Lymbia leader condemns protest onslaught

LYMBIA COMMUNITY leader Savvas Sophocleous yesterday condemned the actions of lawyer George Karapatakis, who called the government a “dictatorship” during an argument with Government Spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis on Thursday.

Community leader Savvas Sophocleous slammed the lawyer, who he said did not represent the village community, but only a minority of the citizens.

The lawyer became involved in a shouting match with Pashiardis over the proposed creation of a waste disposal landfill site in the Lymbia vicinity, which will cater for the Larnca-Famagusta area.

Apart from calling the government a dictatorship, Karapatakis also said that the state was an “autarchic regime”. Pashiardis responded by saying that if there was no democracy, the Lymbia residents would not be allowed to be protesting outside the Presidential Palace.

Some 150 residents took part in the demonstration on Thursday afternoon, during which they handed in around 1,200 electoral booklets.

“We went peacefully to give our electoral booklets back to the government as a show of protest against the proposed creation of the waste disposal plant. I disapprove of the actions of the lawyer who does not represent our village and especially condemn some words he used towards the Government Spokesman,” Savva said yesterday.

“These words and phrases do not represent me personally and I do believe in democracy and strongly believe that we will democratically continue our protests,” he added.

According to Savva, the Lymbia inhabitants would be holding a village meeting yesterday evening in order to discuss the latest issues and come to a conclusion on recent events.

After a lengthy discussion lasting nearly two months between the village council and the government over the environmental suitability of the plant as well as its effect on the expansion potential of the community, Pashiardis reiterated the government’s position that the construction of the plant would go ahead whether the residents “liked it or not”.

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