Conscripts accused of beating cat to death

POLICE are investigating a report that three National Guard conscripts beat a cat to death outside their camp in Dherynia.

A local resident yesterday called the Cyprus Mail to say that on Sunday night, her husband had gone to the roof of their house to check the water levels. While he was there, he heard a cat scream. Looking towards the scream, he saw about 150m away three National Guard soldiers beating a helpless cat with sticks; when it went limp, one of the soldiers threw its body hard against a tree.

“From his position high on his roof he had a clear vision of what was taking place,” the woman said, adding that when she went to talk to the guards they raised their hands up and said “No English!”, event though she knows very well that they speak English as she has heard them speak it before.

After contacting the police, she was told that the Base commander would take over the case.

The man who witnessed the abuse was due to give a formal statement to police yesterday.

Police confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that they were investigating the incident, adding “we are still not sure if this is a case of abuse or not”.

The woman who reported the incident had no doubt it was abuse, saying something had to be done about animal cruelty in Cyprus.

“We’ve seen plenty of dead cats around the buffer zone, some of which were poisoned,” she said, adding that on Friday their next door neighbour had seen through her binoculars a cat being stoned to death by soldiers. Again, when she went to speak to the guards they had just walked away. She had noted down this incident in a diary.

In March 2006, two National Guard conscripts officers were jailed for brutally burning a cat to death, after mobile footage of the incident was sent to a local television station.

A disciplinary decision also ruled that they should do an extra 30 days of military service, they were dishonourably transferred, were expelled from the Military Police force and had to change their plans to attend University because of the extra time they were forced to spend in the army.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.