Radio România Internațional

Tag: Colectiv tragedy

  • Colectiv, a national tragedy

    Colectiv, a national tragedy

    On October 30,
    2015, during a concert given by the heavy metal band Goodbye to Gravity at the
    Colectiv night club in Bucharest, a fireworks show ignited the flammable foam
    covering the ceiling and the pillars of the overcrowded hall. 64 people died to
    burns or to a deadly mix of smoke and dust. Two years later the death toll rose
    to 65, after one of the survivors committed suicide, suffering from
    psychological trauma. In the autumn of 2015, at the end of three days of
    national mourning to commemorate the victims, tens of thousands of Romanians
    took to the streets, staging a vehement protest against the authorities’
    ineptitude.

    Under the slogan Corruption kills!, the protest at the time led
    to the demise of the Ponta Cabinet and other officials in the local
    administration who had authorized the functioning of the night club, although
    it did not meet the legal safety requirements. Meanwhile, survivors and the
    families of the victims are still waiting to see justice served. No sentence
    has yet been passed in the court case opened against the club’s owners. Last
    week, the then Health Minister Nicolae Banicioiu did not appear before the
    Prosecutor’s Office, where he was supposed to bear testimony regarding the
    authorities’ intervention at the time. Shortly after the Colectiv tragedy,
    Banicioiu said the Romanian authorities don’t need any external help to treat
    the wounded, arguing our doctors can perfectly deal with any situation.

    Subsequently, the Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into aggravated
    manslaughter, abuse of office and actionable negligence. Prosecutors are
    investigating medical assistance to victims, circumstances linked to possible
    hospital-acquired infections as well as the actions or lack of action of public
    workers linked to the transfer of the victims abroad. Also last week, a civic
    action group in Iasi filed a criminal complaint against the Department for
    Emergency Situations, led since 2007 by State Secretary Raed Arafat. The
    plaintiffs argue the Department has withheld important videos of the fire
    department’s intervention at Colectiv. We all knew how chaotic the
    intervention was. From the very beginning we suspected the rescuers’ lack of
    professionalism and empathy, and the video evidence have confirmed our
    suspicions, civic militants argue. This follows last week’s publication of a
    20-min video by the daily Libertatea, showing the intervention of the
    Department for Emergency Situations units that arrived on scene. State
    Secretary Arafat claims he had no knowledge of this video and he will only
    resign if the Prime Minister demands it.


    (Translated by
    V. Palcu)

  • October 30, 2018 UPDATE

    October 30, 2018 UPDATE

    COLECTIV – Tuesday marked 3 years since the fire at the
    Bucharest-based club Colectiv where 64 people lost their lives. Subsequently,
    after one year and a half, a young man injured in the fire committed suicide.
    To commemorate the dead two religious services, a commemoration rally and the
    screening of a thematic movie were held. The film is called ”We get off at the
    next stop’ and is directed by Tedy Necula, who tells the story of the
    passengers in a subway carriage, the next day after the fire. The Romanian
    president Klaus Iohannis brought a floral tribute at the place of the tragedy,
    lit a candle and observed a short moment of silence.




    MOTION – The Chamber of Deputies in Bucharest on Tuesday debated a
    simple motion initiated by the National Liberal Party and the Save Romania
    Union Party against the justice minister, in which they ask for his
    resignation. The opposition accuses Minister Tudorel Toader that through his
    attitude he abandoned the judiciary and left it in the hands of criminals, thus
    taking Romania way back in the past when criminal files used to be solved
    during party meetings. The motion will be submitted to the vote on Wednesday.
    Meanwhile Minister Toader announced he would make public the appointment
    procedure and grid as well as the candidacy file of Romania’s prosecutor
    general Augustin Lazar. Last week, the justice minister had asked for the
    dismissal of Augustin Lazar, one of the reasons being the alleged existence, in
    his candidacy file of 2016, of a classifying verdict in a case involving the
    country’s president Klaus Iohannis, at the time when he was a mayor. The
    Superior Council of Magistracy claims that the file does not include such a
    document.




    VISITS – The European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, Gunther
    Oettinger, on Tuesday paid an official visit to Bucharest. He met with the
    Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dancila, with whom he discussed hot topics on
    the European agenda, particularly the multiannual financial framework. Also
    present in Bucharest was the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Corina
    Cretu, who said that the lack of transport infrastructure is the legacy of
    Romania’s history. Attending a top-level conference on the future of the
    Cohesion Policy, the European official said Romania had no projects to
    implement when it joined the European Union. The EU official said the European
    Commission is providing an additional 10% increase in the funds to be allotted
    to Romania, Bulgaria and Greece in the period 2021-2027. Commissioner Cretu has
    drawn attention to the fact that the Romanian authorities are not accessing the
    money made available to it by Brussels, which should be used for infrastructure
    and healthcare projects.




    EXERCISE – The American air forces announced that they transported
    an important amount of armament to Europe. This was the largest such operation
    after the war in Kosovo, when the US played a key role in NATO’s intervention
    in the former Yugoslavia. The American transport of armament coincides with the
    largest NATO military exercise after the Cold War. The exercise called Trident
    Juncture 18 is taking place in Norway. Participating are tens of thousands of
    military from 31 member and allied countries. Romania is represented in the
    military drill by military with the general staff and the Psychological
    Operations Centre. The Chief of the General Staff of the Romanian
    Armed Forces    , General Nicolae Ciuca, attended the
    Distinguished Visitors’ Day in Norway.




    COMMEMORATION – President Klaus Iohannis on
    November 10 and 11 will be attending a series of events in Paris devoted to the
    Armistice Centenary that marked the end of hostilities in World War I, the
    presidency reports. The head of state will join leaders of countries that
    participated in the Great War as well as countries that supported war efforts
    at the ceremony held at the Triumphal Arch in Paris. The president will also
    attend the opening of the Peace Forum, an initiative of the French President
    Emmanuel Macron, aimed at generating concrete projects to support
    multilateralism and contemporary cooperation towards peace. Klaus Iohannis will
    also meet with BA, MA and doctoral students in Paris involved in scientific
    research. Hosted by the Romanian Embassy in Paris, the meeting is devoted to
    Romania’s contribution to the advancement of science and technology in the year
    of the Great Union Centennial.




    IMF – An IMF mission will arrive next week in Bucharest for talks
    with the authorities and representatives of the business sector and civil
    society. The agenda for talks was presented on Tuesday by IMF Resident
    Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, Alejandro Hajdenberg. The agenda includes the macroeconomic
    framework, the budget for 2019 and progress in implementing structural reforms.
    The IMF official announced that the economic forecast for this year is 4%,
    below the estimate for 2018. Alejandro Hajdenberg also said that the IMF
    expects the inflation to drop to 3.5% towards the end of 2018, and the budget
    deficit to stand at 3.6% of the GDP.




    AFRICAN SWINE FEVER – A new African swine fever outbreak was
    confirmed in a household in Dolj County, southwestern Romania, the National
    Sanitary, Veterinary and Food Safety Authority announced. So far a thousand
    outbreaks have been reported in 15 counties, and over 350,000 animals were
    culled. Romania has called for EU support to provide financial compensations to
    pig farmers. The first outbreak was reported in July 2017.


    (Translated
    by L. Simion & V. Palcu)