"Le Joola" compensation delayed by dispute

Ten months after the Senegalese boat, the "Le Joola", sank off the coast of The Gambia, killing at least 1,800 people, a disagreement between relatives of the victims and the Senegalese government, has delayed compensation. The relatives want the government to pay 40 millions FCFA (US $88,000) as compensation for each victim but the state insists it will pay less. International maritime law, they said, stipulates that relatives be paid 50 million FCFA per victim, adding that government had only 300 files of the victims so far. At first the state said the matter would be resolved "amicably". But this changed after a French judge ruled that compensation should be according to international rules, in a case filed by relatives of French victims. There were 30 victims in the tragedy. "Le Joola", a transport and commercial ferry which was coming from the coastal town of Zuguinchor to the capital, Dakar, sank in the Atlantic Ocean with close to 2,000 people onboard. Officially, 1,863 people died and 64 survived. An government inquiry said the boat, which was the only alternate means of transport from the troubled region of Casamance to the rest of Senegal, was carrying excess passengers. It said the accident occurred due to negligence, the precarious stability of the boat and slowness in rescue efforts. President Abdoulaye Wade rejected the findings, saying the report should have specifically identified those responsible for the accident. He sacked the marine chief of staff and forced the ministers of transport and armed forces to resign. In an attempt to placate the relatives of the victims, the government on 16 May proposed 2.5 million FCFA (about $4,380) for victims below 18 years old, 3.5 million FCFA ($6,100) for minors with no dependants and 5 million FCFA for victims who were heads of households. The relatives rejected the offer. A second offer of a flat 4 million FCFA ($7,000) was also rejected because the relatives said it did not take into account the survivors. A third offer of 5 million FCFA per victims and 30 million FCFA for each of the 64 survivors, was made by the Justice Ministry which said it was fed up with "shameful bargaining". But it was again rejected with the relatives now saying they would appeal to the President. Those from Senegal also accused the government of favouring those from Europe, claiming the government wanted to pay international rates for the 30 European victims. A delegation of the European relatives, accompanied by a European parliamentarian, is expected in Dakar this month. Experts urged the government to handle the matter carefully. Maritime law professor Ibrahim Khalil Diallo of the Cheick Anta Diop University in Dakar, told IRIN: "It is a catastrophe whose compensation for the victims cannot be dealt as one is dealing with a road accident." He added: "There are specific rules that regulate the compensation process based on a limitation of responsibility in favour of the boat owner. Otherwise the State decides." According to Diallo, the issue of "unlimited reparation" in sea accidents means that the parties might have to resort to international law for a ruling. In such a scenario, he added, Senegal could pay ten times more than it was presently offering. "Le Joola", which was named after a language spoken in the Casamance, was purchased in 1990. It had just been cleared to sail three months before the accident, having spent three months undergoing repairs. A year earlier, it had again spent 10 months on repairs.