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Trains lead citizens to death … The National Party is leading Egypt to the abyss
In the morning of 21/8/2006, train no. 808 coming from Mansoura to Cairo crashed into train no. 344 that was on the same line heading to Cairo. This accident has resulted into the death of56 passengers and the injury of 141, in addition to the train damage of 1.5 million pounds.
All what the officials do after every similar accident, is calm the people by telling them that these accidents will not happen again, and that the country will be reformed and all of the citizens dreams will come true, they also say that they need more time and capacity in order to that. These are the kinds of speeches that officials provide the people with, to justify their failure in doing their jobs.
Everyone in Egypt remembers El Wasity train accident that burst into flames a few years ago, leading to the death of hundreds of poor citizens. Like any other similar accident, the families of the victims receive a couple of thousand pounds as compensation for the death of their beloved ones because of the governmental negligence and carelessness, some small employees are prosecuted for mistaken murder as scapegoats to satisfy the families of the victims.
The LCHR sees that the decision of the Prosecutor General to prosecute 14 officials of the railway corporation excluding the Minister of Transportation and the Head of the Government is a breach and violation of justice, as they are the ones who are mostly responsible for such accidents, they are the ones who are authorizing the use of overage trains and are neglecting the development and improvement of the railway sector.
The LCHR asserts that what happened on 21/8/2006 is part of a general policy that doesn't care about our rights to life and safety; it only cares about how to seize the wealth of the country and help tradesmen and businessmen.
The justifications of the officials are baseless. How do they lack capacities and finance to fix and improve the railway systems, when Egypt gains a lot of money from oil, natural gas, tourism, taxes, the Suez Canal, the prices of selling the factories and lands of the public business sector, and many other sources of income? Fixing and improving the railway systems will lead to increasing the national income, like in many other countries.
Who is responsible of observing and questioning the governmental actions? The government should ensure and secure the safety of transporting about 1.5 million citizens everyday and the transportation of about one million tons of goods every moth using trains.
In some statements by these officials, they say that they will seek the help of some foreign experts, as if the problem is not in these broken down trains, corruption and negligence.
In the railway corporation there are about 70 thousand train drivers and several other thousands of workers and employees in this sector. These people do not have an independent syndicate to protect their rights and interests.
The government is still justifying is carelessness and failure to fulfill its duties by saying that it doesn't have enough funds to fix and improve the railway systems, while at the same time it is spending millions of pounds advertising the conference of the National party for reform, and leaving the fate of about 1.5 million citizens traveling daily, hanging on the conditions of 1300 broken down trains.
The LCHR call all CSOs to unite in solidarity with the millions of Egyptian citizens by launching awareness campaigns, filing lawsuits and mobilizing the people to force the government to improve the railway systems and ensure the safety of all citizens in Egypt.
For more information, please contact the Center.