THE ARMY will stop the transfer of munitions from Palodhia camp to another near Asgata for the time being, Defence Minister Demetris Eliades said yesterday.
Eliades was speaking after a meeting with Asgata’s community council.
The meeting was called after residents of Asgata strongly protested on Tuesday against the transfer of ammunitions from Palodhia through their village to a camp in the area.
Xenophon Christoforou, Asgata’s community leader, said the community refused to see their village turned into a dumping site for explosives.
Christoforou said the community of Asgata looks at the transfer of an unknown quantity of Bofors 50 mm anti-aircraft shells at their village with great distrust, especially after having witnessed how explosives and ammunitions have been stored and handled by the National Guard in the past.
“We are afraid that what they claim to be a temporary arrangement will turn into a permanent situation,” Christoforou said. “We already have military warehouses here, we already have an army camp, we don’t want to be a dumping ground for explosives as well,” he added.
Eliades said that the Ministry empathised with the residents and agreed to continue discussing the issue of the ammunitions’ storage until an agreement is reached. He added that he hoped the community would in turn realise the importance of the Ministry’s task to store and eventually destroy dated ammunitions.
“The National Guard is undertaking the task of destroying all ammunitions that are useless and old, always taking the necessary precautions to protect both soldiers and civilians,” Eliades said. He added that according to the level of danger they pose, some 2,000 shells are being systematically destroyed every day.
Talking to state radio earlier in the day Eliades said that there existed a general problem in the National Guard with old and useless ammunitions
that have been stored in the countryside for years and which are waiting to be destroyed, following a ministerial decision taken at the end of August.
Eliades also responded to an article by Phileleftheros newspaper, which published the findings of British experts on the disintegrating explosives in Palodhia. The article stated that the experts had criticised the way ammunition was stored, particularly the way in which they were stacked, leaving little space between crates and also the fact that they were placed 100m from a public street and 600m from Palodhia village. Eliades said that the British experts were invited by the Defence Ministry and the National Guard to examine the situation at Palodhia camp and provide a second opinion. “The British technicians validated our own views and findings on the issue of the Palodhia explosives,” Eliades said. “We are collaborating with them in order to ensure the safe destruction of explosives and munitions that have stopped being used decades ago,” he added. The munitions transported to Asgata on Tuesday night consisted of the least dangerous equipment at Palodhia.
Eliades assured the public that the ammunitions transported to Asgata posed no danger and that they are only temporarily being stored in the area, until they can be safely destroyed in a designated firing range.
His reassurances came amid protests from residents of the Asgata community who complained on Tuesday that they were kept in the dark about the ammunitions being stored near their village. They only became aware of this when military trucks laden with munitions cut through their community in the early morning hours of Tuesday. Eliades said the National Guard had not informed Asgata’s local authorities of the transfer because there was no organised explosion planned in the area. “The lack of information towards the citizens of Asgata was definitely a great omission on our behalf,” Eliades admitted.
