Mitsero: Residents will stay in the asphalt area until the excavator leaves

Indefinitely in the area where it was decided to install the asphalt plant in Mitsero, until the excavator leaves, which went today to start work, the residents of the communities in the area will remain, who since early in the morning, are in the area protesting for the start of work on the construction of the asphalt.

 

In his statements to KYPE, the President of the Agricultural Community Council, Sotiris Kyriakou, said that what they are waiting for is a decision to be made, which the President of the Republic must take, to suspend the movement of the factory, until he meets with them.

"This is what we asked for and what we expect," he added.

When asked what is currently prevailing in the region, Mr. Kyriakou said that "here the deviations continue".

"From what it seems we will have skirmishes like this. We are not going to leave here with anything if the President does not order to stop all movement at this moment", he added.

Asked when the meeting with the President of the Republic is scheduled, Mr. Kyriakou said that the Deputy Minister gave them the dates, the 25th and 26th of the month, that they will definitely have a meeting with the President on one of these two days.

Answering a question about whether they will remain in the area indefinitely, Mr. Kyriakou answered in the affirmative, saying that they are not going to leave there, if the President does not change the decision and apparently only the President can change it.

"We will stay the night as well. We will camp and be here all the time and then the main road will be closed depending on the amount of people we will have here. The road should be closed, everything should stop working in our area, because we became illegal in our own place", he noted.

Regarding the morning arrest of both himself and the Head of the Community Mitseros, Mr. Kyriakou said that "I don't mess with the policemen" and added that "I mess with those who order the policemen, because they showed excessive zeal for their duty when we stood in front of the machine so it wouldn't move forward."

"There were also skirmishes between us. We were trying to stay ahead of the machine, but there were only two of us at the time. We had a confrontation with the police and then they arrested us and took us to Lakatamia. We were released around 10:30. They accused us in writing. We did not accept the offences. We told them clearly that we will meet in court," he added.

The representative of the "Communities in Action" Initiative Group, Andri Vassiliou, in statements to KYPE that "we have settled permanently in the area, we have put up tents there and we will be there".

"From the residents' point of view, there is no way for us to leave the area. The first concern was the release of the two Community leaders. We had an injured person who was hit by a Policeman. We had excessive violence in the morning. The attitude of the Police was generally defiant", he added.

Answering a question, Ms. Vassiliou said they are inside the block, inside the field that the state leased to the company.

"We are basically complaining that the Government, the state, brought in a huge police force to start the company's operations. It's a matter of democracy now. It can not be done. The citizen has a right to protest and they will not impose in such ways. They won't be able to silence us. If they thought we would be afraid of what the Police did today, get it out of their minds. But we insist that individuals, citizens - who are only asking for their right to health and well-being - were beaten by members of the Police, the MMAD. Some were constantly defiant in their attitude," he added.

He also mentioned that at some point an ambulance was called to the area, when a man fell down and hit his head, where he was given First Aid.

In the meantime, according to the latest information from the Police, the road from Kato Monis to Agios Ioannis Maloundas has been opened to traffic.

Source: KYPE