Greek government faces intense criticism over fires
ATHENS (AFP) - Greece's government faced a storm of criticism
for its handling of forest fires that were raging on for their fifth
day, creating a national disaster that has claimed more than 60 lives.
About 25 fires were blazing, mainly on the mountainous southern
peninsula of Peloponnese which has been at the centre of a crisis that
began on Friday.
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Some residents of Makistos village recieve supplies from the
Greek Orthodox church |
Hot winds were fanning the flames and testing the endurance of weary
firefighters and 2,000 soldiers who have been drafted in to help.
At least 63 people have died with most of the victims engulfed by
flames in isolated communities in Greece's worst catastrophe for
decades, but the fire service said no villages were endangered on
Tuesday.
Fire-fighting planes lent by more than a dozen countries to help the
Greek authorities dumped water on the burning forests. Nerves already
frayed by the national disaster were stretched further when an
earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale shook central Peloponnese.
The government has blamed arsonists for the fires, but the opposition
Socialists said Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis was attempting to
deflect criticism ahead of next month's general election.
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Relatives of Makistos village residents greet each other |
"We are humiliated by the inability of the government to save the
lives of our fellow citizens," Socialist leader George Papandreou said,
dismissing the allegations of arson as "dangerous".
"When the prime minister adopts such theories, it is dangerous for
the democratic institutions of a country," Papandreou said.
Karamanlis, whose conservatives are tipped to win the election on
September 16, went on the offensive. He called on Greeks to pull
together and promised that gutted homes would be rebuilt and forests
re-planted, saying: "We must do everything possible to prevent young
people from become disillusioned and leaving their villages."
Seven people have been charged with arson and police were looking for
evidence of further cases of fires being started in forests which are
highly flammable following two months of intense heat. Conspiracy
theories swirled around the media, but one possible motive could be that
the fires were started to clear land for illegal construction.
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Elderly women evacuated from Kato Seta village stands on a
hill to see the smoke from the burning forest |
A new front in the fight against the fires opened late Tuesday when
flames began to tear through pine forest near Marathon to the north of
Athens.
Six planes, a helicopter and 13 fire trucks headed to the area and
the fire was contained as darkness fell, a fire service spokesman said.
Firefighters also rushed to tackle fires on Evia, the island north of
Athens where four people have lost their lives, and in western Greece.
Meanwhile, elderly Greeks evacuated from their villages said they feared
they had lost everything.
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A firefighting helicopter is silhouetted against the setting
sun during a fire fighting mission |
Iannoula Iannopoulos, 77, was forced to hastily leave her home in
Phalaisia in western Peloponnese -- almost the first time she had
ventured outside the tiny village in her life.
"There are just 30 people living there and we are all old. What could
we do against the flames? We wanted our children to come and help, but
the roads were blocked," she told AFP in a hotel in the town of Sparta
where villagers were taken by rescuers on Sunday. Farmers who scratch a
living from olive groves and a few animals were counting the cost of the
devastation. Alexander Georgorlias, 73, from the Peloponnese village of
Andritsaina, threw chickens killed in the fires into a ravine.
AFP |
