SHOUTING, ‘criminals,’ ‘incompetent amateurs,’ and calling Christofias and his ministers to quit, demonstrators at parliament yesterday stalked members of the House Defence Committee, officials and other politicians before and during their closed-doors meeting.
The demonstrators put up a banner listing scandals plaguing the current and previous governments, asking: When will someone finally pay?
The banner listed various scandals involving incompetence and negligence by successive governments, including the S-300 missiles scandal in 1998, Deputy Attorney-general Akis Papasavvas teeth reimbursement, the 2005 Helios crash, the 1999 stock market bubble, the Cyprus Airways €20 million injection and the nepotism scandal involving former EU presidency Chief Andreas Moleskis.
Outside parliament yesterday, the relatives of a police officer who was injured in the blast approached Attorney-general, Petros Clerides to tell him that he had been repeatedly threatened not to talk about what he knows regarding the naval-base explosion.
Clerides told the family in the presence of journalists that he was ready at any time to receive them and get a statement.
Police officers and standby members of the rapid reaction unit, MMAD, kept close watch throughout yesterday’s proceedings.
Although most people kept their cool, one exasperated protester threw a bottle of water at Foreign Minister, Marcos Kyprianou, as he was leaving the House.
Kyprianou told reporters after the meeting that he would ask President Christofias to relieve him of his duties, not out of guilt “but for reasons of political sensitivity.”
Yesterday’s closed Committee meeting was attended by Kyprianou, Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis, Defence Minister Demetris Eliades, AG Petros Clerides, Auditor-general, Chrystalla Yiorkadji, among others.
Commiteee chairman EDEK’s Georgios Varnavas said after the meeting that they would continue on Friday. The purpose of yesterday’s meeting was to listen, he said.
He also said relatives would be allowed into the closed-door sessions in the interest of transparency.
Also there were former Defence Minister Costas Papacostas as well as former National Guard Chief Petros Tsalikidis, both of whom resigned hours after the blast.
Tsalikidis’ predecessor Constantinos Bisbikas is expected to be called to the session on Friday, Varnavas said.
