Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-04-23

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Thursday, April 23, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Protestors fail to disrupt Akamas exercises

[02] British tourists remanded

[03] National Bank of Greece's brokerage starts operations

[04] City 98 exhibition

[05] Russian killed in crash

[06] In the Steps of Aphrodite

[07] Biker muggers attack British pensioners

[08] Cassoulides blasts critics of US initiative

[09] 'Memorial was not vandalised'

[10] Professor, 84, rescued from ravine

[11] Squaddie ban extended and curfew imposed

[12] Dutch contingent for Unficyp

[13] Turks test water balloon

[14] WEU talks 'began more than two years ago'

[15] Chinese arrested for abduction

[16] Cypriot missing in Jerusalem

[01] Protestors fail to disrupt Akamas exercises

LIVE fire exercises in the Akamas by British troops went ahead as planned yesterday, despite protests by greens and anti-bases demonstrators.

Day one of the controversial two-day exercises involving some 80 soldiers ended at around 4pm with one of the demonstrators, Diko deputy Marios Matsakis, strolling out from the firing range some 45 minutes later.

He had earlier been spotted around the periphery and was reportedly one of the last of the demonstrators to emerge.

Witnesses said he chatted politely with police stationed in the area and said he would be back this morning for the second round of the manoeuvres.

Matsakis claimed later yesterday that two teams of four protesters were still in the firing range and that they would remain there all night.

"They knew we were inside. They saw us. I think it was lucky no one was injured," he said. "We eventually went up and confronted them and asked them why they wanted to destroy this beautiful place."

Matsakis, an active member of the anti-bases lobby, and other protestors had hidden inside the range early in the morning, hoping to stop the exercises from going ahead.

In a mobile telephone call to a local radio station Matsakis said he was hiding inside the firing range.

But a British officer on the scene, who declined to give his name, told reporters that a search by helicopters and men on the ground determined there were no people in the danger zone.

"We told the British that there are protesters hiding in the low scrub and that they must not start but they ignored our warning," said George Perdikis, a spokesman of the Cyprus Green Party.

On the periphery, protesters tried to prevent a British army convoy of trucks from reaching Akamas but Cypriot police cleared the way for it to proceed.

By early afternoon, bases spokesman Mervyn Wynne-Jones said the protestors, apart from Matsakis and the other two, had left the area.

"Even at the height of the protest there were only around 20 people, including TV crews," Wynne-Jones said.

The bases spokesman said the exercises had only gone ahead after the danger areas had been cleared. "Before any firing takes place there is a safety sweep in the area. Nothing was found," Wynne-Jones said.

The bases spokesman accused Matsakis, a former state pathologist, of jumping on the environmental band-wagon by joining in the protest.

"Again we see the environmentalists being pushed aside by the likes of Matsakis," Wynne-Jones said. "This issue is being hijacked by a very small minority who are well known for their anti-bases attitude and will do anything to gain cheap publicity."

Matsakis was arrested at Dhekelia courthouse earlier this month and faces charges of criminal trespass and breach of the peace after his insistence on seeing one of his constituents - accused of an earlier minor offence - resulted in a scuffle.

Perdikis, who was arrested late on Tuesday night in the Akamas, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that as far as they were concerned the anti-bases lobby is on their side in the preservation of the Akamas.

He said it is not a question of Matsakis' ideas but a question of British government policy.

"We may not agree with them but they agree with us and we need to get as much publicity on this as possible," Perdikis said.

"It's a political matter," he said. "Greens all over the world are against the presence of military bases and manoeuvres. We are not anti-British, just anti-British bases in Cyprus."

Under the 1960 Treaty which established the two Sovereign Base Areas (SBAs) on the island, the British are allowed 70 days' army training in the peninsula. They say they generally use only 35 such days.

However following protests by environmentalists and others in recent years an agreement has been reached that an alternative site will be found.

[02] British tourists remanded

Gary Michael Markland, 20, and Stewart Alderson, 23, were remanded for six days on suspicion of breaking-in to four Ayia Napa flats on Monday night. About £200 worth of cigarettes and £200 in cash were taken from the four apartments, the court in Larnaca heard.

The two suspects, arrested early yesterday, had yet to make statements to police, the court heard.

Later in the day, 25-year-old David Lee Ross, from Leeds, was remanded for eight days for import and possession of a small quantity of cannabis resin and a hashish joint.

The court heard that Ross had been arrested in Ayia Napa on Tuesday night. Police say they found a joint and two small blocks of cannabis on the tourist. The court heard that Ross had told police the drugs were for his own personal use only.

[03] National Bank of Greece's brokerage starts operations

NATIONAL Securities, a new brokerage in which the National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) has a 60 per cent stake, became the latest addition to the Cyprus Stock Exchange when it began operations yesterday.

The remainder of the company is owned by National Securities of Greece, the top brokerage in that country in terms of profits and dealings.

A statement by the company said the new brokerage would aim to be a bridge between the investment communities in Cyprus and Greece and help to attract investments from Greece.

The brokerage would also offer clients in Cyprus a full range of services, including investment advice, portfolio handling and executing orders on both the Cyprus and Athens stock exchanges, the statement added.

It named Marios Ioannides as the company's executive adviser and Michalis Minas as its director.

The start of operations by National Securities (Cyprus) followed the announcement earlier this month by the National Bank of Greece (Cyprus) that it had doubled its profits in 1997 to £543,000. Managing Director Michalis Tagaroulias has also said that first quarter profits were expected to increase by 14-15 per cent.

The bank, operating as an independent bank in Cyprus since 1994, has 23 branches on the island and boasts a market share of 4.5 per cent based on deposits.

[04] City 98 exhibition

The exhibition, at the Greek pavilion of the State Fair between April 29 and May 3, will focus on local authority works and the contribution of the private sector to these.

It will also give visitors a chance to get to know towns and villages in Cyprus and elsewhere, Phanis Georgiades of organisers Suricom Consultants Ltd said yesterday.

Municipalities from Greece, southern Russian towns and Dubai will join their local counterparts at the show. There will be 100 exhibitors altogether.

[05] Russian killed in crash

Ianouchkin, a leading member of the Association of Russian Businessmen in Cyprus who had been living in Limassol, died instantly.

[06] In the Steps of Aphrodite

Speaking at the premiere of the locally-produced documentary In the Steps of Aphrodite at Nicosia's Cine Studio, Hadjisavvas said a budget of £350, 000 had been approved for the island's film advisory committee. This, he added, would go towards furthering film production in Cyprus.

In the Steps of Aphrodite follows the life of Greek poet Charalambos Demosthenous, and was directed by Panicos Chrysanthou.

[07] Biker muggers attack British pensioners

Sixty-five-year-old holidaymaker Doreen May Cooling was recovering from her broken bones and various scratches in Limassol hospital yesterday as police searched for her assailants.

Cooling and her friend Mavis Griffiths told police they had been attacked at about 10.15pm on Tuesday while strolling on Amathus Avenue. They said the muggers rode up behind them on a motorbike and snatched a black handbag from them. Cooling was shoved to the ground by the bag-snatchers, causing her multiple fractures, the tourists told police.

A spokesman for the British High Commission said such violent incidents remained rare on the island, and the British government did not consider Cyprus a dangerous tourist destination.

[08] Cassoulides blasts critics of US initiative

FOREIGN Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides blasted critics of the US initiative on Cyprus yesterday, saying the superpower's efforts must be met with good faith.

It was announced yesterday in Ankara that US presidential envoy Richard Holbrooke will hold high-powered talks with Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides from May 2 to 8, pressing both to restart bi-communal peace talks.

According to reports, there is also a possibility US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright may come to Cyprus if the results of the Holbrooke visit are positive.

Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the Council of Ministers yesterday, Cassoulides said it was wrong to criticise the US initiative on Cyprus before it had materialised.

"You don't start with bad faith that the Americans' position will lead us into a negative course; you start from good faith that it (the US initiative) will... lead us where we have always intended," he said.

Cassoulides stressed that Cyprus needed the help of the five-member Security Council to support UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan in his efforts to find a solution to the Cyprus problem.

Those creating a negative atmosphere and crying wolf every time attempts were made to end the stalemate merely prove they do not desire a solution, Cassoulides said.

He also pointed out there was as yet no question of a four-party conference, bringing Greece and Turkey to join the bi-communal talks.

Reports yesterday quoted the Anatolian News Agency as saying US Cyprus Co- ordinator Thomas Miller told diplomats during his visit this week that the US has proposed just such a four-party package under US auspices.

But Cassoulides' dismissal of the likelihood of such a conference were echoed by Greek Foreign Under-Secretary Yiannos Kranidiotis yesterday, who said the US was merely trying to resume peace talks between the leaders of Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities.

Kranidiotis, who was on a private visit to the island, was briefed yesterday by President Clerides on his meeting on Monday with US State Department Special Co-ordinator for Cyprus Thomas Miller.

Afterwards, Kranidiotis noted the US was in "consultation with all sides" to reach "a specific form" to its Cyprus initiative.

But he stressed that any international initiative should strive at halting Turkish intransigence and securing its return to peace talks in compliance with UN resolutions, and providing for a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal Cyprus.

Asked how far a Russian proposal to have UN Security Council discussion of the Cyprus problem would hinder a US initiative, Kranidiotis replied the role of Russia could only be "positive".

Meanwhile, Greek Army Chief of Staff Athanasios Tzoganis, who also met Clerides yesterday at the start of an official three-day visit to the island, stressed the benefits of the joint air-and-sea defence pact between Cyprus and Greece.

The treaty had made Cyprus defence more high-level than ever before, Tzoganis said.

[09] 'Memorial was not vandalised'

Press reports yesterday suggested that it was Turkish Cypriots who ruined the memorial to two soldiers killed in a landmine explosion in the vicinity in 1994.

They claimed the attack was in response to the defacing of a bust of Kemal Ataturk last week in the village.

But UN sources said the memorial had been damaged by strong winds over the weekend.

"This is what we were told by the Cyprus police," the sources added.

In a second incident it was reported that a Greek Cypriot in the village had had a marble object stolen from a shrine he had in his garden.

But the UN sources said no such incident had been reported to them. "The owner of this shrine has had the same thing happen three times, in 1996, 1997 and now 1998," the sources said. "We have not been approached by him over this incident."

[10] Professor, 84, rescued from ravine

A POLICE helicopter rescued an 84-year-old German university lecturer from a ravine in a remote Tsakistra area of the Paphos mountains yesterday.

Police said Franz Peningsfeld had spent a cold night in the crevasse after slipping and falling into it while out walking a mountain track with fellow- German Heinrich Franz, 41, on Tuesday afternoon.

Peningsfeld suffered various scratches and bruises but was otherwise unharmed by his near 24-hour ordeal, police said.

Police said he had lost contact with his companion after walking on ahead of him on the track.

After searching in vain for Peningsfeld, Franz alerted police who immediately launched a search operation using sniffer dogs.

The police search was called off at 3.30am and resumed at first light with reinforcements from the police rapid reaction squad (MMAD).

Peningsfeld was finally located down the steep ravine at about 10am, police said.

A police helicopter was called to the scene and an officer was lowered into the ravine on a cable. Despite the difficult terrain, the helicopter managed to winch the officer and stranded lecturer up to safety, police said.

Peningsfeld was flown to the Nicosia general hospital where he received first aid treatment.

[11] Squaddie ban extended and curfew imposed

A BAN on British soldiers visiting Ayia Napa following an attack on a tourist has been extended to Protaras, and a curfew has been put on other areas.

The new restrictions have been introduced by both the British bases and by Unficyp independently of each other.

The original ban was imposed last week on the 380-strong British UN force's First Royal Tank Regiment, five of whose members are under investigation about an attack which left Briton Jeremy Caprio, 35, blind in one eye.

The British bases immediately followed with an Easter weekend ban on its 3, 000 troops which has now been extended, spokesman Mervyn Wynne-Jones said yesterday.

"In view of recent events, the ban has been extended to Protaras and a curfew has been introduced for the tourist areas of Paphos, Larnaca and Limassol," he said.

The curfew is being imposed from 10pm to 6am.

Unficyp said its 10pm curfew applied to Nicosia, while Ayia Napa would remain out of bounds until further notice.

Any review of the situation would have to wait until after the investigation into the accusation against the five soldiers. "This will take a few more days," said spokesman Waldemar Rokoszewski.

The bases authorities, who have undertaken a study of squaddie behaviour to establish trends and patterns, said they will review the current situation at the end of the month.

A British tabloid has linked the blanket ban to an attack at the weekend on a Paralimni policeman in Protaras whose car was later found burnt out and abandoned at Ayios Nicolaos on the bases.

But the bases have dismissed any suggestion that British soldiers were involved, even though the police officer claimed his attackers spoke English.

The off-duty policeman suffered concussion and bruising in the early-hours attack outside a night club.

Quoting a British soldier, the paper said: "All this man has said is that the attacker spoke English. That doesn't prove it was one of us. Yet we are all being massively punished on very flimsy evidence."

Another complained: "There is no way we can have a decent night out if we have to be out of town by ten."

In 1994 visits to Ayia Napa were banned after the arrest of three British soldiers for the killing of Danish tour guide Louise Jensen. They were later found guilty and imprisoned for life.

Last year restrictions were again imposed when a group of off-duty soldiers attacked British tourists. They were later fined.

The latest attack left British holiday-maker Caprio blind in his right eye and with a broken nose. Caprio says the five jumped him outside an Ayia Napa disco at around 1am.

[12] Dutch contingent for Unficyp

UN Spokesman Waldemar Rokoszewski told the Cyprus News Agency that around 100 Dutch soldiers would be incorporated into the British contingent already on the island.

The final decision on the move is to be made by UN bosses in New York.

Rokoszewski said the new set-up was expected to be implemented when the current British battalion is replaced at the end of June.

[13] Turks test water balloon

According to the reports, this trial filling of the balloon, which has a total capacity of 10,000 tons, would take ten days.

The first water-carrying balloon is expected to depart Turkey for Cyprus sometime during the first half of next month.

Water shortages are as bad in the north as in the free areas. While occupied Nicosia needs 14,000 tons of water per day, it is currently receiving only around 8,000, yesterday's reports said.

[14] WEU talks 'began more than two years ago'

CYPRUS has been involved in talks with the Western European Union (WEU), the military arm of the European Union, for more than two years now, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said yesterday.

Official sources said on Tuesday that Cyprus had applied for associate partnership status with the WEU, following the start of accession talks with the EU late last month.

Cassoulides confirmed these reports, and added: "We have been in dialogue (with the WEU) since 1995, talking to the WEU twice a year." Cyprus applied to join the EU in 1990.

"We will continue this dialogue with the aim of upgrading our relations (with the WEU)," he said.

Cassoulides said that applying for associate partnership status with the WEU was a natural step for any country aspiring to join the EU.

"From the moment that a state begins negotiations to enter the EU, a product of this is that it seeks a place in the WEU," the Foreign Minister said. He said Cyprus was seeking a relationship with the WEU that would reflect its relationship to the EU.

"In our case we have asked for associate status, which is that already granted to states of Central and Eastern Europe."

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has reacted angrily to the government's application to join the WEU, saying Greek Cypriot membership of the military wing would be "a new and unacceptable blow from Europe to the Turkish Cypriots".

Ten countries - including Greece, France, Germany and Britain - are members of the WEU and another 18 states are linked through partnership or association agreements.

[15] Chinese arrested for abduction

According to police reports, Li Qi allegedly abducted Wang Jeang Ju, who was found seriously injured yesterday near the `Denis' hotel in the Aglandjia suburb of Nicosia.

Qi had reportedly kept Ju locked up in one of the hotel-rooms for stealing $20,000 from him in China.

Witnesses told police Ju injured himself after falling from the bathroom window whilst trying to escape, using a curtain as a make-shift rope.

[16] Cypriot missing in Jerusalem

Theodoros Kyriakou from Larnaca had travelled to Jerusalem on an Easter package-deal on Saturday, accompanied by his wife and other Cypriot pilgrims. He went missing the evening of the same day after slipping out of a midnight church service.

A lawyer representing Kyriakou's family, Clitos Hadjipittas, told Antenna TV yesterday both Israeli and Cypriot police as well as the Cypriot embassy in Israel had been informed of Kyriakou's disappearance, but as yet investigations had proved fruitless.

Larnaca police chief Andreas Stavrou admitted yesterday his force had only been informed of the disappearance after the news was relayed to the Foreign ministry on Tuesday.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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