PRESIDENT Demetris Christofias yesterday rejected the findings of civilian probe which holds him “personally and institutionally responsible” for the blast at Mari naval base that killed 13 people.
As crowds gathered outside the Presidential Palace demanding his resignation, Christofias convened a meeting of his Cabinet at an alternative location – his personal residence in Engomi, Nicosia. At the end of the meeting ministers expressed their full support for Christofias.
At the Presidential Palace demonstration, Popi Christoforou, the mother of the twin sailors killed in the blast, voiced her frustration with the President:
“The man is clueless. He has not understood that he has killed my two children. He questions the verdict of the person he appointed [to investigate]. The man is not well.”
Earlier, Christofias dismissed the findings of the report by lawyer Polis Polyviou, calling it unsubstantiated and based largely on conjecture. Nowhere does the report contain evidence that the final decision to store the containers at Mari was the president’s, Christofias said, nor that the president was aware of the hazards from the outset.
The president also rejected the report’s conclusion that the containers were not destroyed for reasons of political expediency, as the report states.
A strongly worded indictment of Christofias and his administration, the report is nevertheless non-binding.
Christofias said he would await the findings of the police investigation into the Mari events before delivering the government’s “comprehensive views” on the matter.
The findings of a criminal investigation are set to be handed to the Attorney-general today. It is not clear whether the police report will be made public.
The President of the Republic enjoys immunity from prosecution while in office.
In his conclusions, Polyviou’s report attributes to Christofias “serious personal responsibility for the tragic events and its consequences”. The report blames Christofias directly for taking the political decision to keep the Monchegorsk cargo on the island, and indirectly for the government apparatus’ failure to remove and/or destroy the containers.
Cyprus seized the explosives from the Cypriot-flagged vessel which was en route from Iran to Syria in February 2009 after the United Nations sanctions committee said the consignment contravened a ban on Iranian arms shipments.
The report attributes “very serious responsibilities (institutional as well as personal) to Costas Papacostas and Marcos Kyprianou, the former ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs.
“But the main responsibility lies with the President, who heads the state and the government,” it stresses.
The 600-page report recommends that the Attorney-general consider the possibility of various crimes having been committed, including that of criminal negligence, causing death through a rash and reckless act, as well as the crime of manslaughter.
It does not however go into specifics nor does it name names, leaving the criminal aspect to the police and the Attorney-general.
Under the ending titled “Relentless Questions and Inescapable Conclusions”, the report notes: “It appears that the forces of laxity, negligence and inaction played a key role in the perpetuation of the status quo, that is, maintaining the cargo in a location and state…of maximum hazard.”
“I deem that the actions, acts and decisions of the President do not correspond to the minimum diligence expected of him, whether it be with regard to the public interest, the economy of the country, but above all the safety of the citizens of the Republic,” Polyviou notes.
“The bottom line is that the President of the Republic…failed to see to it, or even take the most basic of steps, to ensure the safety of citizens, and in particular the safety of servicemen and firefighters.”
In his report, Polyviou notes that even if the president was only informed of the danger in September 2010, “his reaction was again subdued and ineffective to say the least (and, in my view, negligent and inadequate)”.
The investigator said also the decision to locate the cargo at the naval base was the president’s. He said the military had visited a number of locations and decided the naval base was the most suitable.
“Their suggestion was adopted by the defence minister and the decision to choose Mari was taken or at least approved or endorsed by the president. It is inconceivable for me to accept the position that the president does not have the responsibility of selecting the naval base at Mari as the location where the confiscated cargo would be stored,” Polyviou said.
Polyviou also said it was difficult for him to accept that Christofias was not aware of the base’s proximity to the Vassilikos power plant.
He said the president is responsible for being informed and pleading ignorance as a defence not only raises an issue of trust towards the president and his government but also a matter of credibility.
The investigator accepted Christofias’ position that the assurances he gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to hand over the cargo to any other country apart from Syria or Iran were a diplomatic manoeuvre.
But, he added, such behaviour was not appropriate and resulted in Christofias trapping himself and the Republic of Cyprus in a policy that limited the country’s freedom of movement in handling the matter.
Although the report zeroes in on the president and his administration, a reading of it does raise questions about the involvement of the military, which Polyviou seems to absolve of any serious responsibility.
It emerges, for instance, that the individual boxes offloaded from the Monchegorsk bore labels and markings, such as: “Explosives,” “Improvised Explosive Device” and “Dangerous Goods.”
Several of the boxes feature the logo designating explosive material, adjoined by the following safety instructions: “Store in a cool and dry place”; and “Keep away from sunrays.”
Others bear the numeric designator 1.3c, which under the United Nations Organisation (UNO) Hazard Class and Division are defined as “substances and articles which have a fire hazard and either a minor blast hazard or a minor projection hazard or both, but not a mass explosion hazard.”
The boxes were identified during an inspection while they were still on board the Monchegorsk, before being placed in containers and trucked off to the Mari naval base.
Present at the on-board inspection were members of the military and customs, among others. The actual containers stacked at the base, however, bore no markings, suggesting that the hazards were known only to a select few within the military and political leadership.
The report notes, for example, that the firefighters despatched to extinguish the fire at Mari on July 11 were likely unaware of the dangers posed by the munitions inside the containers.
