Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-10-30

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

Friday, October 30, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Holy Synod defrocks 'stripper priest'

[02] Matsakis finishes brutality probe

[03] Farmers to face off in Bases land dispute

[04] Missiles: a million a month in storage

[05] Crackdown on phoney 'diplomatic' vehicles

[06] Bones show ancient Cypriots suffered from thalassaemia

[07] June '99 deadline set to beat the drought

[08] Moufflon 'dying in dozens'

[09] Weizman to visit next week

[10] What a gem: Naomi to visit

[11] Cyprus vows to keep Turkish Cypriots informed on EU talks

[12] Soldier dies from meningitis

[13] Bank of Cyprus centenary freebie revives market

[01] Holy Synod defrocks 'stripper priest'

THE HOLY Synod yesterday defrocked one priest and suspended another after they were photographed leaving a Paphos building which housed Romanian strippers.

Priest Ioannis Ioannou of Ayios Tychonas, Limassol, was formally defrocked by the Holy Synod during a marathon session at the Archbishopric in Nicosia.

Ioannou had confessed in writing, and yesterday's defrocking was just a formality.

The second priest, from Handria village, has been banned from holding church services after he was pictured in the photograph with Ioannou, who is his relative.

He will stay suspended until the Holy Synod can verify his explanation that he was there by chance and did not enter the building.

According to Archbishop Chrysostomos there were other charges of a similar nature which priest Ioannou faced which made his position untenable.

One news report last week claimed the priest was a frequent visitor to cabarets and enjoyed the company of foreign artistes.

The former priest eloped with a Romanian lap dancer last month, abandoning his wife and four children.

It is understood that Ioannou is still living with his Romanian girlfriend despite church efforts to get him to return to his family.

Despite the tough action taken by the Holy Synod, one of its senior members, Bishop Chrysostomos of Paphos, claimed the photographs were a fake when he was leaving the meeting yesterday.

The photos - published by local TV station Antenna - have caused unwanted headlines for the Church which has seen its authority questioned and fears raised that attendances and contributions could plummet.

There were further allegations yesterday that the two disgraced priests used a flat belonging to Bishop Chrysanthos of Limassol - who also faces being defrocked on massive fraud charges - and that Ioannou's Romanian girlfriend was hired as a housemaid at the apartment.

When asked about the allegations, Bishop Chrysostomos said it was the "first time" he'd heard of it.

Nevertheless, the Holy Synod is reported to be investigating the claims.

After an ID parade at the Archbishopric on Monday the two priests were recognised as coming from the Limassol area.

Police have questioned three men suspected of pimping and using the Paphos building, in which Romanian artistes from a nearby cabaret were housed, as a brothel.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[02] Matsakis finishes brutality probe

ATTORNEY-general Alecos Markides said yesterday that Deputy Marios Matsakis had finished his probe into allegations of police brutality in subduing rioting boat people last weekend in Larnaca.

He said Matsakis' tape recording of his findings will be transcribed and given to the six-person team he has appointed to investigate the accusations against the rapid-reaction (MMAD) force.

"We want to find the truth, to exhaust every possible attempt on our part to find out who is responsible for these episodes," Markides told reporters yesterday.

"And at the same time, we are all interested to find the result as soon as possible." As to when that might be, he replied: "I can't tell you a time- frame, because at this time nobody knows what the outcome will be."

Meanwhile, the newspaper Apoyevmatini reported yesterday the MMAD anti- terrorist police had a virtual blank cheque to use all the force they wanted, short of killing, to quell the riot.

The paper cited a voice-disguised interview on Antenna TV on Wednesday night with a MMAD officer, who said his orders had allowed the use of maximum force, "except bullets or bombs," against the rioting boat people.

The riot began late last Friday, when 48 detainees in Larnaca police custody learned some of their number were to be deported the next day. They burned their bedclothes and refused to leave their cells.

Flushed from their cells by tear-gas, the boat people were set upon by MMAD members, who kicked and beat them after forcing them to lie face-down in the courtyard of the Larnaca police detention centre.

As wells as ordering an investigation, Markides this week had at least 20 of the detainees transferred to the Central Prison in Nicosia, out of concern for what have been described as restrictive living conditions in Larnaca custody.

Markides said a formal investigation was necessary - despite television footage clearly showing MMAD officers kicking, beating and stomping unarmed boat people - because whoever filmed the violence has not come forward and sworn to have made the video.

He said the cameraman would also have to testify in court to having shot the footage in question, and provide the tape as evidence.

Asked how Matsakis' mere audio tape is acceptable while a video with sight and sound of the events is not, Markides referred to Matsakis's experience as a forensic pathologist in dictating the results of autopsies into tape recorders.

Additionally, Markides said, Matsakis will also swear in court that he indeed dictated the tape, and will offer himself for cross-examination. And, he added, if Matsakis does not show up in court to testify, a warrant would be issued for his arrest.

Pressed about why all the fuss when the film is clear, Markides seemed to split hairs about how one person's view of a film is one thing, while interpreting it in court is another.

And he said that, whatever the film shows, any accused officers should be given the historical right to exploit any mistakes made by the prosecution in charging him with brutality.

As to official concern about the TV footage hurting the island's reputation in Europe if it is broadcast outside Cyprus - which it has been extensively, Markides said the European Union had nothing to do with the matters at hand.

The EU, he said, is mainly interested in how Cyprus law handles corruption and money laundering. (Cyprus is deep into the process of harmonising its laws with EU laws in order to join the 15-member group.)

Markides also said the government and the British High Commission had agreed to co-operate in asking Lebanon to take back some of the 75 boat people who pitched up on the coast of the British Sovereign Bases Area at Akrotiri earlier this month.

Their arrival raised questions as to who was responsible for them, with the Republic disclaiming all obligations, and the SBA insisting Britain might not be solely charged with their fates.

A British source said that many of the 75, who at first had claimed to have been Iraqis fleeing the regime of Saddam Hussein, were now changing their stories and claiming to be Syrians or Lebanese.

The source said the reason for this was not clear, but it appeared that, since deportation was likely for many of the 75, they were changing their stories, lest they be forcibly sent back to Iraq.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[03] Farmers to face off in Bases land dispute

GREEK Cypriot farmers and their Turkish Cypriot counterparts are set to face off tomorrow in a land dispute on the British Bases near Dhekelia.

According to yesterday's Turkish Cypriot press, tension has risen in the village of Lyssi, which the Turks call Beyarmudu, after they heard of Greek Cypriot plans to return there to farm their land.

The Turkish press said some 1,000 donums of land are at stake.

The Turkish Cypriot 'Mayor', Dr Huseyin Beyar, said residents of the village had decided to resist any attempt by Greek Cypriots to return to the land.

He said 80 per cent of the village land and 40 houses are on British bases land, and that residents had warned the bases authorities that they would not allow any disturbance of the peace which has prevailed for 24 years.

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot owners farm land in the bases areas where there is no buffer zone between the sovereign British territory and the Turkish-occupied areas.

A bases spokesman yesterday confirmed that a group of Greek Cypriot farmers had indicated their intention to try to return to farm their property in the Lyssi area where, he said, land rights have been disputed for many years.

"They (the Greek Cypriots) tried to go back a few years ago and they said they will try to go back again on Saturday," the bases spokesman said.

He said the plan is that they will turn up at the SBA police station in Dhekelia and demand to be taken back to their land.

"Those who have papers that the land is theirs will be escorted by SBA police to their land," the bases spokesman said.

He would not comment on whether additional security measures would be taken.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[04] Missiles: a million a month in storage

DELAYED arrival of the S-300 missiles will cost the government $1 million a month in storage fees as from November, Akel deputy Doros Christodoulides said yesterday.

Christodoulides made the claim during a House Defence Committee meeting, and said the government had yet to pay off the outstanding money for the deal, which meant bad news for the Cypriot taxpayer.

According to his sources, delivery of the missiles from Russia should begin as of November 1, otherwise penalties will be incurred.

Christodoulides told the committee that if the November deadline - as written in the contract - is not met then the government will have to pay $1 million a month to have the weapons stored in Russia.

"The government has denied it but Russian sources talk about $1 million-a- month to store and maintain this system from the day they should have been delivered, which is November 1," Christodoulides told reporters after the House meeting.

As a member of the defence committee Christodoulides has first-hand knowledge of the contract terms with Russia because the House must approve all military spending.

The total cost of the controversial surface-to-air missiles was $227 million, which includes the training of personnel, but the government has so far only paid $110 million, said the Akel deputy.

He said the government has until Sunday to come up with the extra $117 million or pay the costly penalty.

The opposition party Akel is making political mileage out of the missile deal, understanding that the government has backed itself into a corner, and claiming it was not fully consulted on the deal cut in January 1997.

Disy leader Nicos Anastassiades also confirmed the cost of the Russian-made missiles when he stated the government had saved $61 million by not accepting the offer from a Greek arms dealer.

Vassilis Vranas claimed recently that the government had paid 25 per cent over the odds for the S-300s because it did not consider his offer.

This prompted President Clerides to go public about the deal on Monday and announce he had to intervene personally and haggle with the Russian Prime Minister to lower the price.

Anastassiades said yesterday the final price paid was $224 million and not the $285 million Vranas offered as the representative of the Russian government.

"If we had accepted Mr Vranas' offer the state would have lost $61 million, " said Anastassiades.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[05] Crackdown on phoney 'diplomatic' vehicles

ANYONE with a car and the right connections can slap on green licence plates and enjoy all the perks and privileges accorded to genuine members of the Cyprus diplomatic corps, officials conceded yesterday.

This is because the green plastic plates with the black numbers and letters have never been issued or controlled by any government authority. Instead, they are bought from accessory shops.

Car salesmen and car accessory dealers contacted by the Cyprus Mail conceded that some in their ranks can arrange for false 'diplomatic' plates to be issued - for a price.

The police, Foreign Ministry and the Department of Road Transport all said the problem is out of control, but pledged yesterday to crack down on it.

"The only legal green plate is that plate which the diplomats who are accredited here are entitled to put on their car. It bears a 'CD' for 'Corps Diplomatique', Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Alecos Shambos said.

"It goes to the ambassadors and the diplomatic members of the embassies, high commissions and other missions, the UN Mission, and so on," he said.

Honorary consuls, who use a special green plate with the letters 'CC' for 'Consular Corps' "in fact are not entitled to bear the green plates," Shambos said. "There are no rules or regulations allowing this. It's by practice."

"Since the establishment of the Republic, the honorary consuls began using the green places, putting on 'CC'. It has never been regulated by law, by the government," he said.

"Apart from the honorary consuls, it seems that members of their families also use the green plates on their cars. And other people, who have no (diplomatic) status... also use the green plates without notifying anybody, " Shambos said.

Police Traffic Chief Superintendent George Voutounos said: "The use of a green plate is illegal for anyone but the diplomatic corps." He conceded its illegal use was rife, but did not know how many illegal plates were in use.

"We don't have a ministry to issue these plates, as they do in other countries," Voutounos said. "The Ministry of Communications is responsible for the law" regarding motor vehicles, but it has no licence plate-issuing facilities.

Renos Ioannides, director of the Department of Road Transport, said a bill is now before the House of Representatives that would change the law to curb abuses.

Currently, honest parts dealers require an old, broken diplomatic plate before making a duplicate for a car already in use. In the case of new cars, they require the motor vehicle's registration, showing the car's owner is entitled to the diplomatic plates, before making them.

Dishonest dealers require only cash and the registration number.

"It's going to stop," Shambos declared. He said he expects the House to change the law so that "the Department of Motor Vehicles, after consulting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs" will be the sole issuer of diplomatic plates.

The new diplomatic plates will probably be of a different colour, he added, to distinguish them from the old green plates and those of cars outside the diplomatic corps, "and when they leave Cyprus, they have to return them".

Meanwhile it's up to the police to catch the phoney diplomats, Shambos said, admitting this can be tricky. "How can they be sure it's not a diplomatic car? If you stop the car of a diplomatic officer, then you create a problem."

Voutounos said he planned to take that chance and begin stopping suspect cars.

"If we have doubts about whether somebody is using false plates, we can stop the vehicle and interrogate them to find out the truth. If somebody is using these plates, we file a case for prosecution."

The penalties, Voutounos said, are a £1,000 fine or a year prison, or both.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[06] Bones show ancient Cypriots suffered from thalassaemia

HUMAN remains discovered at the island's oldest archaeological site show that people suffered from thalassaemia in Cyprus nearly 5,000 years ago.

The Antiquities Department said yesterday this is the first time the ancestry of the disease here has been traced so far back.

Analysis of human bones taken from Kissonerga in the Paphos district has led Scottish researchers to believe that thalassaemia existed here at least 4,500 years ago.

The Kissonerga settlement dates from 6,000 BC to 2,000 BC.

The Antiquities Department said that teeth and bones found in a tomb at the site were given to separate researchers who investigated the remains 'blind'.

Dr Dorothy Lunt, an acknowledged expert on ancient Cypriot dentition, the study of the arrangement and shape of teeth, discovered a strange condition in the Kissonerga remains consistent with thalassaemia.

Experts became more excited when independent corroboration came from Melody Domurad, the project's American osteologist.

In one family's remains she found that a father and child had suffered from bowed bones and that the child had a thickening of the skull consistent with thalassaemia. She concluded that the child died from an acute form of the disease, having inherited it from both parents.

Thalassaemia is an hereditary form of anaemia dependent on recessive genes. It is still endemic in most of the Mediterranean, with the gene occurring in various populations in Italy, Greece and Cyprus.

In Cyprus, which leads the field in research into the disease, eight per cent of the population carry the gene, the highest in the world. Sardinia has the second highest.

However Cyprus currently has only 700 thalassaemia sufferers compared to 4.5 million world wide, making it the top country in controlling the disease.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[07] June '99 deadline set to beat the drought

This was the result of a meeting at the Water Development Department to thrash out a clear water policy in view of the persistent three-year drought.

Because of the strong criticism the government has received over its lack of urgency in replenishing dwindling water reserves, Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous decided to take specific measures yesterday.

At yesterday's meeting a range of dates were adopted for the various contingency plans and schemes to beat the dry weather and to have something in reserve if it doesn't rain sufficiently this winter.

Themistocleous announced after the meeting that June 1999 was the deadline for producing 30,000 cubic metres of water daily from two mobile desalination plants in Limassol and Larnaca, or the equivalent from imported water.

Furthermore, the much-delayed plans for the island's second permanent desalination facility in Larnaca have been given a firm operational date of June 1, 2000.

The minister also said that measures to drill more boreholes to tap the underground water supply will be speeded up.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[08] Moufflon 'dying in dozens'

Lakis Demetriades, secretary of the EMC, also reported moufflon "injuries and deaths, caused by the moufflon's attempts to cross the new road which joins Kykkos and Pyrgos Tillirias. They strike the guard rails on the roadside while they are trying to cross the roads."

He said he hoped the government would do something to curb the death toll, such as provide forest water sources and make an opening in the guard rails so the animals can get through.

Demetriades said he got his information from sources inside the Forestry Department, who regularly patrol Paphos Forest, monitoring the fire hazard and the condition of animals there.

Veterinary Department Director Dr Pavlos Economides yesterday questioned Demetriades' figures, suggesting they were excessively high.

He said that while he did have a report of three dead moufflons since September 1, he had no reports of "dozens" dead. His reports, he added, also carried the official results of post-mortems on the animals, and none showed the signs of death from thirst.

"Our information from the forest is... official and efficient," Economides said, adding: "The Department of Forestry has good surveillance for fires and moufflons."

But he did say he would continue to look into the matter.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[09] Weizman to visit next week

He will be accompanied by a 12-member delegation and a group of journalists and will be officially welcomed at Larnaca Airport by President Clerides.

At noon on Monday there will be private talks between the two men followed by talks between the delegations of the two countries.

During his visit President Weizman will meet politicians and party leaders as well as some government ministers.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[10] What a gem: Naomi to visit

According to George Metaxas the deal to model the jewels was a choice between Briton Campbell and rivals Claudia Schiffer from Germany, Helena Christiansen from Denmark and Linda Evangelista, a Canadian.

"We had to choose one of them," Metaxas said. Campbell will be joined by seven models from Greece.

But Metaxas said the other supermodels had so many sponsorship deals from whom they would have had to seek permission that they opted instead for Campbell.

"The race was really between Claudia and Naomi," he said.

"But we would have needed the approval of each of Claudia's sponsors."

The fashion show will take place on November 12 at the Forum Intercontinental Hotel in Nicosia.

It will be Campbell's first visit to Cyprus. She is noted for once remarking that she would not get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

Metaxas refused to say how much his company is paying to have her model his jewellery.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[11] Cyprus vows to keep Turkish Cypriots informed on EU talks

It said chief negotiator George Vassiliou made the pledge when he and the chief negotiators from the five other fast-track EU candidates met EU ambassadors to prepare the start of the talks by EU foreign ministers.

"I pointed out that we have started a major effort to keep the Turkish (Cypriots) informed," Vassiliou told Reuters after the meeting.

But the Cyprus problem still raised its head at what should have been technical meetings between the EU and Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.

EU officials said the 15 member states had haggled over whether mention should be made of the need to find a political solution to the division of the island in the EU's common position for negotiating with the six candidates on its common foreign and security policy.

In the end the EU chose to simply refer in the negotiating paper to a previous position adopted by EU foreign ministers earlier this month which avoided conditionality, the officials said.

The EU's common foreign and security policy has been chosen as one of the seven 'easy' negotiating chapters upon which substantive talks will be opened with the six on November 10.

France, afraid of admitting a divided island to the EU, has previously threatened to delay the expansion project unless a solution is found, while Greece insists Cyprus must be part of the expansion project.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[12] Soldier dies from meningitis

Petros Evangelos, 20, died at Nicosia General Hospital after being admitted on Saturday with fever and headaches.

After examination it was established he had bacterial meningitis and he was taken to the intensive care unit.

All necessary measures have been taken at the army camp where he was stationed, an announcement said.

Doctors say this was an isolated case and there is no need for panic.

Friday, October 30, 1998

[13] Bank of Cyprus centenary freebie revives market

SHARE PRICES staged their biggest one-day rally in more than two months yesterday, thanks to a strong showing by a banking sector inspired by the Bank of Cyprus' promise of a freebie to shareholders.

A flurry of acquisition rumours surrounding one of the island's leading insurance companies also contributed to yesterday's rally.

The all-share index closed at 88.64, a 1.43 per cent rise on Tuesday's close.

This was the biggest one-day leap in share prices since August 25 when the index closed at 89.21, a 1.55 per cent increase over the previous day.

Bank of Cyprus Chairman Solon Triantafyllides announced last week that the bank wanted to reward the loyalty of its shareholders by presenting them with a gift next year to mark its centenary. The bank would not say what that reward would be, but market traders are speculating that it would either be a warrants or a rights issue.

The bank's share price stood at £3.56 on the eve of Triantafyllides' October 21 announcement. It closed yesterday at £3.74 with nearly 100,000 shares changing hands, claiming 21.9 per cent of the bourse's entire volume.

"There are more willing buyers than willing sellers of Bank of Cyprus shares these days," said Yiannos Andronikou of Suphire Stockbrokers Ltd. "And there is still room for the share to go up further."

Bank of Cyprus shares, which accounted for 34.8 per cent of the bourse's entire capitalisation at the end of September, yesterday closed seven cents up on Tuesday's close, thus overtaking the Cyprus Popular Bank for the first time this year. The Popular's shares rose by five cents yesterday to close at £3.73, just one cent lower than the Bank of Cyprus' shares.

Traders said the Cyprus Popular Bank had no intention to match its rival's centenary offer, but might reconsider in 1999 which, in the words of one trader who wanted to remain anonymous, might leave its stock lagging behind that of the Bank of Cyprus in the foreseeable future.

But for the time being, the bullish run on the Bank of Cyprus shares has given a boost to the fortunes of the Popular Bank, whose stock has appreciated by eight cents since the Triantafyllides announcement.

"Interest in the market has been stimulated by the Bank of Cyprus announcement," said Neophytos Neophytou of AAA United, summing up the present sentiment on the market.

Interest also picked up yesterday in insurance shares after the Shacolas Group put out a statement saying several parties it did not name were showing interest in acquiring big chunks of Paneuropean insurance, one of the conglomerate's companies.

Speculation doing the rounds, however, said those interested include Alpha Bank Limited, which began operations in Cyprus on October 1 after taking a majority stake in the now-defunct Lombard NatWest Bank. Earlier this month, Alpha publicly expressed its desire to acquire an insurance business on the island.

Speculation also touched the National Bank of Greece and the former owners of Interamerican Insurance, acquired by the Shacolas group in 1995.

The rumours swirling around Paneuropean has boosted the share price. It closed at £0.99 yesterday, an appreciation of 28 cents since around mid- October.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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