DIKO deputy Marios Matsaksis spent another hard day in the trenches yesterday, disrupting British troops carrying out exercises at a Larnaca firing range, while protesting at the lack of safety measures that existed for shepherds and locals in the area.
Matsakis had previously disrupted the exercise at the Kalo Chorio firing range on Monday and Tuesday in protest at the planned erection of the huge British aerial at Akrotiri salt lake.
According to Matsakis, he returned to the firing range yesterday still protesting against the huge aerial, but also in response to accusations that he used devious methods to enter the range.
“I used one of the main entrances to drive to the centre of the firing range in the middle of the day with a convoy of cars filled with reporters. The SBA firing range warden didn’t even realise these access roads existed and promised to place guards there,” said Matsakis, highlighting the dangers posed to local villagers.
The British troops stopped the exercise until a British superior officer arrived along with a high-ranking Larnaca police officer who asked Matsakis to leave the range immediately.
The British troops were using live ammunition in a light weapons exercise at Kalo Chorio as opposed to the former range at Akamas after an agreement between the two governments called for an end to all firing exercises in the Akamas region.
Matsakis maintained that the decision was taken at a very high level and could not be reversed.
The outspoken deputy asked the Deputy Attorney-general Petros Clerides yesterday to open an investigation into charges he made on Tuesday of British troops trying to kill him. He asked Clerides to investigate as to why Cypriot police who are responsible for safety at the range failed to stop the shooting even after they knew he was under fire.
Asked why he put his life in danger in the first place, Matsakis replied, “If in a few years time the number of cancer cases increases in the Limassol area, I want to know that I tried my best for those victims, while others were sitting at home watching Brazilian soaps.”
British bases spokesman Rob Need said that Matsakis was entitled to his own view, maintaining that the need for dialogue existed in a democracy otherwise people would get into entrenched positions.
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.
