Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-12-04

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

Friday, December 4, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Murder victims were students in Limassol

[02] Minister in exile

[03] US happy to see missiles anywhere, except Cyprus

[04] Priest remanded over 'underworld' pistol

[05] Businessmen to meet in Turkey next week

[06] Half a billion dollars to harmonise the oil sector

[07] Bishop did seek loan from occupied areas

[08] Corruption bill to go to the vote by mid-December

[09] Bargain computers could crash in 2000

[01] Murder victims were students in Limassol

THE YOUNG couple brutally murdered and thrown into a 100-metre-deep ravine this week were identified by police yesterday as Chinese students who had attended a Limassol college.

Lou Jinhui, 23, and the woman, Jiang Mingxia, 23, both arrived in Cyprus on October 11.

Police are calling the crime one of the most "brutal and vicious" they have seen in recent years. Yesterday police identified the dead couple's rented flat in Limassol's Mesa Yitonia, where they found traces of blood both inside and outside the apartment.

Broken windows, objects strewn across the floor and other indications that a struggle had taken place convinced police that the pair were killed at the flat before their bodies were removed to be dumped later in the mountains some 30 kilometres away.

"We believe the killer or killers beat them with a blunt instrument, then strangled them and wrapped their bodies in a blanket," police spokesman Stelios Neophytou told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

Preliminary post mortem results reportedly indicate the woman was sexually abused before being choked to death. Police are trying to find a motive for the killings, but they have ruled out robbery.

"Expensive jewellery and other personal items such as watches were found on the bodies, so we don't believe robbery was a motive," Neophytou said.

Special police units, supported by sniffer dogs and a helicopter, scoured the Troodos range yesterday looking for clues. They found what is believed to be the blunt instrument used to club the two students.

Items of clothing and shoes were also found near the scene where the fully dressed bodies were dumped.

The victims' personal belongings were packed into two suitcases taken from the flat and strewn across the mountainside as far away as Kykkos some 15 km from Trooditissa where the bodies were found on Wednesday, police sources said.

Limassol police hope that evidence uncovered yesterday will lead them to the car used to take the bodies to where they were found.

A blanket, believed to have been wrapped around the bodies and located near Trooditissa, was identified by the Cypriot landlady as one she had given the couple and which was missing from their flat.

Maroulla Ioannou told police she had given them the blanket after they had complained of the cold.

Fellow students at Limassol's CTL college, where the couple had been taking a course in tourism studies, told police the last time they saw them alive was on Tuesday morning. Their bodies were discovered at Trooditissa at midday on Wednesday.

Neighbours and friends described the pair as well-mannered, quiet and hard working.

The man's body, wrapped in a blanket and tangled in bushes 10 metres down the ravine, and the woman, some 30 metres further down the drop, were spotted from the Platres-Trooditissa road by a tour guide. The man was found with his hands tied behind his back.

Both forensic pathologist Marios Matsakis and state pathologist Sophocles Sophocleous believe the two were murdered elsewhere and then thrown down the precipice.

At first it was thought they might have been the victims of a traffic accident, but when Platres police found no signs of any crash or vehicle, a murder inquiry was launched.

A Chinese embassy spokesman in Nicosia confirmed yesterday they had been given the names of the students, but declined to comment any further for the moment.

Matsakis will carry out a full post mortem on the bodies today at Limassol General Hospital.

Friday, December 4, 1998

[02] Minister in exile

UNDER investigation and pursued by his political opponents, Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides has been granted a long leave of absence by President Glafcos Clerides.

Government spokesman Christos Stylianides yesterday confirmed reports that Michaelides had requested substantial leave for "personal reasons", but could not say how long it would last.

Michaelides stands accused of personal enrichment through abuse of public office. The Attorney-general has rejected most of the allegations levelled at the minister by Disy deputy Christos Pourgourides, but has appointed criminal investigators to look into two specific charges - that Michaelides sold immigration permits and laundered money in the sale of an apartment.

"From December 1, the minister asked for extended leave for personal reasons and it was granted. He is spending this time out of Cyprus," said Stylianides, who would not however shed any light on what those "personal reasons" might be.

There is also no indication from the government as to how long Michaelides will be away, only that he is frequent contact with President Clerides.

Suggestions that Michaelides was in effect a minister in exile until the corruption probe was over were given short shrift by the spokesman.

"The facts are as I have said."

Late last month, Michaelides went to Athens on official business, just days after Clerides refused his resignation and the Attorney-general appointed the two investigators to probe the allegations against him.

His official business in the Greek capital came to an end at the start of this month, Stylianides said.

Michaelides has requested a one-month leave of absence to be spent in Athens, according to reports.

Back in Nicosia, the political pressure on the beleaguered minister rose again yesterday after a closed session of the House Watchdog Committee.

His accuser, committee chairman Pourgourides, said afterwards that deputies were moving towards a unanimous condemnation of the minister's behaviour in office.

"The issue is not of political responsibility, but what we are talking about is unacceptable behaviour unbecoming of a minister," said Pourgourides.

"And there is no difference of opinion on his behaviour," he added.

The committee will meet next Thursday, when the party positions will be given in writing and contained in a report to be submitted to the House plenum.

Friday, December 4, 1998

[03] US happy to see missiles anywhere, except Cyprus

THE UNITED States is willing to consider almost any site for the S-300 missiles to be deployed, as long as it's not Cyprus, American ambassador Kenneth Brill said yesterday.

Speaking after a meeting with President Clerides, Brill said: "We have always supported the idea of the missiles not coming to Cyprus. As long as they are not coming to Cyprus, we are ready to consider almost anything."

Brill was responding to questions as to whether the idea for the missiles to be deployed in Crete had come from Washington or whether the US supported such an idea. He did not deny the possibility, nor rule out the Cretan option.

Last week, President Glafcos Clerides met Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis in Athens in a key meeting to decide where the missiles would be deployed.

It is widely believed that Nicosia and Athens disagreed over where the missiles should go, with reports suggesting Simitis favoured the Cretan option, an idea now said to have come from the Americans.

Bur Simitis gave nothing away after the meeting, saying simply that the destination of the missiles remained in the hands of the Cyprus government.

Yesterday, government spokesman Christos Stylianides said opinions, evaluations and concerns had been expressed at the Athens meeting.

"In many instances they were differing ones," he said. "But there was a complete understanding."

Stylianides said the decision on the fate of the missiles would be taken by the National Council. The crucial meeting is expected to take place after December 15.

"Any decision will be in consultation with Athens," he said.

But the US believes the arrival of the missiles in Cyprus will complicate attempts to make progress on demilitarisation and UN efforts to reach a political settlement.

"The arrival of the missiles would detract from that," Brill said.

"We hope that the position we have taken from the beginning - that they should not come to Cyprus - is the one that will be adopted by the government of Cyprus."

But he was cautious at expressing any optimism for a breakthrough leading to discussions on demilitarisation, despite ongoing shuttle talks being carried out by UN Chief of Mission Dame Ann Hercus. The talks are aimed at reducing tensions on the island.

"People are engaged with her (Hercus); she is implementing her mandate, which covers all the issues, and we are hopeful that will produce progress, but I think everybody is realistic about what can be achieved," Brill said.

But the government is not interested in a mere reduction of tensions.

"We don't just want a reduction in tensions," the government spokesman said yesterday. "We want a wider scope, including demilitarisation."

Cyprus has officially requested a UN General Assembly debate on the political problem. If agreed, it will be the first Cyprus debate in 15 years.

"The National Council has taken an initial decision... that will be reassessed and reexamined if any new developments take place," Stylianides said.

"We participate in Hercus' effort with good will and a spirit of co- operation."

Friday, December 4, 1998

[04] Priest remanded over 'underworld' pistol

Frenaros village priest Papademetris Neophytou Taliadoros, 72, was arrested on Tuesday after a tip-off led police to the discovery of an unlicensed Beretta pistol and 26 bullets in his home. The firearm has since been connected to suspected underworld shootings.

The priest implicated a second man, who was also remanded for eight days yesterday.

The Court turned down the priest's request not to be remanded in custody so that he could continue with his Church duties.

The second man, 30-year-old George Stylianou, also known as 'Arapis', is an Agia Napa hotel worker and was arrested on Wednesday night.

Speaking at Famagusta District Court yesterday, Sergeant Costas Ioannou said that the suspects' testimonies indicated that Papademetris had lent the gun to Stylianou, on condition he return it with the bullets replaced.

But a police bulletin later in the day announced a change in the priest's statement, in which he apparently said that Stylianou had given him the gun two and a half years ago.

At the court, Ioannou requested that the two men be remanded in custody, arguing that ballistic tests linked the firearm to shots fired at the homes of Costas Nicolaou in Vrysoulles on March 17, 1997 and Pieris Christophis in Agia Napa on September 21, 1997.

Ioannou continued that Christophis, the owner of the Moulin Rouge cabaret in Agia Napa, had previously been asked for protection money. Ioannou repeated his request for the two men's remand so that investigations could uncover whether the shootings and the bid for protection money were connected.

Papademetris originally said the gun had been brought from England and given to him in 1977. Speaking on television, he said he needed the gun for protection as his church was near the Green Line.

Friday, December 4, 1998

[05] Businessmen to meet in Turkey next week

US State Department Co-ordinator Thomas Miller and US Ambassador

Richard Holbrooke, the United States two top officials on the Cyprus problem, will be at the meeting.

Although Miller and Holbrooke are not scheduled to visit Cyprus, they are expected to hold meetings in the region, probably with officials in Athens and Istanbul.

The first businessmen's meeting in Brussels last year was the brainchild of Holbrooke, in an effort to bring the two sides in Cyprus closer together and foster good business relations prior to a possible political settlement.

Out of a list of objectives drawn up at the original meeting, the Brussels Group has so far managed to have telecommunications between the two sides transformed from a manual three-line system to an automated 20 lines.

Now, they plan to focus their efforts on the protection and preservation of the cultural heritage on both sides.

The Greek and Turkish Cypriot businessmen cannot meet in Cyprus due to a ban on all bicommunal contacts imposed by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash over the EU's decision to begin accession talks with Cyprus.

But Turkish Cypriot political parties have expressed the desire to resume contacts, according to the Slovak chargé d'affaires in Nicosia, under whose auspices bi-communal meetings have in the past taken place.

"Denktash has to do something to allow Turkish Cypriot party leaders to meet their Greek Cypriot counterparts," chargé d'affaires Dusan Rozbora told the Cyprus News Agency.

"It is also up to the party leaders themselves to send some messages to Denktash that they are ready to meet with their Greek Cypriot counterparts."

Friday, December 4, 1998

[06] Half a billion dollars to harmonise the oil sector

IT COULD cost Cyprus well in excess of $500 million just to comply with EU rules regarding refining, storing and selling petroleum products on the island, Commerce Minister Nicos Rolandis said yesterday after talks with the island's major foreign oil companies.

In fact, the questions raised by the island's EU membership process, which just entered its most substantive stage, "probably are the biggest single issue when it comes to our EU accession," Rolandis said in an interview with the Cyprus Mail.

For instance, if Cyprus continues refining imported oil, it will have to move the Larnaca refinery somewhere else, Rolandis said, to honour a pledge to the people of Larnaca. This could cost over $200 million, perhaps twice that, Rolandis indicated.

Next under EU rules, Cyprus must triple the size of its crude oil tank farms from their current 100,000-ton capacity, to "something like 320,000 tons," Rolandis said. "It may cost in excess of $300 million" to build the new tanks, either in Cyprus or somewhere off the island.

"Then if we have to remove the (current tank farm) installations of the petroleum companies," plus build additional storage tanks and move the Larnaca refinery, "we are talking of even higher amounts - well, well, well in excess of $500 million," Rolandis said.

Cyprus could close the Larnaca refinery, which processes 1 million tons of imported crude oil yearly, and import refined oil products, Rolandis conceded. "But there again you need storage facilities for three months - 90 days - of refined products" under EU rules.

"Refined products are much more expensive than crude," he said, so besides the cost of building new storage tanks, "the stocks of all these refined products, alone, may be running in the tens of millions of dollars."

Cyprus, however, views its sole oil refinery - as EU member Ireland did - "as an installation for national security," Rolandis said. Thus, while Cyprus could close it down - and save moving, operation and storage costs - it probably will not, he added.

In such an event, the petroleum importers would be required - as the European Court required in the case of Ireland - to "buy at least part of their products from the refinery." In Ireland, he noted, this had the dual effect of protecting a national asset, and partially liberalising the petroleum market.

"So a number of questions will arise inevitably, and the problem is very sizeable," he said. "Gradually we shall have to take a stand vis-à-vis petroleum products." And in view of the huge costs of EU petroleum-sector compliance, "probably this is the most expensive aspect of our EU accession, " he added.

"I started a dialogue today (Thursday) with the oil companies," BP, Exxon and Mobil, he said, "to see what we can do. They will come back to me in January, after they sleep on the whole matter, with some preliminary ideas. I will take (their ideas) to the Council of Ministers in the first quarter of next year."

Yesterday's meeting was originally called by the three oil majors to discuss jet fuel sales at the island's airports. Those sales are now being liberalised, as Cyprus begins to shed its old government price-fixing and harmonises its laws with EU laws.

"When we finalise accession, probably the EU will not allow this sort of system of controlled prices, and probably they will say: 'Liberalise prices, deregulate the market'. If we can do nothing else, then we shall have to do that."

"This means that each one of the petroleum companies will be in a position to import refined products if they so wish, and sell them in the market at their own price," Rolandis said.

Until then, however - despite world oil prices at perhaps their lowest level for the longest unbroken period in decades - "we do not intend" to cut the petrol pump price, Rolandis said.

"It's up to the House of Representatives," he noted, "but we do not recommend it... At the moment, our position is that we should stick to the existing prices."

"Because, after all, a good part of what we collect in excess goes back to the consumer (in electricity bill rebates), and also to the Defence Fund." But for this set-up, "we would have had to increase the defence contribution," he said.

Costas Christofides, Head of the Industrial Development Department of the Federation of Industrialists and Employers, said yesterday his organisation - representing 2,000 industries with some 40,000 employees - wanted the government to cut the price of refined oil to reflect the low world price of crude.

"Mr Rolandis, of course, knows our position," he said, "because we have told him many times that we want the price of electricity to be reduced" - which would happen if the oil burned to generate it dropped in price.

"A drop will certainly benefit industry," he said. "Industry is desperate to have any costs of production reduced, because the competitiveness of our industry is very low," he said.

"As far as I know, they didn't reduce the price of oil here because... the government wanted extra profits made to cover losses in other accounts - not the missiles; I suppose the deficits we have," Christofides said.

Michael Pilikos, head of labour relations at the Federation of Industrialists and Employers, also said he expected no price drop in refined oil products. "I'm not saying that I support this. I'm just conveying to you information that I have."

"There is a linkage between the price (of oil) and the various funds - the Electricity Authority Fund, the Defence Fund... And presumably the government... (prefers) to collect more money, instead of passing these benefits to the consumers."

Friday, December 4, 1998

[07] Bishop did seek loan from occupied areas

THE DISGRACED former bishop of Limassol did request a loan from a bank in the occupied areas, sources at the Attorney-general's office have confirmed.

But the bank was apparently not a Turkish bank, as had initially been thought.

A source at the Attorney-general's office yesterday told the Cyprus Mail that, although Chrysanthos had requested a loan from an unnamed bank in the north, the bank was not Turkish, even though it has "a Turkish sounding name, which misled some people".

The request is said to have been for a loan of $50 million. It is not known what the money was needed for.

The source said the loan application was being investigated, along with the other allegations against Chrysanthos, and that enquiries into the matter had also been made abroad.

A House of Representatives ad hoc Committee meeting on crime was disrupted on Wednesday when Akel deputy Aristophanis Georgiou brought this latest allegation to the Committee's attention.

Georgiou said the Attorney-general's office had evidence that the former Bishop had applied for a $50 million loan from the bank. The request was accepted, Georgiou said, though Chrysanthos did not in the end take out the loan.

This is the latest in a string of allegations against Chrysanthos, who resigned last month after a Holy Synod committee of three Bishops produced an eight-point charge sheet accusing the former Bishop of serious breaches of ecclesiastical law.

Chrysanthos has been implicated in fraud allegations involving millions of pounds in Cyprus and overseas, and is currently under criminal investigation by the Attorney-general's office.

Friday, December 4, 1998

[08] Corruption bill to go to the vote by mid-December

THE HOUSE seems set to bite the bullet and finally vote on a long-postponed anti-corruption bill.

The controversial bill - which would force public figures to declare their assets - has been stuck at committee stage for five years, but the chairman of the House legal affairs committee, Panayiotis Demetriou, yesterday said the main sticking points blocking approval had been overcome.

"I am in a position to say we will have an anti-corruption bill," Demetriou said after a behind-closed-doors session of the committee.

"The bill is in the final stages of being prepared and we hope to have a completed report and draft bill ready next week and sent to the House plenum by mid-December," he said.

The bill provides for the establishment of an independent review board to check asset declarations by politicians and top civil servants.

"The board will investigate automatically and independently, based on the information given," Demetriou said. The make-up of the board had been a major sticking point, but Demetriou said it had now been agreed appointments to it should be "non-political" and should be made by the President in consultation with parties.

There was still some debate about whether there should be five or seven members to the board, he said.

Another point of contention had been whether public figures should have publicly to declare their financial assets.

"All financial statements will be made public," Demetriou said yesterday.

He said the committee had also decided the bill would not be retroactive, because of "legal complications."

The committee had also decided to throw out a suggestion that media barons be covered by the bill, as they were not public figures, Demetriou said.

The bill stipulates that public figures declare, on a relevant form, all assets belonging to themselves, their spouses and children, whether these assets be in Cyprus or abroad.

All built property, vehicles worth over £2,000, interests in companies, shares and incomes would be declarable.

The issue of bribery in high places has made the headlines recently, with Interior Minister Dinos Michaelides and Limassol Bishop Chrysanthos both hit by corruption allegations.

The bill does not cover members of the clergy.

Friday, December 4, 1998

[09] Bargain computers could crash in 2000

FAMILIES shopping for new home computers should be on their guard, as many special offer machines may have a lifespan of just one year as some are not millennium compliant.

The government committee set up to advise on the millennium bug has warned consumers to check with retailers before buying any computer, but said the risk was especially high for machines on special offer.

Many of these are tempting bargains, offering the consumer extra goodies in the form of either hardware or software packages included in the low price. And with Christmas just around the corner, the experts fear many families could be splashing out on computers that will pack in a year's time.

Costas Agrotis, President of the Year 2000 Committee, said: "We are adamant about this. The holidays are coming, people are shopping. Any electronic product bought by the consumer must have a certificate that it's year 2000 safe."

Dr Loucas Aristodemou, Chairman of the Consumers' Association told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the association had not so far received any complaints from members of the public, but that this could be because "people are not aware of the problem, or are not yet alarmed about it."

He said the Association was furnishing all its members with information about the problem, in conjunction with the government committee. The association also intends to publish articles on the subject in its regular bulletin about the problem.

The Year 2000 Committee has also announced that, with local companies failing to take seriously the Millennium Bug threat, now just a little over a year away, they would appeal to President Glafcos Clerides to make a televised intervention warning the public of the seriousness of the situation and urging them to co-operate with the committee in order to ensure their own safety.

Out of 2,600 companies that received a questionnaire asking how they were handling the Year 2000 problem, less than 10 per cent have replied so far.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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