Government bucks Santorini Blame

Culture minister denies any political responsibility for opening the Akrotiri archaeological site where a tourist was killed when the incomplete roof collapsed.

THE GREEK government has placed the blame for the death of a Welsh tourist and the injury of six others - when the roof of the Akrotiri archaeological site in Santorini imploded on September 23 - on the previous Pasok government and culture ministry archaeologists. While PM Costas Karamanlis in his capacity as competent culture minister has kept silent about the event, Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis declared that there are no political responsibilities for the tragedy, thus drawing a barrage of criticism from the opposition. Had the accident occurred at peak visiting hours, there might have been dozens of victims.

Once covered by ash after a huge volcanic eruption 3,500 years ago and one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Aegean, the 4,000-year-old Bronze Age community was excavated by archaeologist Spyros Marinatos in 1967 and attracts an estimated 250,000 tourists annually. Aside from multi-storey buildings and advanced sewage facilities, the site is distinguished by its splendid frescoes and murals. The pioneering, climate-controlled covering of the site, which is equipped to neutralise ultraviolet and infrared solar radiation and covers about 13,000 square metres, was designed to replace a DEXION and asbestos-containing Ellenit shelter.

But despite the fact that sources close to the construction project say that no portion of the shelter is yet entirely complete, as it must still be covered with a stabilising layer of surrounding volcanic soil, Tatoulis asserts that it was completed by May 2004 and thus he ordered the site opened to visitors in April 2004.

Tatoulis has created two committees to probe the accident - one to determine the technical causes of the collapse and another to assess the damage to the archaeological site - and pledged that the reports will be promptly delivered.

"There is no political responsibility. The issue is that the contracting company is responsible for the problem that arose, and it accepted that responsibility in a statement," Tatoulis said.

The project was approved by Greece's Central Archaeological Council (CAC) in 1995, and construction began four years later. The Pasok government had assigned oversight of the EU and Greek state-funded project, which has cost 45 million euros to date, to the Athens Archaeological Society (with Archaeology Professor Emeritus Christos Doumas in charge) which is separate from the culture ministry and has no technical bureau. While Tatoulis blamed Pasok for appointing the archaeological society in charge of the project, he assumed no political responsibility for continuing that arrangement.

According to Pasok spokesman Nikos Athanasakis, Tatoulis failed to obtain the legally required approval of the CAC and the competent 11th Ephorate of Antiquities, headed by Archaeologist Mariza Marathia (one of the top Akrotiri researchers), in ordering the site opened to the public in April 2004, in time for the Athens Olympics tourist wave. The minister cited an Archaeological Society memo dated 4 March 2005 stating that portions of the site can be opened to the public between April 26 to September 30 from 10am to 3pm, while construction could go forward at the same time.

At a September 26 news conference, Tatoulis invoked a January 2005 memo from Marathia stating chief excavator Doumas' opinion that the site could be opened to the public between June and September. But he admitted that he ignored a March 10 written opinion sent to him on the day he ordered the site opened by Marathia warning that the site should under no circumstances be opened to the public before construction on the shelter is complete. In fact, she cited evidence of a danger already posed to workers by falling material.

Tatoulis claimed that he allowed the site to be opened to the public because a ministry bureaucrat told him that the contractor is responsible for public safety at the site according to the terms of the contract. But a high-level source close to the construction project, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Athens News that the contracting consortium (J&P-AVAX SA, Impregilo and Empedos) had undertaken no responsibility for the safety of visitors and hinted that the contractor had presented written objections to opening the site to tourists.

The source, categorically rejecting charges that materials used by the company may have been inferior, noted that the makeshift roof erected under the overarching shelter was intended only for the protection of construction workers, and was by no means intended to accommodate visiting tourists. The source also suggested that a series of technical modifications of the construction plan may have contributed to the collapse.

An international contracting giant, which reported 393.8 million euros in total net sales in 2004, J&P-AVAX has decided to hire British technical consultants to probe the cause of the shelter collapse.

The Archaeological Society employed Nicholas Fintikakis to carry out the architectural study and act as project coordinator. The society was also responsible for inspecting the technical studies and the various modifications effected on the ground during the project construction. Fintikakis has said that he is waiting to inspect the site in order to determine the causes of the collapse.

• Source: ATHENS NEWS 
• Date of publication of article: 17/06/2005 
• Author: George Gilson
• Page: A03
•  Article code: C13150A031
  

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