Tens of thousands of protesters in Greece on Sunday demanded justice for the 57 victims of the nation’s deadliest rail disaster in 2023.
Demonstrations broke out in 97 cities in Greece and 13 locations abroad. Marches in the largest Greek cities of Athens and Thessaloniki had about 30,000 and 16,000 demonstrators respectively.
“What is happening today is majestic,” Pavlos Aslanidis, the father of a victim, told the media in Thessaloniki. “This is now a global fight,” he added, referring to the protests abroad.
“My son’s soul must be elated… I believe we will win. We have ranged the state against us, but we will win.”
Scenes from the protests
Protests across Greece were mostly peaceful other than incidents of people attacking the police force with rocks and flares, and the authorities responding with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. However, these incidents lasted only for a few minutes.
DW’s Sofia Kleftaki, who was at the demonstration in Athens, said one person was injured in such clashes.
Much of central Athens was blocked by the demonstration.
“Two years after the tragedy, no one has been punished, no one is in prison,” Ilias Papangelis, whose 18-year-old daughter was among those killed, told the crowd of protesters.
“This has been the most mafia-like cover-up operation,” Maria Karystianou, whose daughter died in the crash, told the Athens protesters marching outside the Parliament building Sunday.
Demonstrators held placards and chanted “I have no oxygen” — the chilling last words of Karystianou’s daughter who had called the 112 European emergency number to report the incident. Many in the crowd chanted “Murderers!”
Other banners read: “We don’t forget, we don’t forgive” and “Justice, not forgetting.” Some accused the government of having blood on their hands.
More protests were staged in London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, Cologne, Helsinki, Nicosia, Reykjavik and Valetta, Malta.
About the disaster
The disaster happened on February 28, 2023 when a passenger train collided head-on with a freight train after both had been mistakenly put on the same track.
Several rumors have emerged since about what led to the scale of the disaster.
Families of the victims and protesters believe the government is hiding evidence and running an opaque investigation while trying to pin the disaster on the stationmaster.
Many believe that some 30 of the 57 victims had survived the initial high-speed crash but died in a fire caused by dangerous chemicals on-board the freight train.
Leaks from a report funded by victims’ families seem to corroborate that the cargo train was carrying an illegal load of explosive chemicals.
Greeks still await a trial for the disaster, a process which has been pushed back by a lengthy investigation, delays in reports by technical experts, and even new additions to the witness list from the group of survivors and victims.
mk/wd (AFP, Reuters, AP)
