Sat, May 26 2012

Eighth anniversary of Bulgaria's Indigo disco tragedy

Mon, Dec 21 2009 11:18 CET

byNick Iliev

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Eighth anniversary of Bulgaria's Indigo disco tragedy

 
Photo: Krassimir Yuskesseliev

Eighth anniversary of Bulgaria's Indigo disco tragedy

 The Indigo club in February 2001
Photo: Tsvetelina Nikolaeva

On December 21 2001, seven boys and girls, aged 10 to 14, died and 12 other youngsters were injured in what became known as the Indigo disco tragedy.

On that fateful Friday night at about 6.30pm, about 600 youngsters were queueing outside the Indigo disco at the Yunak football ground in Sofia, expecting to hear the new DJ in town.
 
Excited and eager to listen to his music, the children poured through the doors once the doormen opened the disco. In the ensuing stampede, seven children were trampled to death and 12 more injured.
 
The Tree of Life sculpture is all that remains on the scene of the tragedy.

Every year, on December 21, parents, relatives, school mates and friends congregate to commemorate the memory of Victoria, Elena, Kristina, Lyubomira, Tsvetelina, Madlen and Dimitar, the seven children who perished.
 
In the aftermath of the tragedy, the former director of the state agency Sports and Youth Tsvyatko Barchovski was sentenced to three months imprisonment with three years suspension and a fine of 1500 leva, while the manager of the disco, Angel Nikolov was fined 3000 leva.
 
Doormen and security personnel Georgi Vassilev and Anri Silagi were fined 800 leva each.

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Sofia Court of Appeals finds two more guilty in the Indigo trial

Sofia Court of Appeals (SCA) found on January 30 another two defendants guilty in the trial relating to the December 21 2001 incident at the Indigo disco in the Bulgarian capital, in which seven teenagers died squeezed by the crowd gathered at the entrance of the disco. The SCA found both Anri Silagi and Georgi Vassilev guilty and sentenced each man, employed as bodyguards in the establishment, to pay a fine

Aid for families of Indigo victims

The Cabinet is to give financial help to families of teenagers killed or injured in the December 21 tragedy at Indigo disco club in Sofia.

The View from Bulgaria

This Christmas was not only the saddest, but also the most indicative of Bulgaria's state of affairs after 12 years of "transition". The deaths of seven children in Indigo disco turned into a dramatic response to a pool of questions about the nature of the society we have built. Why has our understanding of democracy mutated into nothing but an allergy to order and responsibility? Do we have a state, where there exists at least a modicum of solidarity between us? Do we believe in anything at all?

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