POLITICIANS yesterday united in condemnation of the vicious racist attack against a 15-year-old African-Cypriot girl, as immigrant support group KISA warned parts of Nicosia were on the verge of turning into a battleground with immigrants facing planned attacks by racist gangs.
But teachers’ and parents’ unions insisted there was no racism in schools, with OELMEK demanding an investigation to prove last Friday’s attack was racially motivated, blaming the attack instead on typical teenage delinquency.
The attack saw 40 teenagers chanting “Blacks out of Cyprus” while they punched and kicked Margarita Duku after a school volleyball match last Friday.
The exchanges came as the Chairman of the House Education Committee, Nicos Tornaritis of DISY, yesterday called an emergency parliamentary meeting to discuss the matter and invited the Education Minister, Ombudswoman, Child Commissioner and anti-racist organisation KISA to testify, together with teachers’ and parents’ unions.
“This incident could not pass unnoticed and without us unifying our voices in condemnation,” said Tornaritis as he started the meeting.
Minister Andreas Demetriou, MPs and all state officials strongly condemned the incident and admitted that Cypriot pupils were having difficulty accepting multiculturalism, which often led to xenophobic outbursts.
But teachers and parents insisted the attack was isolated and there were rarely – if ever – any racist phenomena in schools.
“This is a very serious incident, condemned in the strongest terms; but we will not accept under any circumstances that there is racism in our schools,” said OELMEK general secretary Costas Hadjisavvas. “In order to deem this attack racist, an investigation needs to be carried out and we want the evidence to prove it. If it is proved, OELMEK will accept it as that.”
Hadjisavvas called for the appointment of an investigator to get to the bottom of the affair, in addition to the investigation that is already underway by the Ombudswoman’s office.
However, Minister Demetriou had a different view. “This case has powerful elements of racism and aggression. It has to do with a racist conception of things and events,” said Demetriou. “As a society, our mentality is very wrong.”
Although this was something that started from the family and affected society as a whole, he added, the way pupils were taught in school did not help the situation.
“If you cultivate in children that we are the superior race, it affects their acceptance of multiculturalism,” the minister explained.
But dealing with racism and accepting the different is not something that can be dealt with in education alone, Demetriou added. “It is a matter that concerns society and our political leadership, and it needs to be addressed in its entirety.”
Ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou and Child Commissioner Leda Koursoumba also called for a broad look at the issue and, referring to the various investigations they have carried out over the past years, called for fundamental changes in the way children are brought up in Cyprus.
On behalf of the police, Costas Veis found himself on the receiving end of some stern words from Tornaritis, after the policeman tried to sidestep claims that the police had refused to accept a statement by Margarita’s father.
KISA President Doros Polycarpou, who brought the matter to the media’s attention and submitted a formal complaint to the Ombudswoman, said the father had tried three times to offer his version of events to the police, only to be turned away.
He eventually made his statement, but only after pressing the matter. Veis said the statement was delayed as Margarita’s father was not an eye witness, to which Tornaritis replied: “So do I have to be an eye witness to make a statement? Or white?”
Polycarpou also contradicted OELMEK’s claims that Duku’s cousins, who also attend the Akaki School with Margarita, had never suffered racist abuse. “I have spoken to Margarita’s cousin and she told me that her siblings don’t go to school any more because they are tired of being beaten,” said Polycarpou.
He then informed deputies on the existence of local gangs in Pallouriotissa and old Nicosia, who gather and plan assaults against immigrants.
“Foreigners living in the area are now preparing their defence. We are on the brink of watching old Nicosia turn into a battlefield,” he warned.
