2 weeks Ago
The lambradjia lunacy produced a fatality on Saturday. A 22-year-old man was killed when a big wooden pole that youths were trying to place on a lambradjia hit him on the head. It was the worst incident recorded at the weekend, which also saw the fire service called to 94 Easter bonfire-related incidents on Saturday night.
In the fortnight leading up to Easter, police made 18 arrests and seized some 4,000 firecrackers. On Saturday night, in at least two parts of the island, youths saw the lambradjia tradition as an excuse to fire flares at people, set off firecrackers in the streets and to hurl rocks at the police. In Livadia, in the Larnaca district, police were targeted with stones, flares and firecrackers, while someone was using a launcher to fire flares at the police and passers-by.
In Latsia police had rocks thrown at them as they tried to clear the way for a fire-truck called to put out a fire. While the police association complained about youths seeing officers as targets, the executive and legislature embarked on a blame game, with the former criticising the latter for failing to approve a bill that would regulate the Easter bonfires on time and the latter accusing the former for leaving the submission of the bill to the last minute. It had been tabled at the House early March and its discussion at the legal affairs committee gave rise to disagreements over key provisions among the interested parties.
The government was on shaky ground, blaming the legislature for not passing the bill, considering it could have tabled it six months ago instead of just one month before Easter, which would have given deputies adequate time to discuss and approve it. Local authorities, understandably, said they would have no time to enforce the provisions of the law, the week they would have been given nowhere near adequate to find staff and buy the equipment necessary to implement it. Minister of Justice and Public Order Marios Hartsiotis joined the debate on Tuesday morning, saying the lambradjia tradition had become an excuse for violence, vandalism and unruliness by youths rather than the reason for it.
He had a point as such behaviour was not evident only in the weeks leading to Easter Sunday, but throughout the year. This was why the justice ministry was working on measures aimed at tackling youth law-breaking. He said he would write to the supreme court asking that cases against youths be tried immediately.
This could act as a deterrent but what is more important is the acknowledgment by the minister that we have a problem. And it is a problem that will not be eliminated by the approval of the law on lambradjias..
