By IPS Correspondents
DAKAR, Oct 1 2002 (IPS)

The search for bodies is over, the three days of national mourning have finished, but the shipwreck of the Joola passenger ferry still dominates everything in Senegal.

With only 64 survivors confirmed from an official total of 1,034 people on board, the provisional death toll stands at 970.

But many of the corpses, which have arrived in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, and Dakar, are decomposed beyond recognition. Friends and families of the deceased have complained of a long and painful identification process.

Marine expert and diver, Haidar El Ali, who had been heavily involved in the rescue operation, backed an end to the diving around the shipwreck and said it was pointless bringing the boat to shore. “The Joola is going to fall apart anyway,” said El Ali. “Let it go, let it be a tomb for those still inside”.

El Ali wept as he described the scene of the wreck and paid a strong tribute to all those, fishermen, sailors, divers, firemen and others who had worked unsparingly to retrieve bodies. “They were incredible”, he said.

On Monday, President Abdoulaye Wade returned preliminary reports submitted by the Ministry of Armed Forces and the Ministry of Transport, demanding more information from both. Wade is expected to address the nation this week.

A full Commission of Investigation has been set up, supervised by Minister of Interior, General Mamadou Niang, under the chairmanship of the ‘Mediator’ of the Republic, Professor Seydou Madani Sy.

That enquiry is likely to focus on the circumstances surrounding the Joola’s last voyage, looking at issues like the overcrowding of the boat and its maintenance and safety record.

The Minister of Health, Eva Marie Coll Seck, has announced an expanded support programme for those caught up in the tragedy, including the formation of a Cell of Psychological and Social Support, drawing on the expertise and experience of psychiatrists.

Whatever Wade tells the nation, the Joola tragedy has exposed the Senegalese President and his ministerial colleagues to unprecedented levels of criticism and abuse. On Monday, two separate groupings called on the government to accept collective responsibility for the disaster and resign.

The Collective des Cadres Casasmancais (CCC), representing the people of Senegal’s southern province, Casamance, welcomed President Wade’s “swift and responsible reaction” to the shipwreck, but said the authorities’ actions so far had been “casual and negligent”, betraying a desire to “banalise this tragic event”.

Amongst the CCC’s concerns are the huge discrepancies in the different numbers given for those on board, lack of information about the freight and shortcoming in the initial rescue mission.

The CCC’s Vivienne Badiane told IPS she could not accept that the Joola had gone down at 11 pm local time and yet there had been no news released in Dakar until 6 am the following morning.

Badiane also resented the government’s assertion as the news first broke that the whole disaster was due to a storm and the safety of the vessel was not an issue. “I was shocked at the beginning when, even before there had been an investigation, we were told there wasn’t any problem with the boat,” she said.

Many of those on board hailed from the Casamance region, including possibly hundreds of students, travelling to Dakar and beyond to start courses or resume studies.

The Joola had been out of action for over one year, as a motor underwent major repairs. “After one year without a boat people were craving a means of going to Ziguinchor and back”, said Badiane. She pointed out that road travel via The Gambia was too long and hazardous and flying was too expensive for most people.

In a communique issued on Monday the Committee of Initiative of Senegalese Intellectuals and Artists denounced “the incapacity of the state to look after the public good and the government’s paralysis”.

“To state things clearly and honestly, the minimum demand remains not the dismissal of this or that minister, but that of the whole government of Prime Minister Mame Madior Boye”, it said.

Madior Boye, who was appointed in Mar 2001 following the sacking of Moustpaha Niasse, has laid herself open to strong criticism. With Wade out of the country, it was Madior Boye who headed a government delegation to the port on Friday (Oct 27) morning and released the first details of the shipwreck, including the figure of 796 people on board.

That figure was rapidly challenged, as rumours swept Dakar that there had been many more passengers. It was amended to 1,034 on Sunday. But critics of the government say the second figure is also erroneous, and that 1,500 people, possibly even more, may have been on board.

Over the past few days there has been unending debate and speculation about not only the last voyage of the Joola, but the boat’s history and safety record.

The Joola was built in Germany and purchased by the Senegalese government in 1991 to do the Dakar-Ziguinchor route. Since 1995, the service has operated under the auspices of the Ministry of Armed Forces, with the Ministry of Transport looking after the commercial side of the operation.

The Joola was taken out of action in May 2001. Repair bills of around CFA250 million (around 400,000 U.S. dollars) were incurred as repairs were carried out on a motor. The ship was relaunched with a special quayside ceremony on Sep 10. Minister of the Armed Forces, Youba Sambo, and Minister of Transport, Youssopho Sakho, both boarded the ship for its initial voyage to Ziguinchor, but made the trip home by plane.

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