“When you wait for two and a half years for Justice to tell you what your child died from and you learn nothing, your patience runs out,” Panos Routsi tells Parapolitika 90.1 on the show “Dialogues.” Routsi is the father of Denis, who was lost in the Tempe tragedy, explaining his decision to begin a hunger strike after authorities rejected his request to exhume his son’s remains.
Tempe: Wave of support from across Greece for Panos Routsi – What Parapolitika 90.1 recorded
Saturday morning, on the 6th day of his hunger strike outside Parliament, the radio discussion is interrupted by people coming to shake his hand and speak with him. “Don’t give up” a woman who came to meet him is heard saying.
“People come to talk to me from the countryside and from the islands,” Denis Routsi tells Parapolitika 90.1 about this wave of support for his struggle. He wants to know how Denis died, what caused the burns, but his doubts don’t end there. “I have doubts whether my child is in there, or if there are other remains. In Larissa, 40 days later they threw away the DNA samples,” he emphasizes. However, he makes clear that he has no intention of stopping. “I made a promise to my child that he will get justice, that the guilty will go to prison,” he clarifies and confirms that other parents of victims who have made similar exhumation requests may also begin hunger strikes.
Panos Routsi’s call for peaceful gathering at Syntagma Square
However, he is very skeptical about the upcoming trial. He believes that responsibility won’t truly be assigned where it should be. He calls for calm at the gathering organized for Sunday 21/9 at 6:30 PM at Syntagma Square in support of himself and other victims’ relatives. “I ask people not to provoke at all, to make it a peaceful demonstration because I’m afraid they want to drive us away from here,” he characteristically states.
