional train to ease congestion on train 832 are the ones who deserve to be executed." According to Railway Authority regulations, train-masters have the authority to suspend a journey when the train is overcrowded or ill-equipped.
"But, in fact, they have no authority whatsoever to stop the train in case of a violation because the train is considered a vital means of transport that should not be stopped by any means," El-Naggar maintained. "And what can a train master do when the authority says it has no funds to provide fire extinguishers? Again, it is the responsibility of the railway police to check the passengers' luggage and stop them from bringing on board potential fire hazards. Yet, none of the policemen are on trial. The regulations are no more than a veil to skirt rail officials' liability in cases of tragic accidents."
Lawyer Nabil Abu-Alam further explained that "the maintenance engineer and supervisor of train 832 were compelled to judge the carriages as being fit for the journey. Otherwise, they would have been suspended by their superiors for delaying the trip."
Appearing before a panel of three judges, the defendants pleaded innocent as the prosecutors indicted them on charges of forgery, negligence, violating railway regulations and wasting public funds.
Lawyers, shouting that "the real culprits have gone free", demanded the defendants' release.
El-Naggar asked the court to summon the former chairman, deputy chairman of the Railway Authority, head of the Railway Traffic Police, railway security heads and a number of other witnesses.
Lawyers also requested that important railway documents be annexed to the case dossier and that the defence be provided with the technical committee's final report.
During the hearing, the lawyers claimed they had revealed information "that would indict the Railway Authority." They presented documents they claimed were proof that the authority removed from service in October 2001 another third-class Aswan-bound train that used to depart an hour before train 832 and replaced it with an air- conditioned one.
Other documents revealed that the chairman of the Railway Authority prohibited the placing of fire extinguishers in train carriages for fear that they would be stolen and provided the locomotive with only four small ones. Lawyers also insist that the authority ignored several requests by train masters to supply more fire extinguishers for alleged lack of funds even though 25 per cent of the authority's revenues are spent on bonuses and salaries for high- ranking employees.
The court rejected the lawyers' demand to release the defendants and adjourned the hearing to 25 May to summon the requested witnesses and annex the demanded official railway documents.
"The poor are paying the price twice: they were the victims of the railway tragedy and now they are the scapegoats for the rich, who are enjoying their freedom,'' grumbled a female lawyer on her way out of the courtroom.
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