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RESCUERS HAVE WIDENED their search today for trekkers stranded since a series of blizzards and avalanches battered the Himalayas in northern Nepal early this week leaving at least 29 people killed, officials said.
The government, meanwhile, announced the formation of a high-level committee that would monitor and coordinate rescue efforts following criticism that officials were not doing enough to help the hikers trapped along a popular trekking circuit.
With weather conditions improving, helicopters resumed the search today for stranded trekkers and were flying over a wider area, said Baburam Bhandari, the top government official of the Mustang district. Dozens of people have taken shelter in small lodges and huts dotted along the Annapurna trail, where deep snow has made it difficult to hike further.
Rescue
Rescuers have taken 78 trekkers from Mustang and 157 from the neighboring Manang district since Wednesday.
Information Minister Minendra Risal said the new committee, ordered by the prime minister, would directly monitor the rescue operation and help wherever needed. The committee would coordinate among the army, police, local administrations and the private operators now involved in the rescues.
The Nepal government was criticised for not helping enough after the mountains were hit by bad weather and avalanches earlier this week, with its initial assistance limited to two army helicopters.
The Annapurna trekking route, 160 kilometers northwest of the capital, Katmandu, was filled with foreign hikers during the peak October trekking season, when the air is generally clear and cool. There were also many Nepalese on the trails because of local festivals.
Two trekkers from Hong Kong and 12 Israelis were airlifted Wednesday to Katmandu, where they were being treated at a hospital.
They said they survived by taking refuge in a small tea shop along the path.
‘I thought I was going to die’
“I was sure I was going to die on the way to the pass because I lost my group, I lost all the people I was with and I could not see anything,” said Linor Kajan, an injured Israeli who said she was stuck in waist-deep snow.
“One Nepalese guide who knows the way saw me and asked me to stay with him. And he dragged me, really dragged me to the tea shop. And everybody there was really frightened,” she said.
Another Israeli survivor, Yakov Megreli, said they tried to stay awake in the tea shop to stay warm.
“We tried not to sleep. We tried not to get hypothermia. It was a very frightening and awful situation,” he said.
Both talked to reporters outside a hospital in Katmandu where survivors were brought.
The blizzard, the tail end of a cyclone that hit the Indian coast a few days earlier, appeared to contribute to an avalanche that killed at least eight people in Phu village in neighboring Manang district. The dead included three Indian and four Canadian trekkers as well as three villagers, said government official Devendra Lamichane.
The foreigners’ bodies were buried in up to 2 meters of snow and digging them out will take days, he said. Three Canadian trekkers who survived the avalanche were taken by helicopter to a shelter in a nearby town.
Authorities said five climbers were killed in a separate avalanche about 75 kilometers to the west, at the base camp for Mount Dhaulagiri.
The climbers, two Slovaks and three Nepali guides, were preparing to scale the 8,167-meter (26,800-foot) peak, the world’s seventh tallest, said Gyanedra Shrestha of Nepal’s mountaineering department. Their bodies were recovered Thursday.
An avalanche in April just above the base camp on Mount Everest killed 16 Nepalese guides, the deadliest single disaster on the mountain. Climate experts say rising global temperatures have contributed to avalanches in the Himalayas.
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The Gardai need to investigate this as they would with any unidentified human remains. By not calling in the Gardai Charlie Flanagan is portraying the deaths of these children as akin to a breakdown in process.
For all any of us know these children could have been murdered.
Shame on you Flanagan, your first big decision and you’ve messed it up.
I understand the anger but given how long ago this happened, realistically what can the Gardai do? The statute of limitations would definitely be well past given we are talking about events that happened at the very least 53 years ago while there would be little to no evidence.
Giving these children a decent burial should be the priority.
All we know is that a load of deaths took place and there’s bones in a septic tank. Full forensic investigation is required
Ryan, there’s no statute of limitations on murder.
I agree with Ciaran, they’ll get a decent burial AFTER a full investigation. They deserve a full investigation, and what happened here needs to be exposed to the public, whether charges arise or not.
It’s disgusting to think they may just stick a plaque on it and leave it at that.
Ryan , are you for real???.The first thing is for the Gardai to establish who murdered them.
to think that the gardai don’t no about this would be very wrong. I would believe they have known all along and just like everything else passed no remarks
You are talking bullshi!
@Jane Travers
What evidence is there that the babies were murdered? Furthermore, the nuns who worked there at the time are probably deceased.
Ciaran, I never claimed that they were murdered; I wouldn’t assume such before an investigation. My point was that there is no statute of limitations on murder so that can’t be used as an excuse not to investigate.
Ryan, do you have children?
@Jane Travers
As I said, the nuns who ran the home are probably deceased. Therefore, there is nobody to arrest.
Ciaran, you’re hardly saying that’s a reason not to investigate, are you?
Some of these deaths occurred as recently as 1961. Many of the nuns involved then could still be alive.
charlie will apply for a papal bull he is what he is and most of ireland will now see it in time
They’re arresting concentration camp guards from Poland in 1945. 1961 should still be in play.
To be fair, I don’t think a lot of people want evidence. They just want to skip the investigation and go to straight to the execution.
Been doing some research on malnutrition, disease and mortality in Ireland around 1920′s. Makes for tough reading. Appears that in mid 1920s or so that there was starvation in West. For some reason nobody wanted to call it by its name and instead there were references to “distress”. Money seems to have been a serious issue too. Funding was sparse as far as I can see. On top of this TB was absolutely mega-killer. Wonder can investigator determine cause of death as TB after so many years?
If time is taken to investigate then the causal factors may become apparent. We may not like them. At the very least justice can be done, to some extent anyway.
No statute of limitation on murder. Of course the gardai should investigate murder. Any reason why these deaths should be investigated differently to other deaths, ie police force of the state investigate?
Eh… 700 odd children just fell into a septic tank?
The HSE do not call in the Gardai when children are raped in their care now, so why would they bother with the 800?
If the HSE do call in Gardai- the Gardai hand it back to the HSE to investigate itself.
3 Monkey: ther’s NO evidence of murder – we need to wait for the facts?
The depts of Children and of Justice have known about this and a LOT more for a long time and done precisely nothing.
Those working for the rights of people adopted (or sold) from these homes have repeatedly furnished them with reports and begged them to give access to records, not only those records still held by religions orders but the 25000+ records that are now in the care of the state yet STILL the very people the records refer to are not available.
There are some very important records that even the orders who have handed adoption records to the state still retain – those which relate to testing of drugs on children in the care of home, which continued right up to the the mid 1980s. They know about these too – will they be enquired into, or will there have to be stories in the international press about those too before anything is even said, never mind done?
In many cases they have not even bothered to reply when carefully collated reports were given to them, and this is not ages ago, it’s in the last few years, it’s in the time when Francis Fitzgerald was minister – so she is well versed on this issue.
The important thing is that this enquiry is not the usual cover up or that it’s not a report like the McAlese rubbish – too many of those, way, way too many.
The UN should investigate!
could some of the cases be murder
Actually the records were transferred to the State many years ago when the place closed, or so I read.
Hello is that the Guards ? their are 800 dead children buried in a septic tank in Galway . Hello , Hello , Eh hello . Can you hear me , hello anyone ?
For “mass grave” read septic tank. Tell it like it is, Flanagan, the fudging starts already.
In fairness to him, that is what the Journal and even the woman involved called it.
Never mind the apology – cut the ties between church and state NOW
And seize all their assets in the country.
and give the assets to me Stephen.
The nuns should be made to stand there while they remove the bones.
Caring and nurturing seems to have bypassed them.
The site needs to be preserved and the bones examined by pathologists. We probably don’t have enough pathologists in Ireland to handle that many bodies on top of the day-to-day duties.
Call in outside agencies who can help.
This is nothing less then a crime against humanity. Whats more shocking is that it only has come to light by sheer chance, and therefore highly unlikely also that this was the only mother and baby home with hidden atrocities, we just don’t know the scale.
The matter should be taken out of the hands of government IMMEDIATELY and a FULL independent enquiry established. We cannot trust the state to set the terms of reference for reports into this.
No enquiry, a full criminal investigation must take place.
Consider that Gardai would have known the scale of this at the time and some are possibly still serving or family have taken up the baton of service, an Irish led investigation could be whitewashed to protect those who had third-party involvement. An UNCHR investigation would be credible but have no active legal means to prosecute only to report and recommend. A dual investigation with Garda powers at local level and legislators prepared to adapt law to corral these cruel people driven by a seperate UNCHR investigation might open some mouths. A lot will fall on how this is handled.
All the abuse and terror that went on in these homes only happened because the Govt’s of the day and the Guards covered up for it and refused to stop it..
Having the Guards investigate this makes no sense, they have as much to loose as the Church has.
At what point does a society scream ‘we’ve had enough!’? The rape, abuse and murder of irish children by the churches is unforgivable. Yet, we remain docile in the face of a bishops crozier and are content for the likes of Iona et al to continue to set our moral compass.
Oh please – this country is far from letting the Iona crowd set our moral compass. Look at the derision which greets the likes of David Quinn whenever they speak.
We still allow the catholic church into our schools, though.
They should be shunned and derided as is the case with many other cults/sects because that’s all the RC Church is.
@jane. The Jesuits have a saying’ Give me the boy and we will give you the man’ . The church are not now nor have ever been in education for anything other then making sure their brand of hooha was passed to the next generation.Control the child control the adult. They now control access to the local schools so they can control both.
Precisely what I’ve always said, Paddy! Personally I think it’s immoral to inflict any religious belief on a child. Let them wait till adulthood to decide which (if any) religion to join.
Imagine how many catholics there’d be then :)
“Opposition parties had earlier called for direct action on the revelations with Fianna Fáil saying that the Taoiseach should outline how the Government intends to investigate them and make an apology on behalf of the State.”
I hate the political convenience employed by FF here in using this as something to beat the government with. FF themselves should also apologise given that they were in power for almost all of the period between 1925 and 1961.
This is a crime that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have to take responsibility. It is not right to pretend that either party can be absolved of the deaths of these children.
As a FF person I will not deny or defend this. It is a monstrous crime and there is no way that that these things were not know of at the very highest level.
In fact it was Dev who asked the nuns ” to help” with all the woman getting pregnant and no husband. They helped granted, sold the good babies and put any disabled etc in the “dying room” and starved them
The Bishops of Ireland should as a act of contrition for this awful deed be made take the bodies out of the septic tank. See what their love of power and money means. What living in a “palace” means.
The product of roaring and bullying, guilting and shaming the populace in to a quivering bunch of insecure walkovers. It the removal of the corpses should be shown on TV as well to educate the Irish people in what happens when you are self-loathing, no self-respect “sure we’re only Irish, poor us, ashamed to be Irish, poor me, they better than us”and bend the knee to perceived betters. Children end up starved and buried in a shi7 tank.
Thanks largely to the collusion of church and your beloved party, who could all do with a stint in a ‘shit tank’ as you so eloquently phrased it.
I’m not going to disagree with you there Chris.
This is as much on Fianna Fáil door as it is the Church. One did it, the other covered it up.
At this stage I am tired of trying to square circles for Fianna Fáil. It is a party that I grew up steeped in.
I think the loyalty to the name and party distracts people from serving the Irish people and allows some very undesirables to get by lines.
Not playing that game any longer.
Good to hear seanie. You should support what you believe to be right. Not what we were brought up in.
Never thought I’d agree with you Seanie but you hit the nail on the head.
Good on you
yes seanie its gubu
but its the church and states way is not mine
I heard this story last week and couldn’t understand why it wasn’t headline news on every newspaper. The elections are no excuse for the lack if coverage. Kanye West and that fat-arsed Kardashian one’s visit to Cork managed to make headlines in some of the papers during the elections.
Journal should stop reporting this as a grave, those children were dumped in a disused septic tank!!!
First and foremost give them a decent burial.
No without first consulting their relatives,
What if the relatives if these;s kids don’t want the catholic church involved or a catholic burial given to these children.
Its the catholic church that carried out these crimes, its only logical that some may not want them involved anymore
Reply – the state needs to handle this yes. not the church. I agree. They deserve a better place of rest
Who mentioned the Catholic Church?
Their families didn’t care. You ended up there when you either had no one or if your family were only worried about the families reputation and standing. Keep the families out of it they have played their part too. Different time different standards. Shameful.
Forget the families that willingly sent them to that wretched place. Forget the church that has once again proven to be nothing more than a pit of evil. The only thing we can do is make sure it is never forgotten and beat cultists over the head with it.
Unfortunately relatives will be hard to find. As an adopted person from a mother and baby home late sixties and a victim of the closed adoption (Secret) system this country operated at the time and still operates, I meet barriers to tracing my Birth Parents at every stage. But certainly try and trace them and yes the church abandoned this poor kids, I would not want them to have anything to do with the re-buriel.
The mothers of these babies cared. The majority did anyway.
I’d like to hope so Michelle, for my sake and theirs but having heard many story’s I’m more skeptical.
Ciaran, it was the influence of the Catholic Church that crushed the spirits of people back then and told women they were lesser beings for bearing children outside of marriage. Any institution that claims to know absolute morality can’t have different standards for a different time. They have a role in this.
Nobody told the Catholic Church what to do – they did what they wanted. These children are still illegitimate to as far as the Church are concerned. Here’s their official view nowadays actually:
I know what you mean, Pauly. I was born in St. Patricks on the Naval Rd in ’74. I’m lucky enough to have been successful in my search. My mam was treated horribly as were most. The majority of women there in her time wanted their babies. But, like in so many other cases the family and church were only too happy to be rid of the ‘problem. ‘ At 16 there was no other recourse for her and a lot of others in her situation. Shocking news from Tuam. And I would assume it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Not a cesspit this time then!
I remember driving a taxi in the 70′s and several of my passengers young girls in their teens with their suitcases were driven to that so called home on the Navan Rd. Its not that long ago! So those responsible for the barbaric treatment of these children may be still alive and therefore answerable for their actions.
The RC church is the state
haha no way i was born in the rotunda then moved out to St Pats! ’69! BM was 21. Still waiting on info from HSE. I’m heading into the GRO at the end of June. All this has brought it to a head for me.
Have a loo at this!
Ah good luck Pauly. Don’t be alone through it. There are great resources and search angels out there. I waited 20 years for the agency to try to search. The couldn’t find anything. I called in December 2003 for an update and was told the would contact me in the new year. In 2012 I got a callback! On the 20th anniversary of my search they rang to say they were closing my case and could a woman on work experience look at the file as part of her course. I said ni problem and she found my mum in three days. I guess the social workers were otherwise engaged. Baffling considering her nephew was still living in the family home. I got lucky with the outcome and met my mam and sibs etc and it’s all good. I do wish I had gone it alone years earlier. I wasted so much time thinking I was a priority with the social workers and the HSE. In reality,I was little more than a number. Best of luck to you Pauly.x
Hi Michelle
Thanks for your kind words and encouragement! I’m so pleased for you. Hopefully I have a positive outcome.
Wow Michelle – well done u. shame on the HSE / Social work dept. so sorry to hear how ur Mum was treated there. and i’ve presided at too many births to believe that any Mum dose’nt love her child. the power of peer society, the RCC & State crushed these women & children & made these awful decisions on their behalf. .
The lady Catherine Corless who is mentioned in the article has attributed names and causes of death in some cases to these children. She is currently fundraising for a monument for these little bodies. The least they deserve is to be buried with dignity and have a peaceful place to rest. Please google her and support her. There were state inspections at this home. The children were described as being emaciated, with the flesh hanging from their bones. The State knew, the Church knew, the townspeople knew and yet they were still left to die. Or should I say left to be murdered. They died at the rate of one, sometimes two, per week. Can you imagine the deaths they suffered? Children want only to be loved. There was no love shown to them all their lives, not even in their final days. And then they were taken outside and flung into a septic tank. This will not be the last such grave to be uncovered.
I remember a story out of the 80s where they developed an old convent site, in Castlebar, only to find buried remains of infants…and there were no children kept at this convent. At least the priests and nuns of Rwanda and Croatia murdered out in the open for all to see, and to follow their example. The cringers, and kneelers will say this is Catholic bashing, as they become complicitors in this horror.
It is becoming clearer why 6 of 32 want nothing to do with this religio-political organization that has terrorized the world for centuries. It serves as a bar to peace, harmony and acceptance. And to think their plumed and gowned bishops are against condoms and abortion. Sure, where would they get the children they need for their purse and carnal appetites?
In fairness the North of Ireland was run as much by clergy and religious fanatics as the South or any country has ever been. Unionism is still the most clergy led political movement in the Western World.
Northern Unionism is still stuck in the 50′s, they did not allow the counting of votes on a Sunday. In many ways they are even more conservative than the RC church.
Never thought of that angle. It was the people of Tuam! They all knew about it … And now that we think about it didn’t we all!?!
By God! the Nazis could have learnt a lot from the Irish Roman Catholic Church.
This story is truly sickening. I hope they find some living people responsible. That’s a lynch mob to which I am happy to contribute.
Jesus god love them … Lot more to come on this me reckons poor children
It was the servants of your god that did this.
‘Government departments extreemly concerned’???? Concerned of being implicated. I can almost hear the shreders from here.
This site and all documentation needs to be seized and sealed away now for investigation by an independant outside agency. I would suggest the ECHR for a start possibly the guys at the Hague.Their remit extends outside of war crimes and we are a signatory to the convention on human rights.
Forensic removal of the remains should be a priority along with a thorough criminal investigation. No bungling reburial of the truth under the banner of letting sleeping dogs lie and pacifying an outraged and/or shamed public.
The remains should be sampled for DNA to allow future research into tracing the relatives and communities from which these poor unfortunates came from. I bet there are thousands of local people with stories hidden in closets.
There’s a science behind this sort of thing.
This is all guff about reburial etc. There must be a radical indepth investigation into those responsi ble for the deaths of these children. Children dont die in these numbers by accident. This is mass murder and those responsible need to be brought before the courts. If they are deceased this does not exonerate them from their responsibility regarding the mass murder of these kids. The late Jimmy Saville has not escaped blame for his actions. Why should the killers of these children escape? Having cross party government enquiries is a waste of time. This is a police matter. Of course when the Murphy Report stated that the Gardai turned a blind eye to clerical child abuse….I won’t hold my breath!
Unfortunately the Gardaí aren’t our best bet either. They were also steeped in this system of heinous acts. This requires a review from someone like the Spanish judge who investigated and indicted George Bush.
How can Adams even speak about such horrors when the gang he supported were equally culpable in the deaths of thousands.
And Nelson Mandela was a terrorist. Irrelevant connection.
As was the Govt. that you support Pickart.
Pretending that Northern Ireland was a normal state does not wash. It was Apartheid South Africa in Europe and a brutal state to those that did not conform to itself.
Says a lot about the pathetic man that you are that you use this for political gain.
Not thousands, Patrick.
I believe you, but I think you’re Lyons.
Many of those in power who turned a blind eye to the horrific crimes that the Catholic Church committed are the fathers and grand fathers of those who are sitting in the Dail today. The same people who sold our children out to the bond holders, that destroyed the health care system in this country.They cut benefits and took medical cards from sick children.
These are the very same people who will go to Mass every sunday and q to kiss the bishops ring. We need a new constitution that will rid us of the parasitical grip that the church and political dynasties have on this country. Separate Church and state , separate the political parasites from their unearned pensions.
wwo Joseph – well said.
cue more crocodile tears from enda in the dail
…and the odd bishop…
My information is that when the home was eventually closed , a very large monument was erected to commemorate 2 old IRA volunteers shot during the civil war. This is sited within 30 metres of the grave and was erected with the blessing of the mother superior. Ironic or what?
Is the killing of these babies not abortion RC style
Our politicians will bury all they can to avoid any trouble for them. They won’t even print the famous letter from the night of the bank crisis. What hope is there of our politicians sorting out this tragic story — Zero. The fathers and grandfathers of our currant politicians were responsible for these homes. They may even have put some of their own unwanted kids in there.
Revelations !!!!! Don’t think so. This has been known for a very long time just swept under the large carpet of the state and catholic church. They should have a proper burial with their own headstones not just a plaque on a wall. I’m sure there is land that can be acquired from the government to have as their final resting place. Let that be their memorial Take them away from there and do the decent thing for them. And then we can say rest in peace little ones.
I hope that the Government will not hold a public enquiry. It will find nothing more than that children in care were badly treated and that the State provided inadequate supervision and services for them; and it will cost millions in lawyers’s fees which would be better spent on providing current services.
This is only one of many so called homes how many more mass graves are there !!!
1 child a fortnight died in this home for 36 years, how can any human with a semblance of morality have stayed quite !!! There’s a lot if people in area knew about this, many people will be scrambling to sweep this under the carpet.
Wonder about what modern day abuses of children might we have ….
- Homework can be an abuse for many kids. Adults dont have to do it but impose it on children.
- Tax on children’s Family Homes by the State (Political Parties) …. odous.
- Banks and associates Maxing the Debt of Families often by entrapment, forcing both parents to work …
- Medical Cards for able bodied while kids with disability and long term illness left without … failed Irish society.
….. does the Minister for Children have a Charter ….. and what changes in legislation are proposed arising from it?
How many of these dead babies are the murdered babies of nuns vand priests?
No comment from the Pro Life brigade? The biggest problem with the Catholic Church is the rediculous practice of confession – the Phedofile Priests and murdering mums just go to confession where they are forgiven simply because they asked for forgiveness from another Phedofile.
Apparently these nuns were paid very handsomely for each baby under their “care”
Apparently many of these babies died from starvation.
This needs to be forensically investigated.
If the above is proven to be true then this evil organisation should be held accountable and banned from any further contact with children.
How ironic, whilst some the same nuns who in my childhood were waving donation boxes in front of our faces to “save the black babies” their sister nuns were slinging dead babies into a septic tank in Tuam and other places throughout Ireland. It sickens me to pit of my stomach to think of the inhumanity shown to these innocent children by these so called religious orders and it angers me to think that the Irish state was not only aware of what was happening but was colluding in it. Only an international or UN led investigation of these crimes against humanity will suffice, there’s no point in letting the Irish government or anyone appointed by them to lead such an investigation, it will end up in a cover just like all the others most recently the McAleese whitewash. Tuam is NOT the only mass grave there are thousands of infants and children buried in mass graves in several other locations, they are known about by the orders, catholic church and the government. It’s not just catholic church graves either, the same government which is now professing ‘shock’ and is so ‘appalled” by these “revelations” refused to include the victims of the Bethany Homes in the McAleese whitewash. Once again we are seeing what a disgusting horrible little country Ireland was for most of the 20th century under De Valera and his allies in the catholic church. How anyone has anything to do with that religion is a mystery to me and that includes members of my own family! Also, it way beyond time that the likes of DeValera and the other so called ‘heroes’ of Irish state mythology were re-evaluated in light of what has become an absolute flood of horrific revelations about what actually went on during their time in office and the crimes that were committed against the most vulnerable people in our society, Irish people of a certain age also need to ask themselves WHY they didn’t do more to challenge the state and the power that the catholic church so readily abused.
To roughly quote another Journal article on this subject…’we judge a society by the way it treats those most vulnerable and in need.’
Perhaps the minister will learn from this tragic stain on Ireland’s history and will maybe think about the way his government has chosen to implement their ‘austerity’ disproportionately onto the weakest of us, including children.
There are some disturbing parallels in the attitudes of the church then and the government now. An obsession with power, wealth and control, pointless cruelty towards the weak and vulnerable with their situation somehow perceived as being deserved and their own fault, justification coming from a vague and intangible deity (‘the Economy’ these days)…
i am ashamed to be irish.
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