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Investigate then assign responsibility

Nov 03,2018 - Last updated at Nov 03,2018

It is all well and good that Prime Minister Omar Razzaz told Parliament on Tuesday that the government bears responsibility for the tragic incident that occurred more than a week ago, when 21 people, most of whom were schoolchildren, died in a flashflood in the Dead Sea area.

For the government to admit “administrative, procedural and moral responsibility” is a step in the right direction but that does not mean in real terms to accept “administrative, procedural and moral responsibility” when the prime minister has coupled this admission with a call for a thorough investigation.

It would seem that the right order of things is to conduct the promised probe first and then assign responsibility of whatever kind or nature to any side. Prime minister confirmed that his government is not looking for a "scapegoat" or a "punching bag", when investigating the tragedy, but two of his ministers; of education and tourism, already resigned amid accusations of “negligence and poor performance”.

The government promised that it will not leave any stone unturned in its investigation of the tragedy and this is certainly reassuring to all sides, especially the families of the victims. Therefore, it would have been more prudent to suspend final judgements about where the guilt or innocence lies, until the whole truth is known about the sequence of events that led to the tragedy.

It has been more than a week since the tragedy took place and families of the killed children and the public at large are still waiting for detailed information about how schoolchildren ended up dying during a school trip.

It is no longer enough to speak in general terms about the ill-fated school field trip. It is now the time to call a spade a spade so that the tragedy can be better understood and the culprits are more clearly identified. Anything short of that would simply not do. Justice must be done, and soon. As the saying goes, justice delayed is justice denied.

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