JUSTICE Minister Sophocles Sophocleous on Wednesday urged the public not to draw conclusions from the fact that two foreign nationals had been arrested in connection with the murder of a Cypriot stabbed to death on Tuesday, condemning any xenophobic interpretation of the tragedy.
Indeed, many Cypriots believe foreigners are to blame for the majority of murders in recent years, as well as for increasing crime rates, a belief encouraged by police bulletins that systematically refer to suspects as “foreigners”, language often mirrored on television and in the press.
And yesterday, Simerini newspaper published a list of murders involving foreigners (26 since 1996, according to the paper), underlining that many of them were unusually vicious and brutal.
“Yes, I’m under the impression that there are more murders now and that those murders are committed by foreigners,” 37-year-old Maria Michaelidou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.
“In the past you didn’t hear about people killing each other over foreign women – like that heinous crime the other day. Or at least not as far as I remember.”
Michaelidou was referring to the murder of 53-year-old Giorgos Diomedous in Meniko village on Monday evening. He was stabbed to death, allegedly by a Romanian man of 45 in the presence of Diomedous’ 29-year-old pregnant Romanian girlfriend, thought to be the killer’s lover and accomplice.
“The foreigners we have here are from third world countries where they have more lenient policing or from former Eastern European countries where crime is in their blood,” Michaelidou added.
“In the past, Cypriots used to kill between themselves but now things are different… I’m under the impression foreigners are to blame,” she said.
Christos, 20, also held the view that foreigners had more motives to kill.
“They have the worst paid jobs and are treated badly so I wouldn’t be surprised if they committed more murders than locals. However, you tend to hear more about Cypriots committing murders than you do a foreigner. In two or three months, no one is going remember a man from Pakistan killing someone, but if it’s a Cypriot they could be talking about it for months and the media will highlight it more,” the student said.
Andreas said he was under the impression that it was pretty equal in terms of who committed murders.
“I think Cypriots and foreigners commit murder the same. I don’t think that there is an increase on one side or the other, although if there is, I might have to say the foreigners have the edge.”
He added: “What I do think though is that the media portrays foreigners as the villains and makes the public believe that they are committing more of the murders, which in turn increases the already negative perception locals have of foreigners.”
Only Joanna, 28, and Harry, 30, were adamant in their beliefs and said that they did not think foreigners committed most of the murders.
“I wouldn’t say foreigners commit most of those types of crimes. In fact if anything I’d say more Cypriots do because it’s only natural since we live in Cyprus. However, if you’re talking about crime in general, there are a lot of crimes now committed by foreigners, such as car and home break-ins,” Harry said.
Joanna held a slightly different view: “I don’t think more foreigners are to blame at all. What I do think though is that more foreign women than Cypriot women are being murdered.”
Her 33-year-old sister, Nathalie, did not share the same view.
“It’s because of all these foreigners we have here. In the past you just didn’t hear about so many murders, now it’s all you hear about. We’re not even into the sixth month of the year and already six people have been killed. Things have really changed,” Nathalie said.
Asked to comment on the issue, the police spokesman’s office said it would be irresponsible to blame the majority of murders on foreigners, as this only served to increase racism and xenophobia.
According to police statistics, of this year’s six murders, only half had been committed by foreigners.
Statistics for previous years were not yesterday available although preliminary reports suggest that murders are committed by Cypriots and foreigners equally.
A large number of the crimes also go unsolved, the spokesman’s office said.
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