TENSIONS heightened on Monday evening when a large group of protestors outraged over the July 11 naval base explosion gathered near President Demetris Christofias’ holiday home in Kellaki.
At 6pm around 150 members of an initiative calling themselves the “Awakened – Indignant Citizens” set off from a Limassol hotel for Kellaki in a convoy of 55 cars.
The group’s plan was to send Christofias a message of protest outside his country residence.
But the demonstrators were stopped in their tracks by Limassol police who cut them off at the Kellaki and Panyia tou Glossa crossroad. The angry citizens then got out of their vehicles and stood in the middle of the road, blocking traffic on the main Parekklisia – Kellaki road. The move forced police to divert traffic through a dirt track for about two kilometres and also annoyed several hundred local residents who had to be kept apart from the protestors for fear of clashes.
Police said the demonstrators had tried to talk their way into being allowed to send a small committee through so that they could go to Christofias’ home and show him a signpost with a message criticising his presidency and demanding his resignation.
Among other things the message read: “For everything we experience in our daily lives, we have one thing to say: What is lacking is consistency and integrity. Not what we say and what we write, what we are prepared to do and how… All this we put into action and life. This is one of God’s strongest commandments. We are masters of our own lives and no one else.”
The authorities could not however be talked down prompting the group to remain put until 7.45pm at which point around 90 of them left and headed for the Presidential Palace in Nicosia. The remainder stayed where they were until around 10.15pm and then they too slowly started to disperse.
Police said throughout the protest the “situation was tense”. Around 200 local residents gathered at the scene and exchanged angry words with the protestors. However members of the Rapid Reaction Unit, MMAD, kept the two groups apart which averted any incidents.
