NICOSIA, Cyprus — Police in Cyprus say they have got arrested 21 people and used tear fuel and a water cannon after a gaggle of Greek Cypriots dressed in hoods and brandishing bats tried to attack protesting Syrians in a small village that has been a hotbed of tensions between locals and migrants.
Police mentioned Tuesday parallel protests via some 250 Syrians and an equivalent selection of Greek Cypriots within the village of (*21*) within the island’s southwest Monday night time degenerated into violence, as smaller numbers of protesters from each teams started environment fireplace to rubbish packing containers and in addition torching a development’s fence.
Anti-riot squad officials controlled to stay the 2 teams separated, whilst one officer suffered 2d stage burns to his hand from a Molotov cocktail hurled via rioters.
Police spokesman Christos Andreou informed state broadcaster CyBC Tuesday that the clashes started when Greek Cypriots tried to attack the migrants. He mentioned 9 Greek Cypriots and a dozen migrants have been detained.
They face fees together with guns ownership and inflicting violence.
Monday evening’s clashes adopted violence an afternoon previous when two migrants and a Greek Cypriot guy have been detained after masses of (*21*) citizens marched in protest of what they mentioned was once the “ghettoization” in their village on account of numerous migrants settling there lately.
Andreou mentioned that the protest became violent when smaller teams of demonstrators rampaged in the course of the village, allegedly attacking one migrant, destructive a migrant-owned eating place and overturning a automobile.
What it sounds as if prompted Sunday’s protest was once a police sweep via an deserted condominium complicated in (*21*) to evict dozens of migrants who were dwelling illegally there. Police had performed a number of such raids within the village within the closing 3 years following a courtroom order banning the agreement of extra asylum seekers and people who have been granted global coverage.
Migrants then staged their very own protest the next day in opposition to what they mentioned was once unfair remedy via government and locals and for harm led to to their belongings. Justice Minister Anna Koukkides-Procopiou and Police Chief Stelios Papatheodorou have been available to meet a delegation of migrants to listen their grievances in a bid to defuse tensions.
Andreou informed non-public TV station Sigma {that a} Syrian guy who was once arrested was once being investigated for allegedly attempting to instigate others to violence via social media.
Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides strongly condemned the incidents, telling journalists that violence solves not anything and handiest offers upward push to extra violence.
Christodoulides mentioned he has urged each the police leader and the justice minister to hang talks with (*21*) municipal government and the Syrian migrants to “ensure public order” as a result of “the people’s sense of security is non-negotiable.”
At the similar time, he tried to assuage (*21*) citizens’ issues, announcing that coping with the massive selection of migrants attaining Cyprus stays a best precedence for his govt, pointing to measures already enacted that experience led to each arrivals and asylum programs lowered via part.
“As a United Nations and European Union member, the Cyprus Republic is ready to abide by its international obligations but will show zero tolerance to whomever takes advantage of the situation and presents our country as an attractive destination” for unlawful migration, mentioned Christodoulides.
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