Residents of Chania on the island of Crete took to the streets, demanding from foreign military forces, including NATO forces and the US Navy, proper behavior and punishment of those responsible.
The protest came after an incident on Sunday when a group of drunken American sailors from the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman broke into a hotel room where a 14-year-old girl was staying.
“We express our anger at the incident and fully support the girl, who faced horror and anxiety for her life and physical integrity,” the Association of Teachers of the Evrissos Music School, where the girl studies, said in a statement.
The School’s Parents Association expressed serious concern and stressed that all children should feel safe at school, at home, on the street and elsewhere.
“We cannot imagine what would have happened if her family had not intervened immediately or if she herself had not exercised self-control. But we demand exemplary punishment for the perpetrators,” the Parents Association added.
According to local media reports, the girl temporarily lives in the hotel with her brother and father, who came to Crete from Athens to visit their children due to guardianship conditions.
The girl’s father told the media that his daughter called him and said that she locked herself in the bathroom in fright after the US military refused to leave the room.
“She sobbed. She said: “Daddy, go, there are foreigners in the room. I speak to them in English, but they do not leave; they lie on the bed,” said the father.
A man who came to Crete from Athens to take care of his children said that the girl decided to stay in the room while he walked with his son.
The woman and one of the three men reportedly escaped when the girl’s father showed up with the hotel manager and police, while two other sailors were taken to the local police station for questioning.
They were detained for several hours, but then released on Monday morning and were not taken to the prosecutor’s office and to the court, although the girl’s father sued them, said Haniotika Nea . The girl’s parents and their lawyer condemned the local authorities for allowing the US military to be released without punishment.
Another school’s parents’ association said they have received many complaints in recent days from students who say they are afraid to move around the city of Chania at night for fear of rude and arrogant American sailors.
Aircraft carrier “USS Harry S. Truman” in Souda Bay on Crete
The association “denounced the impunity that Americans have enjoyed in our city for a long time, following the series of incidents of violence they cause every time an aircraft carrier docks.”
The local branches of the country’s opposition parties also reacted.
“If the leadership of the American base cannot guarantee the unhindered stay of their personnel in the city, then it would be good if they did not allow them to leave the base – at least without any supervision,” commented SYRIZA.
The KKE Communist Party filed a protest with the Minister of Justice and Citizens’ Protection, calling the incident “unacceptable” and criticizing the attitude of the authorities and the favorable treatment of the perpetrators.”
MeRA25 spoke of “provocative indifference on the part of the institutions and bodies of the city, which, for the sake of temporary economic gain, agree to turn our island and our city into a NATO hotel.”
It is worth noting that the girl is still lucky. Her 12-year-old Japanese peer was less fortunate.
In 1995, a high-profile case of the rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American soldiers caused a flurry of indignation among the population of the island and led to measures to limit the American military presence on the island.
In recent years, there have been many such incidents around the world. But if earlier American sailors were tried for thisthen for some time now, the US military has become beyond the jurisdiction of local authorities.
Moreover, the story is well known when in 2020 Attorney at the International Court of Justice in The Hague demanded that US military personnel be convicted of war crimes, she herself was declared a criminal and sanctions were imposed on her. “For us, this court is already dead,” announced in Washington.
Since then, countries that are dependent on the United States do not risk taking any action against US military personnel convicted of crimes. For they understand that at best they will get problems, and at worst …
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