‘Blame goes much higher than army officer on the ground’

RESPONSIBILITY for the deadly July 11 blast reaches much higher than the officer assigned to place the munitions containers at the naval base, House Defence Committee chairman Giorgos Varnava said yesterday.

“It is not an issue of the officer who put the specific objects there; certainly the responsibility lies much higher than the particular officer,” Varnava said.

The 98 munitions containers seized from a ship travelling from Iran to Syria in 2009 exploded on July 11 killing 13 men and knocking out Cyprus’ main power station.

The containers had been stacked together and exposed to the elements for over two years.

Socialist EDEK MP Varnava said the officer who put them there had been given three options: to locate them at Zygi – not far from the naval base – the naval base, and the Limassol boot camp.

“If the boot camp had been selected we would have been mourning many more victims,” Varnava said.

On Sunday, former National Guard commander Petros Tsalikidis, said the army’s involvement was limited to guarding the containers to prevent theft or sabotage.

Tsalikidis, who resigned just hours after the blast, said he had raised the matter of the dangers entailed in keeping the cargo there, adding that he had no access to the material.

“It was fenced and we did not even have the keys,” Tsalikidis was quoted as saying by Greek newspaper Ethnos.

Tsalikidis said he has no responsibility, noting that he resigned out of sensitivity — as tribute to the men who were killed.

Asked how he knew the cargo was dangerous if he had no access, Tsalikidis said he had been briefed by his staff that it could become unpredictable if it was altered.

The lieutenant-general, who assumed his duties a couple of months after the cargo had been seized, said he was devastated but his conscience was clear because he had done his best.

Varnava confirmed that the National Guard was tasked with guarding the cargo, adding however that the claim for lack of access was a new element.

He said Tsalikidis will be quizzed on the issue during tomorrow’s defence committee session that is looking into the blast.

 

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.