Here we go .... this from the Cyprus Mail today. I could not possibly post this today, without adding a personal comment. After reading this article, I could not help but feel like Alice who fell down that incredible hole!!
DISY slams timing of Helios probe
By Jacqueline Theodoulou
THE GOVERNMENT has a clear indication of the main reasons behind last August’s Helios crash in Grammatiko, and that is why it has appointed the Investigative Committee, the Government Spokesman said yesterday.
George Lillikas was responding to opposition DISY’s claims that the government planned the appointment of the committee to coincide with the crucial pre-election period.
This was deemed the appropriate time to appoint the committee, he said, because Akrivos Tsolakis – head of the Greek Committee for the Investigation into Air Accidents and Incidents – had recently stated that his report would be ready on May 15.
Tsolakis’ investigation will cover all the facts surrounding the crash in detail. The independent committee, appointed by President of the Republic Tassos Papadopoulos on Wednesday, will have the task of decoding Tsolakis’ report and apportioning blame.
DISY repeated its concerns yesterday over the timing of the independent committee’s appointment. The party’s Communications Commissioner, George Georgiou, spoke of political expediencies and accused President Papadopoulos of inconsistency in words and actions.
“I would like to express our sadness for the way the DISY leadership, in its nihilistic and populist approach due to the elections, doesn't hesitate to play with the emotions of the victims’ relatives in a serious and humanely sensitive matter,” said Lillikas.
“We are also expressing our sadness, because some, instead of supporting the investigative committee in the difficult task it has ahead of it, with various statements and insinuations, have started to doubt it. Either by doubting the composition of the committee, or its effectiveness.”
But Georgiou expressed the certainty that the report had not been submitted, and that it wouldn’t be submitted until after the elections.
“When the President of the Republic himself, for so many months, didn’t move ahead and appoint the independent committee – because he was publicly telling us that this would happen as soon as the President of the Republic had the conclusions of the report in his hands – then this means one of two things: either the President move forward with the appointment yesterday, due to the immense pressure from the public because of his nine-month-long delay in appointing the committee. Or secondly, he [Papadopoulos] has the Tsolakis report in his possession and what the public wants is the publication of this report”.
Meanwhile, Communications Minister Haris Thrasou yesterday announced that the Independent Committee would be based at the Nicosia Conference Centre.
According to the Minister, various actions had been taken in the past few weeks to find a base for the Committee, so that it could immediately start operating after its appointment and not create impressions that there were purposeful delays in the attribution of responsibilities.
He also rejected the opposition’s claims that the appointment of the committee had political connections.
“The appointment (of the committee) has happened a few days before the submission of Tsolakis’ conclusion and if this has coincided with the elections, I believe that it has no relevance and this dimension should not be given to the matter”, said Thrasou.
“We are awaiting the conclusion of the investigation by the Greek Committee for the Investigation into Air Accidents and Incidents from Tsolakis and we decided, and so did the president personally, that this was the appropriate moment to appoint a committee. In this way it is prepared and ready.”
When he was in Cyprus last month, Tsolakis had said that the conclusion would be ready by mid-May or by the end of May at the latest, Thrasou continued.
“I don't know whether the result will be issued before or after the elections and I don't believe Tsolakis would connect the matter of the result with the elections.
Mr Tsolakis mentioned that once the results are ready, it will be given to the relevant authorities.”
President of the Cypriot Committee for the Investigation into Air Accidents, Costas Orfanos, said that the committee would be informed on Tsolakis’ results through the government. He specified that it would also be passed on to the committees of Cyprus and the US, who will make it available to the respective companies that are involved.
He also said that after the results were announced, there would be a period of 60 days where comments and observations would be made, and then the Greek committee would decide whether to approve them or reject them.
“I believe that in these next few days we will know when the results will be given to the Cypriot and American committees” said Orfanos.
President of the Victims’ Relatives Committee, Nicolas Yiasoumis, said he believed it was a matter of days before Tsolakis submitted his report.
He stressed the importance of their being no political manipulation in the matter.
“Within the next few days, the result must be submitted to the parties involved, so that that these rumours of political interferences, which have developed in the past few days, with the rumoured pressures put on Tsolakis by political influences, not to issue the report before the elections, can end,” Yiasoumis commented.
“And now there are impressions being expressed that the committee was appointed clearly for political reasons. This is something the relatives disagree with.”
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