By Athena Karsera
VIOLENT clashes broke out between fishermen and riot police outside the Presidential Palace yesterday, as protesters threatened to storm the Palace when they heard the President would not be seeing them.
Limassol fisherman Louis Kaffas was the first of three to be arrested by members of the rapid response force (MMAD) after striking a policemen while being restrained as he tried to run through the Palace gates.
Kaffas was released about half an hour later after agreeing to leave the demonstration.
But as tempers frayed in the sweltering heat, fellow demonstrators turned on Kaffas, swearing at him and calling him a traitor; others said that if he left they may as well all leave.
Eventually, the president of the Fishermen’s Union, Andreas Adamou, convinced the 300 or so protesters that Kaffas had done his duty and should be allowed to leave the scene.
Two more fishermen were arrested about an hour later, one of whom was physically carried through the Palace gates by four MMAD policemen.
They were later released under the same conditions.
Smaller skirmishes broke out later when some fishermen tried to block the road outside the Palace, something they had done for two five-minute intervals before the first clashes erupted.
One man claimed he had been hit by a policeman and showed television cameras bruises on his back.
The fishermen were demonstrating against the government’s refusal to grant them adequate compensation for damage caused their nets by dolphins, and in anger at the “indiscriminate” way fishing licences were being handed out. They also want more space at harbours and said the president had been aware of their demands “for at least three years.”
The demonstrators said they had had no intention of causing trouble, but were desperate for the government to take some notice of their problems.
An emotional Kaffas, who was close to tears, told the Cyprus Mail: “Do we live in a democracy or a dictatorship? Why did the police have to hit us?”
He said he scoured the Mediterranean to fish “to support my son.”
“We are seen as the worst people in Cyprus,” chipped in Tassos Adamou, a fisherman from Zygi: “We work 20 or 22 hours a day just to make a living, while everybody else’s jobs are getting better.”
The fishermen said they were not calling for the dolphins — a protected species — to be killed, but for the government to find ways to stop dolphins and turtles from approaching the nets.
Nicos Stylianou from Paphos echoed his colleagues’ complaints: “Fishermen have a lot of problems, especially with the dolphins. We’re getting poorer and poorer. There are less fish and the dolphins find it easier just to take the ones we have caught in our nets.”
He said there had always been dolphins around the island, but that in the past there had been enough fish both to feed the dolphins and turtles, and to fill the fishermen’s catch.
Stylianou added the government had suggested the fishermen use a system of bells on their nets to keep the dolphins away, but that this had proved unsuccessful: “Dolphins are the cleverest creatures. They were afraid of the bells in the beginning but then just started to ignore them.”
Marinos Kallogirou from Limassol said a sonar system that emitted sounds “the dolphins find annoying” could provide an answer, but that the systems were only sold through the Agriculture Ministry and were very expensive.
“We want to use small amounts of dynamite to keep the dolphins away, but because it is an illegal explosive, the police won’t let us. We asked them to accompany us when we use it, but they don’t want to,” Stylianou said, adding that the fishermen themselves could also be hurt if they did not use the explosive properly.
“The government could help us a lot if they wanted to,” Stylianou and Kallogirou agreed.
“The government doesn’t take us seriously. That’s why we came here today,” Stylianou said, adding the fishermen had wanted the demonstration to be peaceful, “but the police used excessive force.”
Union vice-president Socrates Neophytou told the Cyprus Mailthe fisherman would remain outside the Palace for 48 hours; after that, groups of 20 to 25 fishermen would take turns in picketing “for as long as necessary”.
The next step would be to close off the harbours: “This will affect rich people too, so maybe they will take notice then,” Stylianou said.
Meanwhile, Famagusta deputy and president of the agriculture committee Christos Mavrokordatos told the Cyprus Mailthat the committee fully supported the fishermen’s demands. He said the committee had unanimously decided that the fishermen should be helped.
