THERE were angry scenes yesterday in Eleftheria Square after distraught relatives of the Helios crash victims vented their anger at political figures that showed up at their demonstration.
Earlier this week, the relatives of the victims had announced that they would be staging a protest because they claimed that the government had failed to bring those responsible to justice.
Tensions became heated when political figures and especially AKEL Leader and presidential candidate Demetris Christofias and EDEK Leader Yiannakis Omirou turned up at the demonstration in central Nicosia.
“You are only interested in the votes”, wailed one elderly relative.
“You have no honesty! you have no courage! Those murderers are walking free and you have all done nothing!”
Another man, clutching a photograph of his deceased granddaughter, shouted at Omirou, “You voted for Papadopoulos! You’ve given him your backing and you said this only recently. Shame on you! Shame on you!” he yelled.
Also present at the gathering was the other presidential candidate Ioannis Kasoulides of DISY as well as DISY deputy Ionas Nicolaou, former agriculture minister Costas Themistocleous and certain officials of the Nicosia municipality.
Despite two investigations into the crash of the Cypriot airliner two years ago, no prosecutions have been made.
According to the initial report into the crash by Akrivos Tsolakis, the crash was due to decompression problems and pilot error.
A second report, which was conducted in Cyprus by Panayiotis Kallis, was handed to President Tassos Papadopoulos.
The relatives, however, claim that there are people responsible for the deaths of their loved ones who are still free.
Their frustration turned into anger and despair yesterday especially when several political figures turned up at the rally.
Addressing the relative, the head of the relatives committee Nicolas Yiasoumis said, “Very soon, we will have the two-year anniversary of that black day which has forever changed our lives. On that day, our loved ones were murdered in the sky and despite two years going by, nothing has been done to bring those murderers to justice.
“We don’t just demand justice. We demand immediate justice”, said Yiasoumis.
Relatives demand Kallis report
Yiasoumis and his committee were also angry by a recent letter sent from President Tassos Papadopoulos to the lawyers of the relatives in which he informed them that he couldn’t publicise the investigation in the Kallis report.
According to President Papadopoulos’ letter, “the publicising of any possible guilty parties could see them escape punishment because their trial could be seen as ‘unfair’ should the media judge them beforehand.”
Responding to the letter, which Yiasoumis personally handed out to gatherers at yesterday’s protest, the head of the committee said, “With reference to President Papadopoulos mention that they do not want to reveal the names of possible people responsible in the Kallis report, we would like to say that we never wanted the names of the people responsible. Just the investigation in the report.”
