Life after “Colectiv”
The families and friends of the young people who died in the Colectiv nightclub fire set up an association, with the declared aim of determining the authorities to prevent such tragedies and to bring to justice those responsible for the event
Mihai Pelin, 28.03.2016, 13:21
In memory of the 64 people who died last autumn in the devastating fire which broke out at the Colectiv club in Bucharest, the families and friends of the victims set up the “Colectiv” Association. The organisation intends to put pressure on the authorities to reduce the possibility of such future tragedies and to bring to justice those responsible for the tragic events. Eugen Iancu, a founding member of the association and the father of one of the victims, says the authorities haven’t as yet assumed responsibility for having improperly managed the situation. Furthermore, he is discontent with the fact that the investigations carried out in the wake of the tragedy didn’t clearly identify the guilty people.
Eugen Iancu: ”We want justice to take its course, and the line authorities to do their job. We are parents and we now know that minister Nicolae Banicioiu, state secretary Raed Arafat and the managers of various hospitals opposed the idea of sending our children to hospitals abroad, for a whole week. There were hospitals where nothing was done to eliminate the toxins. Doctors worked hard, but did they save lives? They would have probably done a better job if they had simply said before TV cameras: ‘take them out of here, because the conditions are improper’. “
The Colectiv Association intends to carry out several types of activities in memory of the victims, such as setting up a musical education centre and initiating campaigns to introduce in school curricula special classes to teach students what to do in emergency situations. Those held responsible for the fire are currently being investigated by prosecutors, who have called for a new expert analysis, the fourth one, to be made until April 1. The investigators say the three reports drafted so far at the National Research Institute for Mining Safety and Protection Against Explosions, the Forensics Institute and the General Prosecutor’s Office are contradictory and generate confusion. Under the pressure of public opinion, the health minister Patriciu Achimaş-Cadariu, has said the institution he runs is to make public a thorough analysis of the line authorities’ intervention.
Patriciu Achimaş-Cadariu: “We are making a technical analysis. Some people have left the ministry, but we have requested their standpoints and we will make public a technical analysis. Otherwise, any other emotional stand is outside a correct and objective analysis.”
In turn, state secretary Raed Arafat, whose decisions have partly been questioned in the report, said he sent to the Prime Minister a technically documented answer, to shed light on all aspects that needed clarification.
