Guyana appoints international experts to probe deadly ferry disaster

Guyana’s government on July 26 appointed a slew of international experts to investigate the July 18 sinking of a government ferryboat that has killed dozens of passengers in the worst maritime disaster in the country on record.

The Irish-built, 87-year-old MV Barima sank on a late weekend voyage about 50 miles from the city as it sailed to Port Kaituma, a jungle and indigenous community in the northwest near Venezuela.

Authorities say that 179 passengers were aboard the vessel. Search and recovery teams have rescued 76 passengers and only found just under 80 bodies so far, leading officials to believe that many remain aboard the vessel resting on the seabed under about 50 feet of water. International teams are continuing recovery exercises including effort to either drag the vessel to shallower water or to salvage and inspect it.

In a national address on July 26, President Irfaan Ali said the team has been given widespread powers to determine how its works and its methods of operation, and it is expected to operate independently. He said legal instruments to establish the commission are being finalized and work can begin thereafter.

Former Belizean attorney general Phillip Godfrey Smith has been appointed chairman of the five-person team that will investigate all aspects of the tragedy, including whether professional negligence was to blame.

He said that the team will be asked to scrutinize the “passenger management including embarkation, manifest preparation, the possible overcrowding of the vessel, the storage of cargo, the availability and use of life saving equipment and adherence to passenger safety requirements.”

Dozens of those rescued after up to 11 hours, clinging to any floating item, had claimed that the vessel had been overcrowded with passengers and overloaded with cargo, including vehicles and large pallets. They also say that the Barima had been taking in water but that crews had dismissed this as “normal.”

The president said that his administration also wants the commissioners to determine whether there were “any acts of negligence, misconduct, dereliction of duty and other failures by any individual, entity or institution contributed to or causes the disaster, including neglect of its condition, maintenance history, sea tides, functioning navigation and communication equipment and other operational factors.”

Ali said authorities hope the commission would recommend institutional and operational reforms as well as any other measures necessary to strengthen maritime safety, “improve emergency preparedness and response, and reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies occurring in the future.”