Friday, March 29

Cambrils remembers the victims of the terrorist attack five years ago with an act “to prevent hate”


The town of Cambrils has remembered this Thursday the victims of the terrorist attack that it suffered on August 18, 2017, the morning after the attack on the Rambla in Barcelona. In an act at the scene, on the Paseo Marítim, relatives of the victims, institutions, security and emergency forces and citizens have placed a white flower on the Memorial for Peace that was created as a tribute. Dozens of residents of the municipality have approached the act and have kept a scrupulous silence during the ceremony.

The shouts and boos of a group of demonstrators tarnish the tribute to the victims of the Rambla attack

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The tribute has lasted about 25 minutes, in which only the mayor of the town, Oliver Klein, has intervened, who wished that acts like these “serve to prevent hatred and terrorism.” Klein recalled that that night “darkness came” as a result of the multiple attack perpetrated by the jihadists in front of the Yacht Club, which ended with one person dead and seven others injured, in addition to five terrorists killed.

The act began with a minute of scrupulous silence, unlike the boycott that took place on Barcelona’s Rambla, and the interpretation of the Cant dels Ocells by two cellists. Subsequently, political representatives, security forces, emergency services, groups that collaborated that night and members of different religious communities have made a floral offering at the Memorial for Peace.

Finally, three children have released some white balloons as a sign of a wish for peace while the musicians interpreted the Anthem of Europe. At the end, those who have wanted have been able to place white flowers in the memorial.

Since the first year of the anniversary of the events, the Cambrils City Council has not organized any act of remembrance. On the second anniversary, the then president of the Generalitat, Quim Torra, made a floral offering at the Memorial for Peace in a simple act. In the last two years, as a result of the pandemic, the consistory had issued statements about the event. Klein has not ruled out doing an act for next year.

Likewise, the Cambrils City Council has published a manifesto in which it is recalled that on August 18, 2017, the people of Cambrils were “hit hard by irrational violence” that transformed the calm of the promenade “into the scene of the greatest irrationality to the that the fanaticism of some people can lead”. The text, which intersperses Catalan and Spanish, points out that five years later “the memory of those hours is still very much alive”. “A sad memory, but serene. Without rancor but without forgetting”, it is indicated. The manifesto is addressed to all the citizens of the municipality and to the families that “lost everything”.

Likewise, the work of the emergency services, police forces and municipal brigades is valued, as well as “all the commercials and workers of the establishments in the area who sheltered everyone fleeing from panic in their premises.” Finally, it is pointed out that “now is the time to look to the future with optimism and confidence” and it is urged to “respect others, tolerate differences and believe in diversity”, basic elements for peace but that also “help to achieve individual and collective happiness.

After the act, Klein has assessed that the objective of accompanying the victims has been achieved and has valued that the victims and their families have continued to return to Cambrils. “The tragic event cannot be changed but they are the first to collaborate so that this does not happen again,” she said.

For her part, Maria Teresa Mariné, representing the Association of Victims of Terrorism 11-M and two people affected by the attack, lamented that those from Cambrils “feel like second-rate victims”. “They all are, those from Barcelona, ​​those from Cambrils and those from Alcanar”, she insisted. In addition, she criticized that although at first they were accompanied by the administration, for a long time “they feel very helpless.” “They are fighting instead of the other way around; the institutions must be at their service, and not the victims go behind”, she expressed.



www.eldiario.es