Fuel fiasco nothing new, says ex-minister Omirou

By Martin Hellicar

THE T-80 tank fuel fiasco is nothing new, former Defence Minister Yiannakis Omirou said yesterday — questioning his successor’s grasp of the facts.In a press statement, Omirou said the matter had surfaced during his stint as Minister and had been thoroughly investigated, both by the Attorney-general and the National Guard Command.On Friday, and following embarrassing press reports, Omirou’s successor, Yiannakis Chrysostomis, admitted that the army’s Russian-made main battle tanks had been disabled because the wrong fuel was used for three years by the National Guard. Chrysostomis blamed army officials for the mistake, which also effected BMP-3 armoured vehicles, and said there would be an investigation.But Omirou, who abandoned the ministerial post at the turn of the year in protest at the government’s decision not to bring the S-300 missiles, said the issue had already been investigated.”The issue was brought up by Russian technicians during my tenure at the ministry,” Omirou said yesterday.”I immediately asked for an in-depth investigation by the then National Guard chief and at the same time asked for an investigation by the Attorney-general.”Attorney-general Alecos Markides concluded at the time that there were no grounds for bringing charges against anyone, Omirou said.”At the same time additional measures were taken for control of fuel quality,” he added.”It is therefore self-evident that all necessary measures were taken without any delay,” Omirou said, keen to defend his actions as minister.Chrysostomis insisted there had been no lasting damage to the tanks, which he said were now working “wonderfully well”. The former judge also speculated that the damage to the T-80s and BMP-3s may not have been down to dodgy fuel at all, but rather just normal “wear and tear”.Russian T-80s are the army’s top battle tanks and make up nearly half of its arsenal of 200 main fighting tanks, the rest of which are French-made AMX-30B2s.

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