SIX MEMBERS of the extremist nationalist group ELAM (National Popular Front) were taken in for questioning by police over the weekend. A brief police statement said the six individuals were questioned in connection with a case of conspiracy to commit a misdemeanour and public insults.
The six men taken in for questioning were part of a 30-strong group of ELAM members who had gathered outside the Nicosia Central Prisons on April 1st after they had been refused permission to enter the area where EOKA heroes were buried. The group reportedly shouted insulting slogans against President Christofias both on his arrival and departure; it was also involved in minor scuffles with officers at one stage.
Why were these men not arrested there and then by police if they were suspected of breaking the law? Why did 24 hours have to pass for the first four to be arrested and 48 hours before the other two were taken in? It was very peculiar behaviour, considering the ridiculous level of tolerance usually shown by police to demonstrators. We have witnessed much worse behaviour by demonstrators, in the past, without anyone being detained by police, presumably because the right to protest was respected.
In the case of ELAM, the police were probably given instructions to arrest the demonstrators, who were chanting that the president was a traitor, by the government. The government spokesman defended the arrests by asking whether any citizen could “tolerate a torrent of abuse on an institution such as that of the President of the Republic?” Then again, this was a political protest and the demonstrators had not resorted to threatening or violent behaviour. Someone could argue that they were exercising their right to free speech, even if they had used insulting language against the president. In a democracy, political protesters are usually free to chant anything they like against politicians, including the president.
This was not the only reason the arrests were a mistake. By arresting the six men, the police gave ELAM the kind of publicity it could only dream of. It will most certainly exploit the event, presenting its members as champions of freedom being persecuted by the repressive state authorities, for expressing their concerns about the future of the country. In this respect, the government played into the hands of ELAM, which as a small organisation craves publicity.
The government is unintentionally helping the recruitment drive of the extremists, but we suspect that it suits the government to create the impression, two months before elections, that we are facing a fascist threat.
