Light in the Tunnel: Death of a soldier on the island of Roe – “They ordered to clear the area before the doctor arrived”

Light in the Tunnel: A soldier who served with the young infantryman Manolis Tsiknakis, who was found dead on the rocky island of Ro on the morning of June 27, 2018, came into contact with the “Tunnel”.

Six years have passed since the morning of June 27, 2018, when the Army General Staff announced to the Tsiknakis family that their 22-year-old son Manolis fatally shot himself in the head with his personal weapon while on duty on the island of Ro.

But the fatal wound was completely inconsistent with what would have been caused by the G3A3 rifle the soldier was carrying, and the military prosecutor eventually ruled the death a homicide.

A young soldier who served with Manolis remembers events that happened then.

“I found out that some soldiers actually ordered to clean the place where the child was killed before the doctor arrived. The one who was with Tsiknakis in the guardhouse, for two or three days they didn’t let him move around, unless he had officers by his side. We didn’t even see him in the camp. I asked him but he wouldn’t give details, he wouldn’t talk. I said I heard a shot, I went and saw Manolis in this situation, that’s all he told me. He didn’t say anything else.”

The soldier also talks about what he heard about the weapon Manolis Tsiknakis shot that morning.

“With G3, his whole head would have been blown to pieces, with what they were telling us. It opens all. In other words, if you were bored from the distance Manolis was thrown, your whole head would have gone. The most important thing is that these weapons we had, the most numerous of them, did not bother us at all. Because they were wrong and often did not arm. We were going for shots, we were busy and 3 out of 5 or 2 out of 5 they didn’t arm. Especially the ones that were on the rock island that were in the rust.”