TEARFUL, wailing and angry relatives of the 13 victims of the July 11 tragedy who attended the 40 day memorial service yesterday accused the government of abandoning them.
Officials and relatives stood in front of table carrying the pictures of the victims one kilometre away from the site of the blast at the Evangelos Florakis naval base in the Limassol district.
Crying relatives started shouting against those responsible, breaking the one minute’s silence after the service.
Relatives asked the Defence Minister Demetris Eliades why no one had personally delivered the death notice to them.
“Are we only worth a letter?” an angry relative asked the minister.
“Not one single representative of the National Guard came to our home to deliver the letters,” the relative said.
“Shame,” another person shouted.
“The President of the Republic did not forget to have an event for the (1974) coup. He forgot us for 40 days,” the mother of victim Vassilis Krokos said.
“Right now all of Cyprus’ people are in pain,” the Archbishop of Cyprus said in his address.
“Some are not in pain and are hiding,” was the biting response of a relative.
Eliades acknowledged that while they shared the families’ pain, “no one can be in more pain than those who have lost their children, husbands, their own people.”
“Build a good National Guard,” a person told Eliades.
“Don’t build it up to collapse again. That would be the best memorial service… Our children are not coming back… it’s not a political issue…at least it will vindicate those who were lost.”
Previously, relatives of five of the victims refused to deposit wreaths.
“It’s not enough to place wreaths on a little table with pictures,” one of them said asking to go the actual site of the blast where the 13 lost their lives.
They were later taken to the spot where the deadly munitions containers were kept for over two years.
There, the Archbishop conducted another memorial service.
Two fire trucks called on site on July 11 to put out the fire prior to the explosion were still lying there in the destroyed base.
Asked to comment on the relatives’ remarks, Government spokesperson Stefanos Stefanou urged them to be patient so that the state could proceed with the investigations necessary for “the truth to shine and responsibilities to be assigned.”
The Cabinet decided last week to offer €95,000 (€2.8 million in total) to each wife and offspring of the victims.
The victims’ children will also be getting university scholarships to study in Cyprus or abroad.
