THE CRUDENESS with which the Christofias government operates seems to know no bounds. On Wednesday evening the government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou issued a statement, changing the testimony of President Christofias to the investigative committee with regard to the instructions he had supposedly given to the head of his diplomatic office Leonidas Pantelides, about the munitions containers.
The testimony of Pantelides, who was due to appear before Polys Polyviou the next morning, was of critical importance as he sat in on key meetings discussing what should have been done with the containers and took instructions directly from the president. So why on earth did the government feel obliged to issue a statement changing what Christofias had said about Pantelides to the committee, on the eve of the latter’s appearance before the committee?
The matter was also raised at yesterday’s meeting of the committee, with a lawyer of one of the relatives arguing that the spokesman’s statement constituted interference in the procedure. Polyviou said the statement did not count, because if anyone wanted to change his testimony he had to ask the committee. It could have been interference, if the government statement, which was clearly aimed at publicly appeasing Pantelides, influenced the testimony he gave yesterday.
On Monday Christofias said: “I was made aware about the danger (posed by the containers) in September of 2010 by Mr Pantelides. I asked Mr Pantelides to take action so that the gunpowder would be destroyed. Unfortunately these efforts and their results were not announced to me.”
Quite rightly, several newspapers concluded that Pantelides had ignored the President’s instructions for the destruction of the shipment, but they were wrong to do so, according to the spokesman who said in his statement: “Mr Pantelides could not undertake the responsibility for the destruction of the shipment. His duties included contacts and communication with foreign diplomats and not liaising between ministries and services.”
So had the president been economical with the truth when answering Polyviou’s questions? If liaising with ministries was not part of Pantelides’ duties, why had the president asked him to take action so that the gunpowder would be destroyed? The spokesman claimed that what Pantelides had been asked to do was to contact Iran to explore the possibility of destroying the shipment. Why Christofias had not mentioned this at the committee, saying instead that Pantelides had ignored his instructions, the spokesman failed to explain.
At least Christofias is being consistent. On Monday he refused to take any responsibility for the decisions taken by his government in relation to the munitions containers. Now he is also refusing to take responsibility for what he said at the committee on Monday. His spokesman’s version of what he said, we are supposed to believe, reflected the truth more accurately than his own words.
