Blame game as Germans mourn Love Parade victims (News Feature)

By Helen Livingstone Jul 31, 2010, 16:00 GMT

Berlin - Thousands gathered in Duisburg on Saturday to remember the victims of the Love Parade tragedy - but the mayor of the west German city was conspicuous by his absence.

Memorial services were held at 12 churches and broadcast to a football stadium, one week after 21 people were crushed to death and 500 injured when panic sparked a stampede in an access tunnel during a techno music festival.

Adolf Sauerland was not present at the main service, attended by Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Christian Wulff, because he did not want to 'hurt relatives' feelings or present a provocation with his presence,' according to a spokesman.

Love Parade organizers, police, security agencies and city officials are now embroiled in an unseemly struggle to shift blame away from themselves.

'Who's to blame? Who's responsible?' she asked. 'These questions must, and will, be answered,' Premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state Hannelore Kraft said at the main service held the Church of Our Saviour.

Sauerland, who had pushed for the event to take place in the small city, has faced a barrage of criticism in its aftermath. He had reportedly known of the town planners' security concerns four weeks ahead of the festival.

Calls for his resignation have become louder and he has received several death threats. He has reportedly been booed and heckled on the streets. 'It's agony here,' said one townhall worker this week. At the city's call centre many workers had apparently been reduced to tears after having to endure callers' abuse.

'Nobody is taking the blame - although any idiot would have known better,' read one card propped by the tunnel. A sea of candles has sprung up to commemorate those who died there.

Earlier in the week the Love Parade organizer Rainer Schaller attempted to point a finger at the police, claiming they had given the order to open extra gates, allowing thousands to press into the tunnel.

But police quickly rejected the claim, telling Schaller not to 'lose himself in speculation.'

An initial police report published on Wednesday then laid most of the blame with the organizers. They had failed to implement agreed safety procedures at the entrance to the event, state Interior Minister Ralf Jaeger said.

'But what I find ... intolerable,' said Jaeger, 'is that the organizers and the city, which approved the event, are shirking their responsibility.'

The nearby city of Bochum had refused to host last year's event, saying they did not have the capacity for that number of people. It remains unclear how many people attended the event in Duisburg, with figures ranging between 400,000 and 1.4 million.

On Saturday, the city streets were noticeably quiet. Only 2,000 people sat and watched the memorial service at the football stadium which has seating for 25,000.

But the continued struggle to assign responsibility has dismayed those affected. 'I was startled by all the accusations at the beginning,' Stefanie Podeszwa, who was caught up in the stampede with her boyfriend, told ZDF television. 'I expected the organizers of such a mass event would have to take responsibility for it.'

After coming out of the tunnel, the festival-goers had had to climb a high-walled, concrete ramp to reach the grounds where the festival was taking place, she said.

'There were police officers and marshals standing above us looking down and I thought 'Okay, they must know what they're doing'.'

But as more and more people crowded through, it became clear the situation was not under control.

People began to storm the metal masts at the side of the ramp in an attempt to escape the crush. At 1.83 metres, Podeszwa believes it was her height which saved her, allowing her to keep her head above the crowd and breathe.

At first police at the top had tried to prevent the people from scaling the mast, she said, 'but then one did start helping people over the railing.'

Another festival-goer, 60-year-old Juergen Schneider said the police had been exhausted by their efforts to control the crowd. During the catastrophe, he said, one officer had shouted 'I can't go on any more.'

'Just a week ago, young, happy people were on the way to a festival,' said Bishop Franz Josef Overbeck, one of the church leaders who spoke at the service. 'By the evening there was chaos, dead and injured.'

At the Church of Our Saviour on Saturday, 21 candles burned in remembrance of them.