A REPRESENTATIVE for the bicommunal groups behind Monday’s ‘donkey’ demonstration said yesterday it had never been their intention that anyone should be arrested.
Two Greek Cypriots, a Turkish Cypriot and Shelidona, a pregnant donkey, were arrested during the protest against the showing of passports. They were held overnight, fined and released on Tuesday.
Shelidona’s owner Savvas Christodoulou, 73, and taxi driver Andis Kyriakides, 55, were not in fact part of the protesting group, organiser Nicos Anastasiou told the Cyprus Mail. He said the old man had been hired only to provide the donkey, which had its own passport from the ‘Federal Republic of Donkeys’, adding it was never anyone’s intention that they cross the checkpoint.
However, he said Christodoulou and Kyriakides somehow got pushed along from the one side and “pulled” over from the Turkish side and then they were arrested.
“We had only planned to go and make our statements and leave,” said Anastasiou. “We made our peaceful demonstration and we just wanted to inject some humour into it. We never wanted to put anyone in danger and we were particularly concerned for the old man.”
The idea for the demonstration came from a comment by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash that the only true Cypriots were the island’s donkeys. The bicommunal groups wanted to protest the fact that Greek Cypriots are forced to show passports at the Turkish Cypriot checkpoints.
The story was widely covered on the Turkish Cypriot side and in newspapers and agencies abroad.
“It wasn’t our intent to score political points, but it was insulting to say that the only real Cypriots are the donkeys. This is an insult to the donkeys as well because it degrades the animals the negative way Denktash said it,” said Anastasiou.
Anastasiou said the people responsible for egging Christodoulou to show Shelidona’s passport had apologised. “The important thing is that everyone is safe and they can now look back on it and smile,” he said. “But it is sad that it developed the way it did and that we were portrayed as insensitive people who used the old man and the donkey.”
Anastasiou said from the moment they were arrested, he had wanted to go to the Turkish side and claim responsibility, but he had been advised not to by the UN. “They said it would make things worse,” he said.
Briton Patrick Skinner, who runs the donkey sanctuary in Vouni and who was against the demonstration from the start, said yesterday he maintained his stance on the issue. Skinner said he had received a call from an animal welfare group in Switzerland saying they had heard hat a double line of donkeys had been put along the Green Line.
He repeated that he thought the use of the donkey in the demonstration was outrageous. “We got ourselves into this mess as human beings and then use these creatures as an example. This (the protest) has done no good whatsoever,” he said.
