I know that IPM in Vietnam in 2015 will be recalled forever as a case of risk/ change/ crisis management. But let's forget about it. In November 2014, in an AIESEC conference in Switzerland, we talked about Masuno Yurika. If you are wondering who she is, you can check this blog below.
https://japantake.wordpress.com/2012/08/30/masuno-yurika/
This has been around lately and I wasn’t sure if I should write about it or not. To be honest I have nothing new to add to this, but I decided I should write my thoughts on the matter anyway, since it concerns both Japan and my home country.
I’ll give the details about the tragic incident in short and comment on them afterwards. Masuno Yurika was a university student in Japan and a member of the student organization AIESEC. She was in an exchange program and had decided to come to Romania and teach Japanese in a language program called “Language sCool”.
She arrived at Bucharest Airport alone, nobody waiting for her there. After leaving the airport, a man offered to find her a taxi that would take her to Bucharest Station where she would have taken a train ride to Craiova. It didn’t happen, however. The man got out of the taxi with her, ten minutes from the Airport, in a nearby forest. I’ll spare you the unpleasant details, the girl was mugged, raped and murdered. The murderer then covered her body with leaves and left.
He was taken into custody four hours after the body was found. Normally, you’d say the Romanian police is competent, but it’s quite the opposite. The man was already a suspect in several rape and robbery cases. Not only did the Airport security cameras see them together and the cab driver testified he left them in that particular spot where the body was found, but the murderer also stole the girl’s cell phone, that her parents recognized as being hers at a later date. Recent investigations found that the man had raped and murdered someone just 10 days prior to this, namely a 73 year old retired woman.
No, I made no mistake, he raped and murdered an old lady.
I’ll say this, even with the risk of sounding racist. The man is a gypsy. Why is this important? It’s not, particularly, but I say it because it’s true. It could have been anyone, but it wasn’t. I always try to keep an open mind; you can’t judge an individual by the actions of the group he unwillingly is a part of. Still, when I get beaten up in the middle of the day by 7 gypsies that believe my hair is too long (it’s not even shoulder length by the way), or when something like Miss Masuno’s death happens, it’s hard not to hate them.
While I blame the psycho gypsy for her death, both the Romanian police and the AIESEC organization have a part of the blame.
First off, why was this man free if he had quite a few rape and robbery charges on him? Because there was not enough money to make a DNA test and convict him. Take a moment to think about it. Rapists are left to wander the streets here because there aren’t enough money for DNA tests. Let’s proceed to the fact that just 10 days earlier he had raped and murdered an old lady. Let me just say that this was discovered only AFTER Masuno Yurika’s body was discovered and the police started getting pressured for results. This is typical Romanian behavior; they didn’t worry too much about it when it was a local issue, but when it became an international issue, suddenly they were competent.
Now, AIESEC. They’re just as much to blame as the police is. Why was there nobody there waiting for her? They knew full well what happens at the airport in Bucharest and even if they didn’t, if you’ve lived for more than a few months here you’ll know a young girl shouldn’t go out at night, let alone in such dangerous places like Airports and train stations. It’s just not safe and the police doesn’t help you; a combination of not being paid enough and the fact that they actually like the criminals, with whom they are often seen chatting. The people of AIESEC must have known all this; how could they leave her to fate like that? We’ll never know because both AIESEC Romania and AIESEC Japan refuse to comment on the situation. I believe AIESEC Romania gave a “sorry, we can’t say anything, kthxbai”.
In the end, I can’t say I’m surprised. Saddened, that an innocent died again, yes, but not surprised. It’s just one more thing to hate about this place. It’s a pity, really; if the people would leave, it would be a beautiful place.
Rest well, Masuno Yurika.
I remembered that the delegates didn't focus on the session. Sarah stood up and told them about this 'taboo', about something that someone who always speaks up about youth development, leadership, about changing the world like us has to forever remember.
