DR MARIOS Matsakis may have done many crazy things in his life, but his decision to enter the National Guard’s Kalo Chorio firing range and disrupt an exercise was one of his more rational actions.
Had he not destroyed some of the targets, his act of protest would have been perfectly acceptable, even if he was charged with illegally entering an army firing range. Citizens, surely, have a moral right to act when they consider their lives or homes to be at risk.
In the case of the Kalo Chorio firing range, Matsakis and the residents of the area who also staged a protest on Wednesday, have every right to demand that it is moved or at least not be used for target practice of long-range guns. The community leader of Pyrga village pointed out that guns with a maximum range of 20km were being used in a firing range for guns with less than half that range. Inevitably, shells had repeatedly landed next to people’s houses, by the village church, on farmland or in the surrounding woods.
It is a miracle that there have been no casualties yet, but fires have been started – the most recent a couple of months ago – and residents have found unexploded shells in fields and the woods. Children could be playing where there are unexploded shells, not to mention the fear caused among the young by the loud explosions whenever there is target practice in the area.
That the National Guard continues to use the Kalo Chorio firing range, after so many near-disasters, is criminally irresponsible. What is the ministry of defence waiting for before it decides to ensure the safety of the area’s communities? Must tragedy strike before the ministry looks at other options? Defence minister Costas Papacostas’ refusal to do anything is astounding. He went as far as to reprimand the area’s residents saying: “The residents must understand that the National Guard, which is burdened with the responsibility of the defence and security of our semi-occupied country, must undergo training.”
In other words, the residents must accept that at any time one of them could be killed by a National Guard shell, because the army needs to train. We doubt the minister would have been so blasé if members of his own family were living in the Pyrga area. And his invitation to the village councils for talks so that a compromise on their “co-existence with the firing range” could be agreed on, beggars belief.
The ministry has an obligation to take all measures to ensure the complete safety of the residents. It should stop using Kalo Chorio for target practice using guns with a range that could take shells beyond the boundaries of the training area. There can be no compromise on this. And the National Guard must start looking for a new location for training on its long range weaponry. It is as simple as that, if the defence ministry is concerned about people’s lives.
