Weary evacuees make their way to safer shores
By Constantine Markides
A BLIND man with his guide dog was the first to emerge from the French-chartered Greek cruise ship Ierapetra, which docked at the Larnaca port yesterday morning bringing evacuees from Lebanon.
The enveloping dense fog imparted a surreal ghostliness to what turned out to be the largest single craft evacuation from Lebanon to Cyprus since the Israeli bombings began.
Cyprus has turned into a central evacuation hub of the region as the Israeli bombings of Lebanon continued for the seventh straight day yesterday.
The 970 passengers, mostly French, arrived at the Larnaca port at 7.15am. Also on the boat were at least 200 unescorted children, most of them under the age of ten.
Shortly upon emerging, the blind man unhooked his dog from the leash and walked arm in arm with someone who appeared to be his mother.
The elderly and disabled then disembarked, followed by the children, many distressed and frightened. The passengers were directed onto buses where they were then taken out of the area, denying journalists the opportunity for interviews.
Some passengers were injured and were either treated in a First Aid Area at the port or taken to the Larnaca General Hospital. Four pregnant women on the boat were also taken to the hospital.
The passenger with the most serious injuries was a 13-year old French boy of German origin whose parents had been killed in the bombings. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was airlifted out of the country to receive medical treatment abroad.
The boat was delayed in its arrival time, irritating the press, many whom had arrived before sunrise only to find that the arrival time was constantly being postponed.
Many of those journalists had been at the port late the previous night to cover the arrival of the Italian warship Durand La Penne, which transported around 300 passengers, mostly Italian, from Beirut to Larnaca.
To make things worse for the amassed media, police had blockaded and cordoned off the area to keep them at a distance.
When one photographer snuck under the line, several other photographers, apparently short on sleep or in competition with the many foreign photographers, pointed him out to the police.
“If you do that again, I’ll shoot you in the head,” the photographer cried in response.
The situation became even more tense once the ship finally pulled up at the dock and the ramp lowered. It took another fifteen minutes before anyone emerged.
Controversy followed the docking of the boat as the vessel had departed from Beirut before all 1,270 passengers – which was the boat’s capacity – had boarded. Only 970 were able to board the boat, with 300 left behind.
This caused commotion in Greece, as 83 of the 300 passengers denied admission were Greek.
But French authorities said that for security reasons the captain had to interrupt boarding in Beirut and depart earlier than expected, with the unfortunate consequence that 300 people had to be left behind.
Assurances were made that the 300 passengers would be evacuated as soon as possible on the next boat or boats.
Among those left behind were the three Cypriot-Lebanese children of Despina Kyriakou, who had been stranded in Lebanon’s Nabadiye. The British forces had offered to evacuate the three children by helicopter, but it was decided that it would be safer for them to depart by boat.
Cyprus Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Sotos Zakheos confirmed yesterday that the three children had successfully boarded the Greek vessel Psaras, set to depart Beirut yesterday, and would be arriving in Cyprus shortly.
British High Commissioner Peter Millet said that about 4,500 British nationals are expected to evacuate Lebanon via Cyprus.
