Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-10-16

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

Friday, October 16, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Cost cuts hit cops hardest

[02] EAC board will not have to resign

[03] Government moves against Amiandos debts

[04] Clarifications before talks

[05] Contacts must resume at once

[06] Waiter given second jail term on Aids charge

[07] Cyprus much to gain from co-operation with Israel

[08] A woman for ombudsman?

[09] Clerides move bars admin staff from voting in University poll

[10] Second desalination plant ready in 2000

[11] UN open house

[12] Tourist dies

[01] Cost cuts hit cops hardest

THE FINANCE Ministry yesterday announced details of cost-reducing measures in the public sector featuring restrictions on overtime, hospitality expenses, use of government vehicles and allowances for officials travelling abroad on business.

The measures were contained in a three-page statement. Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou presented them to a Cabinet meeting earlier this week, it said. Some of the measures have already been introduced while others will go into effect soon, it added.

They are the latest in a series of steps taken by the government to cut costs and boost revenues to narrow a growing fiscal deficit. The government is known to want a hike of four percentage points in VAT to 12 per cent as part of tax proposals it is expected to submit to the House for approval before the end of the year.

Deputies last May threw out a package of steep tax hikes, accusing the government of President Glafcos Clerides of failing to carry out sufficient consultations with political parties in advance.

The measures announced yesterday appeared to hit the island's police force the hardest. The statement said overtime pay in the force was costing £3.7 million a year, but that now there would be no overtime unless it was cleared in advance by a regional police chief.

Outstanding claims made by policemen for overtime pay that had not been cleared would not be honoured, the statement added.

It said every policeman on the force was owed an average of six months' holiday. This alone would cost the treasury £23 million.

Allowances for overnight stay and food for government officials travelling abroad on business would be reduced by 20 per cent, the Finance Ministry said. At a saving of £300,000, hospitality allowances would now be restricted to departmental heads and payments to government employees on extended leave would be stopped.

Government vehicles must only be used for official purposes and only during working hours. Offenders will be punished, the statement said without elaborating.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[02] EAC board will not have to resign

The Council of Ministers will now meet deputies with a view to introducing a bill that would enable better monitoring of semi-government bodies.

Nicos Rolandis, the Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, said yesterday that although he may disagree, he will respect the decision not to sack the Board.

He had repeatedly called for them to be dismissed after land for a new Electricity Authority headquarters in Limassol was bought from the church for well above its market price. The Board had failed to carry out an independent valuation of the property, and the EAC paid £1.4 million for the land which was later valued at about £780,000.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[03] Government moves against Amiandos debts

THE GOVERNMENT is taking legal action against Limassol Bishop Chrysanthos to recover unpaid taxes and seek compensation related to the now defunct Amiandos asbestos mine.

The announcement was made yesterday by Attorney-general Alecos Markides, who said he had given the orders for law suits to be filed against the Limassol Bishop.

The bishopric owned the mine before it went into receivership in 1989, owing hundreds of thousands of pounds to the Inland Revenue department, social insurance and in unpaid wages.

"After studying the file, I have given instructions for the respective law suits to go ahead," Markides said yesterday.

He said the outstanding money owed to the state amounted to around £336, 000.

The Cyprus Asbestos Mine Company Ltd is still under liquidation and the official receiver has the task of trying to obtain assets that might belong to the company in order to pay off creditors.

Markides said there was evidence indicating the company had had money in a foreign bank account which had since been transferred to Cyprus.

He said that there was also evidence to suggest the public purse was cheated.

Former Attorney-general Michalakis Triantafyllides decided to suspend any prosecution against the bishop in the late 1980s.

The government's legal action could not have come at a worse time for the beleaguered bishop, who is currently under investigation from the Holy Synod's three-member inquiry team.

In a worst case scenario, the three-bishop committee could suggest to the Holy Synod that Chrysanthos be defrocked.

The Church committee will proceed in a similar fashion to a criminal investigation, with statements being taken and a report containing its findings issued when it is completed.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[04] Clarifications before talks

THE GOVERNMENT insists it will ask for clarifications regarding possible measures for the reduction of tensions when UN shuttle talks begin today with a meeting between president Glafcos Clerides and UN representative Dame Ann Hercus.

Speaking yesterday, government spokesman Christos Stylianides said once these clarifications had been obtained, then theoretically the next stage would be proximity talks, followed by direct talks as a third stage.

Asked if the aim of the new talks was to prevent the arrival of the S-300 missiles, Stylianides said although "we are ready to participate in such a process which will aim to solve issues such as reduction of tensions", Hercus had not said the missiles were the aim of the new effort.

In statements made on a visit to Denmark yesterday, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said he would meet with Hercus next Tuesday or Wednesday, and that as far as he was concerned, the main problem was that confidence needed to be built up between the two sides.

He said confidence-building measures due to be discussed included the pulling back of troops from some of the more sensitive positions on the Green Line, keeping certain weapons unloaded, and enforcing a code of military conduct in order to prevent incidents.

Meanwhile, speaking in Washington about US-Turkish relations, US Under- Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said on Wednesday that although America was concerned over the deployment of the missiles, it would also oppose any attempts to remove them by force.

A lasting solution in Cyprus would require the removal of the likelihood that the situation would erupt into war, Talbott said: as such, America was "very clear" about its "grave concern" regarding the missiles' deployment.

But, calling for more "path-breaking" diplomacy on Turkey's part, he added that "at the same time, we have also made clear that if such destabilising missiles are installed, we will oppose any effort to remove them by force."

Friday, October 16, 1998

[05] Contacts must resume at once

FORMAL and informal contacts in Cyprus between the two communities must be resumed immediately, British parliamentarians said yesterday.

"It is a breach of international law and a denial of human rights to prevent individuals and groups from both communities from freely getting together," said Lord Bethell, Chairman of the Friends of Cyprus.

The all-party UN-based Friends of Cyprus has spent four days listening and talking to political, business and community representatives on both parts of the island.

The group has been discussing with both communities the benefits of membership of the European Union, hoping that a way can be found to set up a joint team to negotiate entry.

"We believe this is in the best economic and social interests of both communities," Lord Bethell said. "People from both communities have the right to factual information form the European Union about what is on offer."

Speaking after a meeting with President Clerides yesterday, Lord Bethell said a solution to the Cyprus problem should be based on a bizonal, bicommunal federation with the withdrawal of foreign troops from Cyprus and a "considerable amount of autonomy for the two federal states".

He said although there was a fairly firm consensus about what ought to be, there was a problem about who should make the first move.

"In the north there are some people close to Mr Denktash who want a recognition of his so-called state before any discussion takes place," Lord Bethell said, adding that "this of course is not acceptable" in the government-controlled areas.

Asked if recognition of the Turkish Cypriot breakaway state in the north was acceptable to the international community, Lord Bethell said: "I do not think so. The UN have made this position clear."

He said there were a minority of Turkish Cypriots who were happy to talk to Greek Cypriots about joining the Cyprus delegation to the EU. However, the view of the majority was that they first wanted their 'state' to be recognised.

Lord Bethell expressed regret that the breakdown in talks has led to the Turkish Cypriot side's ban on contacts between the two sides.

Referring to the Turkish settlers in the north, Lord Bethell said that after a Cyprus solution "a large number of them or most of them will go back to Anatolia with or without some inducement to do so".

For those born in Cyprus, it would be "a more complicated question", Lord Bethell said.

During his visit to the north, the British peer met Turkish Cypriot 'Acting President' Hakki Atun, standing in for Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash who is abroad. After the meeting, Atun said: "The Turkish Cypriot people will never relinquish their state, their security, their rights and their freedom".

Friday, October 16, 1998

[06] Waiter given second jail term on Aids charge

A CYPRIOT waiter already serving a 12-month jail sentence for negligently exposing two women to the deadly Aids virus yesterday received a similar punishment for knowingly infecting his former Swedish wife.

Larnaca District Court yesterday sentenced Andreas Michael, 28, to 12 months in prison for knowingly transmitting the Aids virus to his Swedish wife in 1993, and concealing his HIV condition.

Judge Tefkros Economou imposed the sentence after Michael had pleaded guilty to the charges on Monday.

Economou said that Michael had acted thoughtlessly because he did not consider the deadly consequences of transmitting the Aids virus to others.

Taking into account that Michael's HIV condition cuts short his life expectancy, Economou decided that the sentence should run concurrently with the jail term he is currently serving at the Nicosia Central Prison.

On June 9, Michael was sentenced to 12 months in prison after being found guilty of negligently transmitting the aids virus by having unprotected sex with two Cypriot women and not informing them of his condition.

One of the women involved was his fiancée, who contracted the virus; the other was a mother-of-three who is understood not to have been infected.

The Swedish woman contracted the virus after a holiday affair in Ayia Napa with the Larnaca waiter in 1993.

They married the next year at a civil wedding in Larnaca.

It was only after she tested HIV positive that Michael revealed to her that he suffered from the Aids virus.

As relations between the couple soured, the woman returned to Stockholm in September 1995 and went to Swedish police accusing her Cypriot husband of giving her Aids.

When, several months later, Michael went to Sweden to meet his wife, he was arrested on arrival.

But despite spending nearly six months in police custody, he was released when the authorities failed to make a case stand before a Swedish court.

It was when Michael returned to Cyprus that he met his Cypriot fiancée and subsequently gave her Aids by failing to use protection during sex.

It is understood the woman has since forgiven him.

During mitigation, Michael's defence lawyer Andreas Klaides told the court on Monday:

"The accused kept his condition a secret from his wife because he was scared that he might lose her."

Michael is the third Cypriot suffering from HIV to be found guilty of spreading the disease by a court since July 1997.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[07] Cyprus much to gain from co-operation with Israel

Rolandis also told a Larnaca Airport news conference that Cyprus and Israel had signed a new trade pact this week, and were studying a reciprocal tax treaty that would bar double-taxation of both countries' nationals. He did not elaborate.

Rolandis was fresh from the Prime Minister's Jubilee Business Summit, a gathering of leaders from some 130 of the world's top trans-national banks and businesses that marked Israel's 50th year of statehood.

Noting that the Clerides government wants Cyprus to become a regional business centre, Rolandis said he believed the island had "a lot to benefit from" co-operating with Israel.

But in order to be "a country accepted by all in this region," Cyprus must also "co-operate with the Arab countries in the region," - most of which are sworn enemies of Israel.

"Prospects for co-operation are good" between Cyprus and Israel, Rolandis said, "but a lot of work has to be done."

He said he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the latter left for a Washington summit with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to advance the Middle East peace process.

Rolandis said he discussed Cyprus' achievements with Netanyahu, who was aware of the island's potential in the fields of economics, trade, tourism and high technology.

He also held talks with his Israeli opposite number.

Business leaders from Israel, with Netanyahu's blessings, came to Cyprus in September with red-carpet invitations to Cypriot businessmen to exploit some of what they said were "hundreds of millions of dollars" in Israeli venture capital available for joint-venture business formation.

The Israeli businessmen also encouraged the island's over-educated, under- employed or jobless youths to look to filling some of the thousands of high- tech jobs in Israeli companies that remain empty, for lack of enough highly trained Israelis.

The Israeli business leaders said at the time that they valued the ability of Cyprus businessmen, long experienced in international commerce and off- shore activities, to form joint ventures with Israeli companies in order to "package" business deals with the region's Arab states.

Cyprus, with its good relations with the Arab states, could sell to them products made by Israel-Cyprus joint ventures, where Israel, alone, cannot, the Israeli businessmen noted.

Most of the region's Arab states have imposed a trade embargo against Israel. Exceptions are Egypt and Jordan, which signed separate peace treaties with the Jewish state.

Rolandis and Vassilis Rologis, chairman of the Cyprus Chamber of Commerce &amp; Industry, headed the Cyprus delegation to the Jerusalem business summit, to which Netanyahu invited them.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[08] A woman for ombudsman?

The President was speaking at the swearing in of newly-appointed Deputy Attorney-general Nicos Charalambous, who will take over his new job from November 1.

Charalambous, 59, was the island's first Ombudsman, appointed in 1991. He replaces former Deputy Attorney-general Loucis Loucaides, who was recently appointed to the European Court of Human Rights at the Council of Europe.

During the ceremony at the Presidential Palace, which was also attended by Attorney-general Alecos Markides, Charalambous was affirmed by Clerides.

The former Ombudsman studied law at Athens and London Universities and was first appointed to the law offices of the Republic in 1972. He also served on various legal, administrative and constitutional committees.

Clerides wished him every success in his new post; when asked about the vacancy for Ombudsman, Clerides said he would be announcing the appointment to the House of Representatives on Monday.

He refused to reveal further details, except to say he preferred the new Ombudsman to be a woman.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[09] Clerides move bars admin staff from voting in University poll

PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides yesterday sent back to the house legislation that would have allowed university administrative staff to vote in today's elections for the rector.

And the administrative staff is today expected to stage a sit-down protest as a result.

At an extraordinary meeting last Monday, the House passed the bill permitting administrative staff to vote in the elections, and sent it on to Clerides for final ratification. But the president has sent it back, arguing the participation level of the administrative staff is too high - with six administrative delegates on the 128-member administration council, which votes for the rector, compared to little more than two per cent in other countries.

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said yesterday the decision had been prompted by information from a report on the matter made to the Council of Ministers.

And he added that the bill had also been sent back to the House in order to allow the parties to give their opinions on the matter.

Even though the bill was returned yesterday, House President Spyros Kyprianou said any changes to the law would not come in time to allow the administrative staff to vote in today's elections.

Attorney-general Alecos Markides said that it was within the constitutional right of the president to return the legislation to the House if he felt there was reason to do so, and that he did not believe Clerides had done this simply to prevent the administrative staff from voting today.

The staff now intend to hold a non-disruptive protest at the university today.

The race for the position of rector is between just two candidates: Aris Spanos, and Nicos Papamichael.

Outgoing rector Miltiades Haholiades is not standing for personal reasons.

Spanos is currently a lecturer in economics at the university, as well as a member of the university senate and council. He stood against Haholiades in the 1994 elections. Rival Papamichael is currently vice-rector, a position he won at the same 1994 elections. He is also a senate member and lectures in mathematics and statistics.

The only candidate standing for Papamichael's current position is Andreas Demetriou, head of applied sciences, and also a member of the senate and the university council.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[10] Second desalination plant ready in 2000

The announcement came yesterday the Minister of Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment, Costas Themistocleous, who was addressing officials at Larnaca Town Hall. The meeting was attended by Larnaca mayor George Lycourgos and a small representation of the Planning Bureau.

Themistocleous said the location would be revised only if an environmental study, carried out by the construction company commissioned to build the plant, showed the land to be unsuitable.

He repeated the need for the desalination plant, especially in wake of the recent drought.

Matters are expected to become desperate if there is no rain by the end of the year, when Cyprus is expected to run out of water completely.

The first months of 1999 will see the use of underground water deposits and of the first desalination plant at Dhekelia. Two mobile desalination plants are due to be added in the last six months of the year, preceding the full operation of the second desalination plant.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[11] UN open house

The gala will feature food and drink, ethnic music and dance, games for children, and helicopter and equipment displays.

Of special interest are the national delicacies from the many countries whose nationals are serving on the island with the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (Unficyp) and the UN Mission.

The October 24 festivities, marking United Nations Day, will kick off a series of events planned throughout the months of October and November to publicise its worldwide activities.

The event will also commemorate 50 years of UN global peacekeeping efforts, and the half-century mark for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Some 5,000 people joined in last year's celebrations, an annual event that has become quite popular on the island.

The gathering is a family day, geared as much to amuse the children as to entertain their parents. There will be plenty of activities and refreshments, music and dancing for all.

And all are most heartily welcome. Admission is free.

Friday, October 16, 1998

[12] Tourist dies

Police said Jarle Pedersen, 25, was spotted by staff at the Protaras hotel at 8.15am and was taken to a private clinic where he was found to have serious head injuries.

State coroner Panicos Stavrianos ruled out foul play after carrying out an autopsy and visiting the scene. He said the injuries had been caused by a fall. Police are investigating Pedersen's death.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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