Tsunami victims file lawsuit
2005-09-06 15:18
Paris - Families of 41 French victims of last year's tsunami filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing Thai authorities and a Sofitel hotel of failing to act fast enough to save lives.
Those who died were staying at the Sofitel Magic Lagoon at Khao Lak, north of the resort island of Phuket. The hotel, owned by French hotels group Accor, was destroyed by the December 26 tsunami.
The lawsuit asks a court to determine if the hotel and the Thai weather service should answer to charges of homicide and failing to help people in danger, said Gerard Chemla, a lawyer for families of the victims.
"We simply want the truth," said Chemla, who filed the lawsuit at the state prosecutor's office. The prosecutor must still decide whether to declare the suit valid.
In the complaint, the families accuse Accor of not having taken into account the foreseeable risk of danger at its Sofitel, located on the beach in a region affected by tsunamis.
Late warnings
It also accuses the hotel management of alerting guests too late and not handling the situation properly. It says hotel staff were not trained to cope with a tsunami and that nearby hotels suffered fewer casualties.
The complaint also accuses Thai weather authorities of a delayed reaction in spreading a warning even though "they were warned of the arrival of the wave well before it touched the Thai coast".
Accor spokesperson Yannick Le Bourdonnec said the company feels "everything that could have been done was done at the time".
Hotel staff sought to evacuate the beach, but some ignored the warning and did not leave, trying to film the incoming deadly wave with video cameras, Le Bourdonnec said.
The company felt the lawsuit was "a good thing" if it "allows for a better understanding of the causes of this tragedy", he said, adding that the hotel lost 54 staff members to the tsunami.
The 41 French citizens who died at the hotel were among 95 French nationals killed by the tsunami, which left more than 176 000 dead in 11 Indian Ocean countries. Another 50 000 remain missing and hundreds of thousands homeless.
- AP