The Japan Times - Greece marks train crash anniversary with national stoppage

Mounting public anger is putting pressure on the government, with demonstrations planned in hundreds of cities across Greece and abroad to demand justice for the victims.

A mobilisation tantamount to a general strike has been called by unions, shutting down schools, public services, trains, ferries, and most flights.

On February 28, 2023, a train from Athens to Thessaloniki carrying more than 350 passengers collided with a freight train near the central city of Larissa.

The two trains had travelled towards each other on the same track for miles without triggering any alarms. The accident was blamed on faulty equipment and human error.

Over 40 people have been prosecuted, including the local station master responsible for routing the trains.

"Words are no longer enough," the association of families affected by the train crash said in a statement this month.

"The time has come for action, for change, for a future in which no family will have to live through such pain again."

According to the victims' families, protests and gatherings will be held in over 200 cities and towns in Greece and other European countries, as well as cities worldwide with large ethnic Greek populations, such as New York and Melbourne.

- 'Historic proportions' -

Leftist daily Efsyn said the mobilisation is of "historic proportions".

In a rare move, justice officials will hold a moment of silence and a one-hour stoppage before midday (1000 GMT) Friday in memory of the victims.

Several prominent artists are also joining the walkout, shutting down theatres and music clubs.

The government has angrily rejected accusations by opposition parties that it is behind an "organised plan" to shield senior officials from responsibility.

"Society is angry because society has been misled," government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Monday.

"One of the aims by a large part of the opposition is to lead to tension, to an explosion, through misinformation," he said.

In January, tens of thousands protested in Athens, Thessaloniki and other major cities to demand justice for the victims.

Opposition parties intend to call a vote of no confidence from next week, in addition to a parliamentary inquiry into whether officials were too quick to bulldoze the disaster site and, as a result, destroyed vital evidence after the collision.

- 'Destabilisation' -

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has dismissed calls to resign, has accused critics of attempts to "destabilise" the country and "sink political life into a quagmire".

"In all my years in politics, I've never seen anything like this before," Mitsotakis told a business forum in Thessaloniki last week.

A survey for Alpha TV this month suggested that 72 percent of respondents said the government had tried to cover up the case -- including more than 40 percent of the ruling party's own voters.

More than two-thirds (67 percent) of respondents said they have little or no faith in the judicial investigation into the accident.

Over three-quarters (81 percent) said the government has not done enough to make train travel safer since the accident.

"Greek society's faith in justice has been shaken," the head of leftist opposition party Syriza, Sokratis Famellos, said last week, accusing the government of "an organised cover-up plan" that went right to the top.

Mitsotakis has long been criticised for hastening to attribute the accident to human error just hours after the official investigation began.

An experts' report funded by the victims' families has claimed the freight train was carrying an illegal and unreported load of explosive chemicals, which contributed to the high death toll.

On Thursday, Greece's state aviation and railway safety investigation agency said there was a "possible presence" of an "unknown fuel" at the scene.

The train's Italian-owned operator Hellenic Trail has denied knowledge of any illegal cargo.

Τhe Athens prosecutors' office has summoned Hellenic Train's former CEO Maurizio Capotorto on suspicion of giving "false testimony" to a parliamentary investigative commission last year.

There is also broad scepticism over the unexpected emergence of camera footage allegedly showing the freight train on the night of the accident.

Under privacy laws, surveillance videos are supposed to be automatically deleted within two weeks of filming.

H.Takahashi--JT