Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-12-06

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

December 6, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Suspect 'admits to double murder'

[02] 'Lover's spat' strips bare the missile rhetoric

[03] First immigrant deported to Syria

[04] Living in limbo

[05] Cyprus and Russia sign key tax treaty

[06] Police seek hit and run driver after tourists mowed down

[01] Suspect 'admits to double murder'

THE MOTIVE behind the brutal killing of a Chinese couple earlier this week was robbery, police said yesterday.

Assailants who tortured and murdered the Chinese couple at their flat were looking for a stash of money, investigating officer Andreas Karyolaimos told the Limassol district court during a remand hearing for suspect Wang Yang.

Yang, 21, a compatriot and fellow student of the two victims, is suspected of the premeditated murder of the young couple.

Yesterday, Yang was remanded for eight days in police custody while the search for a second Chinese student continued after the suspect had named his alleged accomplice.

Forensic evidence has concluded that the victims, Lou Jian Hui, 23, from Kweichow province, and Jiang Ming Xia, 23, from Szechwan province, were murdered at their Limassol flat between Tuesday night and early Wednesday, before their bodies were taken to the Trooditissa mountains and dumped down a 100-metre ravine.

The couple - who arrived in Cyprus less than two months ago - were subjected to sexual and physical abuse before being strangled to death, Friday's post mortems concluded.

"Yang appears to have confessed in his statement that he, along with one of his compatriots, killed the victims with an iron bar, which was also used to strangle them," a police report said yesterday.

"The aim of the assailants was at first robbery, because they had received information that the victims' relatives had sent them a large amount of money," the report said.

Karyolaimos told the court that Yang had apparently confessed to the crime in a statement to police and had implicated Bu Hua Cheng, 22, in the double- murder.

The attackers went to the victims' Limassol flat looking for what they thought would be about $3,000, but when they couldn't find the stash, they started beating the couple with an iron bar, Karyolaimos said, citing Yang's police statement.

When the couple still failed to reveal where the money was, even after being beaten senseless, they were strangled to death, the court heard.

Karyolaimos said the woman was sexually abused before she was murdered.

Her partner, Lou, was hit several times in the genitals with a pipe, sources close to the investigation have told The Sunday Mail.

It is understood that Lou, his hands tied behind his back, was made to watch his partner being sexually assaulted before he was killed.

The victims' bodies then appear to have been bundled into a car with their belongings, which were strewn along the mountain road as the passenger searched for the money, possibly concealed in their personal possessions.

Yang's 19-year-old girlfriend, who had been arrested on Friday, was later released without charge.

"There is plenty of evidence, which, I am convinced, will lead to the solving of this case," police chief Andreas Angelides said on Friday.

According to police sources, Yang had scratches on his face when he was arrested.

Blood was found in his car and on a pair of shoes at his apartment.

Police confiscated the suspect's blood-stained Toyota car, which they believe was used to take the bodies wrapped in a blanket.

The Chinese embassy in Nicosia has expressed its horror at the gruesome crime.

Police have described the murder as one of the most "brutal and vicious" they had had to deal with in recent years.

Items of clothing and shoes were 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 mountain side as far away as Kykkos, some 15 kilometres from Trooditissa.

Fellow students at Limassol's CTL college told police the last time they saw the couple alive was on Tuesday morning. Their bodies were discovered at Trooditissa the next day.

Neighbours and friends described the Chinese couple as well-mannered, quiet and studious.

December 6, 1998

[02] 'Lover's spat' strips bare the missile rhetoric

DIFFERENCES between close allies and friends Cyprus and Greece over the fate of the Russian missiles ordered by Nicosia have given the world a rare insight into a relationship that has traditionally been shielded from scrutiny by a thick wall of rhetoric.

The "lovers' spat" over the anti-aircraft S-300s has also, for the first time in years, highlighted key questions on the practical aspects of Greece- Cyprus strategies in the face of their common enemy - Turkey.

The reverence once accorded by the media to the joint defence dogma triumphantly announced in 1993 is, for example, being slowly erased, giving way to debates and analyses, albeit limited in scope, to the logistical realities of any significant Greek military deployment on Cyprus to defend against further Turkish incursions.

The Cyprus-Greece quarrel surfaced when Prime Minister Costas Simitis told President Glafcos Clerides in Athens 10 days ago that the missiles should be stored in Crete to deprive Turkey of an excuse to carry out its threat to take them out if they came to Cyprus. Clerides balked, and the pragmatic Simitis, concealing his rift with the 79-year-old ally, told reporters that the final decision rested with Nicosia.

But the Greek leader's display of tactful diplomacy has not stopped the tiff from becoming public knowledge and lending weight to Clerides' detractors at home and abroad, who see his stance on the issue as a major policy failing, brought about in part by personal pride and the wish not to lose face.

"It is fair to say that emotions play a part in decision-making in Cyprus that is difficult to find elsewhere in the world. There just isn't enough focus on rationality and forward planning," a Nicosia-based diplomat said of Clerides' handling of the missiles issue.

"He knows that danger is lurking ahead, but pride has crept into his decision-making," said the diplomat, who spoke to the Sunday Mail on condition of anonymity.

The missile crisis and last week's unexpected twist in relations have also tempted analysts on the island and elsewhere to take a closer look at the national psyche of a people deeply frustrated by the continuing foreign occupation of a third of their country and haunted by the world's inability to redress what they see as a grave injustice.

"The missile crisis is rooted in the fears of men and women who feel that the whole world has abandoned them," wrote Le Monde diplomatique in its autumn edition.

The assertion by the authoritative French monthly is not at all far from the truth. Many Greek Cypriots received with euphoria the January 1997 announcement that their government had ordered the Russian missiles, thinking that for once they would be able to rattle the Turks.

As time went by and as the Turks repeated their threat to take them out and Britain and the United States voiced their opposition to the deal, the initial jubilation began to fizzle out. In its place came the realisation that repeated bouts of heightened tension or a limited Turkish strike against the missiles would be sufficient wreck the economy and cause havoc in public life.

"Our strength lies in our economy. If that goes, everything else will go," said a prominent Cypriot businessman who did not want to be named. "A limited strike at the missiles will make tourism extinct for two to three years and that would mean total collapse," he told the Sunday Mail.

"From a market point of view, we would rather not see the missiles arrive. The entire deal was thought out for political reasons," said a senior stock market trader with a leading Nicosia brokerage. He too did not want to be named.

The writing on the wall, however, is not legible to everyone.

Unperturbed by the recent policy rift with Athens, many Cypriot politicians and commentators are continuing to churn out militant rhetoric on the Cyprus problem and Greece's resolve to come to the island's rescue.

"We cannot lift up our arms and surrender whenever we face a threat," said Edek's seasoned leader Vassos Lyssarides, who has vowed to take his party out of Clerides' coalition if the latter decides not to deploy the missiles.

But Alecos Constantides, editor of the respected daily Alithia, provided a note of dissent on just how realistic are Greece's own public pledges to stand by Cypriots in the case of a crisis.

"When the moment of truth comes at the crisis point, then the slogans will be of no use and the dogma will collapse as any myth would," he wrote on Thursday. "The public likes to live with myths, delusions and pretty slogans, rather than to confront reality, which is not always pleasant."

In Greece, analysts and newspaper columnists joined the Alithia editor in his attempt to separate rhetoric from reality, doing away with the usual niceties reserved for when they write about their Cypriot brethren.

"The last thing Greece wants is anything interfering with its EU goals," said Constantine Karistinos, a researcher at the Institute for International Relations, an Athens-based think tank.

"Now we're being trapped by the Cypriots," cried political commentator Aris Tolios on Flash radio. "The... missiles are turning into a wound for Greece, " the Vradini newspaper commented.

In financial terms, a costly military mobilisation to support Cyprus could set back Greece's austerity goals. "It could deflect the focus from the EU to Cyprus just when the Greek government needs fully to concentrate on the single currency drive," said Karistinos.

Prime Minister Simitis has made joining the European Monetary Union by January 1, 2000 a cornerstone of his policies and clearly does not wish to see Greece distracted from achieving that goal.

But military analysts see other reasons beside wanting to join the exclusive euro club for Athens' reluctance to be drawn into a conflict with Turkey over the missiles. Foremost among them is the extremely disadvantageous geography.

For example, the analysts say, Greek warplanes taking off from Crete, the nearest air base to Cyprus, could only spend a maximum of 15 minutes usefully over Cyprus skies in a combat situation. Their Turkish counterparts have three times as long.

They will also have to carry fewer weapons since they will be flying low over the sea to escape radar detection, the analysts say. This is in contrast to the altitude of 30,000 feet and more on which they fly when they take part in joint exercises.

"Stationing warplanes in the Paphos air base is virtual suicide," one analyst based in Cyprus said. "The base will be like a marooned aircraft carrier. Easy pickings for a Turkish air force that takes no more than two to three minutes to be over Cyprus," said the Western analyst, who did not want to be named.

"During Nikiforos, a handful of Greek jets came and took part and everyone said that was proof that the Greeks can come to the rescue.

"But in the Turkish aerial exercises over Cyprus that took place immediately after Nikiforos, 80 warplanes took part. That is the kind of concentration the Turks can produce."

He and others also saw little point in building a naval base in Zygi. "No naval commander worthy of his stripes will send naval assets steaming slowly from Greece to Zygi and seriously entertain hopes of reaching their destination, engage the enemy and return to their home base," said another analyst.

"Geography is almost everything," he said. "And Greece risks losing its entire military assets if it is drawn into conflict with Turkey on Cyprus. It is a tremendously awesome task to keep open and defend the Cyprus-Greece corridor."

Such talk should not be perceived as defeatist or alarmist. Both Cyprus and Greece are in favour of a diplomatic solution to their quarrel with Turkey but remain equally committed to both building up their armed forces to deter the Turks and keeping up a reasonable level of nationalistic rhetoric that is widely viewed as necessary for political survival in both countries.

They do this against the backdrop of a realisation that war with predominantly Muslim and highly militarised Turkey would be ruinous.

The S-300 missiles, the analysts pointed out, were possibly the world's best system of its kind, but the two batteries, or just under 40 missiles, ordered by Cyprus would hardly upset the balance of power on the island.

"Moscow alone is protected by 10 batteries of S-300 missiles," said the Western diplomat based in Nicosia.

December 6, 1998

[03] First immigrant deported to Syria

THE FIRST of 75 illegal immigrants who came ashore off the British Bases in October was voluntarily deported from the island yesterday.

Abdullah Mohammad Faris, 30, was handed over to Cyprus immigration officers by SBA police just outside the Dhekelia Garrison around 9.30am.

Two uniformed and one plain-clothes SBA officers arrived at the exchange point - the yard of the former JJ's restaurant - at around 9.00am leaving Faris handcuffed in a patrol vehicle.

At 9.30, three Cypriot immigration police arrived at the scene and Faris was transferred to their blue Mazda bound for Larnaca Airport.

He was expected to be put aboard a Syrian-Arab Airlines flight to Damascus at 11.00am, but neither police nor immigration at Larnaca Airport were able to say whether Faris had left the island as planned.

British bases spokesman Rob Need said all he could do was confirm that Faris had been handed over the to Cypriot authorities. He could not say whether the flight was a direct one. "He is no longer our responsibility," Need said.

Faris is the first of the 75 to be deported and one of seven who asked to be returned to his homeland, although it has not been ascertained that he is in fact Syrian.

Sources say many of the boat people have been vague about their origins and nationalities.

Faris was one of two voluntary deportees held in custody at the Dhekelia Garrison, while the remaining 73 have recently been moved to new quarters.

His occupation remains shrouded in mystery, but he is understood to have been one of the crew that brought the 75 immigrants to the shores of Cyprus.

Bases authorities would cot confirm that Faris had been a crewman, but Need said: "A number of these (people) paid less money to be transported, provided that they assisted with the crewing of the vessel."

The sources said the suspicion was that Faris and the other man had requested deportation only because they were in fact the captain and first mate of the boat, and feared prosecution.

The 75 immigrants, including a two-day old infant born at sea, were detained by British bases authorities on October 9 after travelling from Lebanon aboard a "floating coffin".

They had each paid $2,000 to be brought to Italy for a better life.

December 6, 1998

[04] Living in limbo

SABRI ZAKH, a 10-year-old Kurd from Iraq, shares a private joke with Cypriot policeman Kypros Pericleous. "Kobros fiha masari kiteer", the lively boy tells the middle-aged Limassol policeman the moment they see each other on the steps of a Limassol school. They high-five and laugh. Pericleous then affectionately put his hand around the little Kurd's neck and repeats in Arabic: "Cyprus has a lot of money."

Their little joke is hardly the kind that would reduce anyone to stitches, yet they find humour in it. Perhaps it comes from Pericleous' ability to say something reasonably well in Arabic, but it may also come from being on opposite sides of a humanitarian situation.

Pericleous represents law and order in a country known to have little tolerance or compassion for foreigners other than tourists, that never tires of referring to its prosperity and that constantly talks about its European Union aspirations.

Sabri is a member of a global underclass of impoverished or oppressed third world citizens who are hell-bent on finding a better life in the affluent West. They take huge risks and often end up spending months in overcrowded detention centres before their fate is decided by governments working frantically to stem the tide of unwanted immigrants.

Sabri and the more than a hundred-strong boatload of Arabs, Kurds and black Africans are a classic example. They were rescued in late June after being adrift in the Mediterranean for nine days aboard a ramshackle trawler.

They had paid thousands of dollars to be ferried to Greece or Italy but ended up in Cyprus after the vessel developed mechanical problems.

But Sabri, nearly six months after he and his family escaped what appeared to be a certain death on the Syrian-registered trawler, is oblivious to his predicament. In fact, he is very happy.

Three weeks ago, human rights groups finally obtained permission for him and four other children of school age to attend classes at a school across the road from the Pefkos Hotel in Limassol where they have been kept since June.

Now the five children attend afternoon classes three times a week in arts, Greek, English and music.

Sabri has also been to Limassol zoo with other children and their mothers, to the beach, and to some archaeological sites in the area. Today, he, his brother Mohammed, his sister Rangeen and their mother will spend the day with a Cypriot family in Limassol.

"I wish I can spend more time at school," Sabri told The Sunday Mail on Friday, the other four children and a handful of Cypriot kids waited for their teacher to arrive. "It would be nice to stay, say, until just before night arrives."

His Arabic now peppered with Greek and English, Sabri and the rest of the refugee children were adequately dressed and looked healthy.

"I am very happy, but I am tired of eating fassoulia every day for lunch, " complained Sabri, who, together with his four schoolmates - all Iraqi Kurds except for 10-year-old Leila Farahat from Lebanon - have President Glafcos Clerides to thank for their Sunday excursions and schooling.

Human rights groups in Cyprus had repeatedly written to the Education Ministry to obtain permission for the children to attend school, but to no avail. However on November 20, they petitioned Clerides in person and he responded positively, according to human rights activist Eleni Mavrou.

"But unfortunately we were refused permission to send them to an Arabic school and were not allowed to send the smaller kids to nurseries in the area," she said.

Ironically, the children have others beside Clerides to thank for their privileges - the police rapid deployment force known by its acronym MMAD.

Members of the unit gave 41 rioting refugees held in disused police cells in Larnaca a savage beating on October 23. Television footage of the incident shocked many Cypriots and sparked an outcry over the excessive force used. Some of the concern, however, arose from the fact that the footage was broadcast widely abroad.

Attorney-general Alecos Markides ordered an investigation into whether police had used excessive force, and leaks to the media about the findings of prominent pathologist and House member Marios Matsakis suggested that indeed they had.

"The beatings in Larnaca created a wave of public sympathy which we exploited to get concessions from the authorities in regard the conditions of the refugees," said Mavrou who, like other human rights activists, believes that not much was expected from the attorney-general's investigation.

There has been no word yet about an earlier inquiry launched after black- clad special policemen beat up refugees at the Pefkos Hotel in August, leading some human rights activists to charge that Markides is showing a tendency to sweep potentially damaging probes under the carpet.

More than one month after the Larnaca incident, the grievances of the refugees have not been dealt with. They are still held 10 to a cell and complain of the cold at night, according to sources in human rights groups who have visited them at least three times since the beatings.

About five refugees thought by Larnaca police to be the group's ringleaders have been moved to several police stations in Larnaca where they are held separately to head off any disturbances.

Back at the Pefkos, a three-star Limassol hotel, the frustration of six months in detention are also beginning to show, according to Mavrou, a frequent visitor to the refugees there.

"There is tension among them expressed along the lines of Arabs and Kurds on one side and black Africans on the other. In reality, the tension comes from cultural differences, but it is compounded by the conditions," she said.

For Cypriot authorities, the rescue of the Syrian trawler and its passengers and crew presented them with a challenge they had not been prepared for. There are no facilities to house illegal immigrants or asylum seekers, and no clear legal framework to deal with them. Their dilemma was made worse by the knowledge that they were being watched by human rights groups at home and abroad - and also by potential illegal immigrants and asylum-seekers in nearby countries on the lookout for European governments soft on refugees.

At the British base of Episkopi, the authorities have found the right blend of policies to handle unwanted guests.

A boatload of 75 people from the Middle East and Africa ended up off the British air base of Akrotiri in October. They were housed there before later being moved to Episkopi garrison where they are housed in a three- storey building originally built for single male servicemen.

"They are getting fitter and stronger," said SBA police Chief Superintendent Richard Chidley. "We need to keep them occupied so they don't start thinking of other things," he told a group of journalists who visited Episkopi this week. "We have not had any rioting yet, but we have plans to deal with such an eventuality."

Chidley said English language classes were organised for adults in the afternoons, while children learn English and arithmetics in morning classes given by several refugees with sufficient education.

Television and videos for both adults and children are available and a basketball court is being considered. Women and children are regularly taken out on excursions, and there are plans for the refugees to be included in some Christmas activities on the base.

The building housing them is fenced off and under 24-hour guard, but the area surrounding it provides a level of freedom of movement unavailable at the Pefkos or, of course, at the Larnaca cells.

Refugees are free to move around the compound, given pocket money of about 30 cents each per day, and newspapers are occasionally provided.

"The doctor comes to see my daughter Leila once every two or three days," said 19-year-old Aveen Ahmed Mahmoud, an Iraqi Kurd whose blue-eyed daughter was born aboard the unseaworthy vessel found off the shore of Akrotiri.

Like the refugees at the Pefkos and the Larnaca cells, they were heading for Italy before their vessel developed mechanical problems and drifted towards Cyprus. "We wanted to go to Italy because we heard that they give asylum there," said Aveen's husband, Ferhad, 24.

"We are doing our best to meet their humanitarian needs until the long-term solutions are found," said Chidley.

The long-term solutions, according to the British bases' chief immigration and customs officer Andrew Livingstone, will be decided by early next year when experienced personnel with Middle East experience will arrive to conduct detailed interviews with the refugees to determine whether they qualify for refugee status.

"My guess is that 30 to 40 of them would qualify, mostly families," Livingstone told The Sunday Mail. He said the bases were discussing with Cypriot authorities allowing those who qualify as refugees to be freed and allowed to stay in Cyprus temporarily until a third country is found for them.

December 6, 1998

[05] Cyprus and Russia sign key tax treaty

CYPRUS and Russia yesterday signed a new five-year agreement for the avoidance of double taxation.

The agreement was signed in Nicosia by Russian Deputy Minister of Finance, Alexei Kutrin, and Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou.

Christodoulou said it was the most important move for the Cyprus economy so far this year.

The two ministers also signed a memorandum on bilateral relations between the two countries in the field of economics and agreed to establish a Russian-Cyprus Business Council.

"It is a very big day for both countries because after many months of intensive and hard negotiations we have managed to agree and sign a new agreement which frees from double taxation investments and the profits arising from such investments, between the two countries," Christodoulou said.

Under the double taxation agreement, companies registered as offshore in Cyprus pay only 4.5 per cent of their profits in corporate tax to the Cypriot authorities. Once paid, they are under no obligation to pay any tax in Russia. Similar provisions would apply to Cypriot offshore companies in Russia.

Cyprus has 30 similar tax agreements with foreign countries.

There are an estimated 5,000 Russian offshore companies registered in Cyprus out of a total of nearly 34,000. Most of these companies have been attracted to the island mainly to benefit from the double taxation treaty.

Russia's financial turmoil, the rapid depreciation of the rouble and Moscow's resultant political uncertainty had put negotiations to renew the double tax treaty on hold, causing serious anxieties among members of the Russian business community on the island.

Also benefiting from the treaty are companies based in Cyprus that do business with Russia.

Christodoulou has said that up to $25 billion of investments in Russia had reached the former communist country through Cyprus before last August's financial upheaval.

He said the new agreement, which renews an earlier 1982 accord with the then Soviet Union, was "balanced, and reflects the new realities, and serves in the most fair and objective manner the interests of both countries."

"For the Cyprus economy, the signing of the agreement is the most important event in 1998," he said, "because it safeguards highly significant vital interests... and for the Russian economy it is undoubtedly of great significance because it safeguards... the continued investment of billions of dollars through Cyprus, during a time which is decisive for Russia's economy."

Kutrin expressed the Russian government's satisfaction,

noting that the previous agreement had been reviewed in many sectors and now fully reflected the Russian economy's situation.

He pointed out that the provisions of the agreement were now more "balanced", and that companies working in Cyprus and Russia would be protected from double taxation.

The new agreement provides for a review of the taxation of profits on dividends, which will be calculated in accordance with the 1992 agreements of the Russian Federation with European countries and the US.

It was also agreed that there would be no taxation for profits made from services or profits from interests.

According to the memorandum, the two sides agreed to make every effort to complete the procedure to ratify the agreement in order not to delay its implementation.

During yesterday's meeting, which was also attended by delegations from the two ministries, issues were also examined concerning co-operation in the fields of commerce and the economy.

The two sides agreed that the second Meeting of the Joint Intergovernmental Committee would be held in the first six months of 1999 to discuss the current situation, prospects and ways to promote commerce and trade exchanges.

It will also promote co-operation between the chambers of commerce and industry of the two countries and in the fields of investments and manufacturing.

The two sides will also co-operate in the fields of tourism, transport and scientific and technical co-operation, while the Intergovernmental Committee will examine ways to settle the debts that the former Soviet Union has to Cypriot companies, and improve the legal framework of the co- operation of the two countries.

According to the memorandum, the two sides agreed to speed up the implementation of the provisions of the Protocol of the First Intergovernmental Committee.

Delegations from the two sides ascertained that "economic relations (between the two countries) are progressing successfully and that the number of commercial exchanges is satisfactory".

Regarding the memorandum, Christodoulou said it would decisively contribute to increasing the commercial and economic relations between the two countries.

December 6, 1998

[06] Police seek hit and run driver after tourists mowed down

Margaret Crombie, 51, died instantly after she was sent flying by a car while out for an evening stroll with her husband, William, 52, in the tourist area of Limassol.

Police said the tourists had just stepped off the curb when a Fiat saloon came from behind and mowed them down.

The vehicle continued on its destructive course, crashing into three parked cars before coming to a standstill among the wreckage, where the driver abandoned the car, Limassol police said yesterday.

The middle-aged couple arrived in Cyprus on November 23 for a two-week holiday at the Arsinoe hotel in Limassol.

Police are now looking for a man of Arab origin who was spotted running from the scene of the accident.

William Crombie, who was taken to Limassol general hospital, suffered serious injuries but is said to be out of danger.

The accident took place on Amathus Avenue in Yermasoyia at around 9.10pm on Friday but police said the owner of the car had left the island the previous day.

Limassol traffic police are appealing to the public to come forward with any information relevant to the investigation.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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