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)