Gov't Blamed for Deadly Cairo Rockslide

Egypt's opposition says the government is responsible for the deadly disaster on Saturday in which a rockslide on a slum area in the capital Cairo crushed at least 23 people to death and demolished some 35 homes. Huge boulders, some weighing as much as 70 tons, broke away from the Al-Muqattam hill and landed on the impoverished neighborhood of Manshat Na'sr on the outskirts of Cairo. Hundreds have been reported missing.

Opposition and independent members of the Egyptian parliament blamed the government for the disaster. They said corruption in local governments and a lack of coordination between governmental bodies caused the tragedy. Dr. Osama Harb, a member of the Egyptian Shoura Council and editor of the political magazine A-Siyssa A-Dawliyya, said this was an indication of the government's inefficiency.

"There's apathy and negligence and I believe these are symptoms of the regime's disability," Harb told The Media Line. "These sorts of threats aren't new. The government knew this place was dangerous but didn't deal with the problem seriously," he said.

Harb, president of the opposition Democratic Front Party, is not alone in his beliefs, as other opposition parties also blame the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) for failing to protect the country's citizens. MP Abu Al-'Izz Al-Hariri, from the A-Tagammu' party, told Al-Jazeera that a third of the buildings in Egypt were on the verge of collapse and needed repairing.

Some 20,000 buildings in Cairo and Alexandria need to be evacuated before they collapse on their dwellers, he said. The government says the residents repeatedly reject evacuation notices, but Al-Hariri said this was because they had no alternative housing and could not afford to buy or rent other property, especially with the soaring prices in real estate.

The Egyptian army dispatched several units to help with the rescue efforts. Neighboring areas have been evacuated for fear of recurring rockslides. President Hosni Mubarak has instructed the government to provide alternative housing for the evacuees and compensate the families of the victims, according to the governmental daily Al-Ahram. The affected neighborhood accommodates many people who flock to Cairo in search of work but end up living on the outskirts of the city because of the high housing prices.

Observers say construction on and under the hills is generally not supervised by the authorities. The rocks and foundations are being corroded by poorly constructed houses and utilities, which possibly contributed to the collapse. The government is feeling the heat over several other disasters, which have prompted accusations of neglect, such as a ferry disaster in 2006, which claimed more than 1,000 lives.

Also, a fire destroyed the building of the upper house of parliament in August. Cairo is also feeling the heat from the international community, and especially the United States, which says the country has to speed up the pace on political reform and improvement of human rights.

Besides several terror attacks that are threatening the country's tourism revenues, Egypt is also grappling with an economic crisis that has manifested itself in a widening gap between rich and poor and growing disaffection with the government over the rise in prices of basic commodities such as flour and bread.

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