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Stampede casts lingering shadow over Cambodia's Water Festival

By Zhu Li, Zhang Ruiling: 0 Comments Print E-mail Xinhua, November 24, 2010

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However, magnitude of the latest tragedy, which the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen described as the biggest disaster the country had experienced after the Pol Pot regime, should make people ponder what we can do to guarantee public safety.

Cambodian Military Police move the bodies of the stampede victims to a truck in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Nov. 23, 2010. At least 339 people were killed in a stampede on Monday night as millions of Cambodians celebrated the annual water festival in the capital Phnom Penh, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said on state TV early Tuesday. The accident took place on a bridge that connects the city with the Diamond Island which has become the center of celebrations. [Xinhua/Phearum]

Analysts said an Emergency Plan should be in place for an event with such a massive attendance; and when the amount of people is overwhelming, an already-there evacuation plan would help a lot.

On Monday on news of the stampede, the police and rescue teams were quick to respond but the police cars, fire trucks and ambulances could hardly move as the streets toward the bridge were all overcrowded.

Unlike in a natural disaster where element of act of god take cause towards devastating outcome, the stampede is not a case of beyond human control. It is preventable and the organizer should have anticipated and put in proper crowd control measures.

Pung Kheau Se, President of Canadia Bank and owner of Diamond Island as well as its bridge, expressed the same opinion as he came up at Calmette Hospital Tuesday to send condolences to the victims there.

"Nobody expected a tragedy like this would happen, and the control of pedestrian flow will be the main preventive measure we take in the future," he said, adding that it just did not occur to him there would be such an overwhelming number of people.

The government swiftly announced compensation: about 1,250 U.S. dollars to each household of the dead, and 250 dollars to each injured, Hun Sen had also ordered to establish a special committee to conduct investigation on the causes and accountability.

While it is difficult to find comfort for those who lost their loved ones in such a public tragic incident, the willingness by the government to conduct thorough post-event investigation and the resolution showed to prevent future tragedy like this would gradually reduce the pain of them and hopefully make the day of joyful water festival return sooner.