The French rescuers of international coordination have completed their mission on a painful note. They gave dozens of bodies from Antakya rubble but no survivor.
by Annick Cojean (Antakya (Turkey), Special Envoy)
When to leave? When to stop research? On what criteria? In Turkey, struck on February 6 by an earthquake that left more than 41,000 dead at this stage, the departure of international rescue units constitutes a moment of truth for families. No more wait, finished hope. We must face misfortune in all its cruelty.
For the French, it happened Sunday, February 12, around 8 p.m., in Antakya, when Lieutenant-Colonel Cyrille Chauveau decided to interrupt the excavations on the last two sites entrusted to French rescuers by international coordination . The decision was heavy, but it was by no means a dilemma. No more sign of life appeared on the detection instruments and the second building threatened to collapse. The rescuers’ departure was therefore essential. But we do not leave a site with impunity when the family of people potentially in the rubble monitors the work of the rescuers step by step, going so far as to affirm that we have made him “promises” and that we have to Respect.
Promises? The word amazed the French when they heard. They never engage in a result. They would never think of “promising” to find alive people who disappeared under the rubble. Who can never predict the outcome of a mission? A handful of American rescuers had had the imprudence to do so. Volunteers, landed on the theater of the earthquake without structure or adequate equipment, but armed with religious convictions, and which, in view of the building, certified that several people were alive and that the thermal camera even made it possible to spot them the silhouettes. “One meter only separates them from the open air. You will hug them in your arms within one to two hours!” Lieutenant-Colonel Chauveau, from the detachment of civil security sent to Turkey, is still indignant: “C ‘were pure lies! arouse false hopes is criminal. “
” A risk site “
The French had however hoped too. This is even why they had accepted the responsibility of this latter particularly complex project. A preliminary recognition had been made of the five -story building, two of which had crashed on each other and whose structure only held by the support of four construction machines. Thermal camera and radar indicated life manifestations – the slightest movement is detectable, even a breathing – and the Americans claimed to have heard “scratching” a few moments earlier. “It was a risk project,” said Lieutenant Antoine, 27, who took care of it. But we could objectively have hope. “
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