Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 99-06-03

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

Wednesday, June 02, 1999

CONTENTS

[01] Rustem Tatar: 'Be honest about the missing'

[02] Anassa court setback will have 'no effect' on hotel

[03] Committee named to seek end to hotel strike

[04] Cyprus denies Ocalan claims of support

[05] Kurd jailed for illegal entry

[06] 'Cyprus in talks for Ukrainian tanks'

[01] Rustem Tatar: 'Be honest about the missing'

THE TURKISH Cypriot side said yesterday the only way the issue of the missing could be speedily resolved was if the Greek Cypriots accepted they were dead.

"The work of the Committee for Missing Persons (CMP) could be finished in 12 months, maximum 12 months, if we are honest," said Rustem Tatar, the Turkish Cypriot Representative on the CMP.

"Gustave Feissel (former Unficyp Chief of Mission) on March 5, 1996, said that no evidence, nothing whatsoever had been submitted to the committee indicating that anyone is or may be alive anywhere. This is the UN in effect saying they are all dead. So I say we can finish in 12 months, provided they (the Greek Cypriots) accept to solve this problem."

In an exclusive interview with the Cyprus Mail, Tatar, commenting on the current exhumations at two Nicosia cemeteries, said that, although this was a "good thing", it had little to do with the Turkish Cypriot side.

"We will wait and see what comes out and what result they will get from this. It's their affair... it's not our problem," Tatar said. "What's being done now is an entirely different affair, maybe provoked by the suffering of some women."

Tatar echoed comments by the government on Tuesday that the exhumations were not connected to the July 1997 agreement between President Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He said that had agreement related to the exchange of files on the whereabouts of mass graves on each side. Some files were exchanged in January 1998.

The Turkish Cypriots backed away from the agreement because they wanted the Greek Cypriot side to come clean on the 1974 coup.

"Since the establishment of the CMP in 1981, we have been asking the Greek Cypriots for a full list of the coup casualties and where they are buried," Tatar said.

"To this day there is no information on this. In our view, if they are going to take up the question of bodies, they have to start from July 15 1974 to July 20," he added, referring to the days between the coup and the invasion.

He said that during those five days and nights, hundreds of people had been killed -- this part of "Greek Cypriot history is in darkness," he said.

"They don't shed light on it. We want the coup episode to come out first."

Tatar said it was the duty of both sides to close the work of the CMP, then what remains on the table would be the question of bodies and location of remains.

But he believes the CMP cannot complete its task, which according to its terms of reference is to come to the conclusion whether or not individuals are alive, unless the Greek Cypriots stop talking in terms of the return of remains as the only acceptable proof that the missing are dead.

The CMP has been unable complete its task "because of the Greek Cypriot insistence that remains be produced to prove the missing persons are dead," Tatar said. "They say unless you produce the bones I won't accept."

"This is impractical," he said. "Even today with all the DNA and so on, you will see what delays and difficulties they will have with Lakatamia. Can you translate that to the whole of the island?"

The Turkish Cypriot side -- which says it has 803 missing of its own from the period between 1964 and 1974 -- claims that 1,000 of the 1,619 on the Greek Cypriot list are soldiers, and that the government knows they are dead, but has not informed the families.

Tatar cited the case of 126 files on the Greek side, where there was strong evidence that the people were dead and the government initially decided to tell the families: "Then they changed their minds and said 'we don't want to hear this'."

This was confirmed yesterday by former Education Minister Cleri Angelidou, who had been assigned the task of informing the 126 families.

She said she had been ready to tell the relatives when former representative for the relatives Father Christoforos Economou -- whose son is listed as missing -- stopped her by saying they would accept nothing less than the remains of their loved ones.

"The whole effort was halted," Angelidou said. "The impression I had formed was that these 126 were dead, not alive."

The exhumation process at Lakatamia continued in the public eye yesterday, with a visit to the site by Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides.

The work is being carried out by a team of experts from the non- governmental organisation Physicians of the World. The team is expected to grow to 20 members by next week.

Wednesday, June 02, 1999

[02] Anassa court setback will have 'no effect' on hotel

THANOS Hotels have lost an appeal to the Supreme Court to block implementation of a ruling declaring their controversial Akamas hotel, the Anassa, illegal.

But Kyriacos Michaelides, the lawyer for Thanos Hotels (the family firm of former Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides), told the Cyprus Mailyesterday that the legal defeat would mean nothing "on the ground" for the Anassa.

In September last year, a Supreme Court judge declared that a cabinet decision granting planning relaxations for the hotel was illegal because town planners and other public servants had attended the relevant meeting.

Thanos Hotels immediately appealed against the judge's ruling to the Supreme Court. At the same time, Thanos lawyers also launched an appeal to block implementation of the ruling till the appeal against it could be heard.

This second "stay of execution" appeal was thrown out by Supreme court judge Frixos Nicolaides earlier this week.

Michaelides said the Technical Chamber (Etek) -- who launched the original appeal against the legality of the Anassa -- had already made it clear they would not be pushing for implementation of the ruling, so the defeat mattered not.

Nonetheless, Michaelides said he had been instructed to lodge an appeal against Nicolaides' recent decision.

Michaelides said that even if Thanos Hotels lost their appeal against the ruling declaring their hotel illegal, the hotel would stay.

"If we lose the appeal then all that will happen is that the matter will again go to the relevant authority for a decision," he said.

So long as no unauthorised persons were present when the cabinet decided to re-grant the relaxations for the Anassa, there would be no problem, Michaelides confidently predicted.

Attorney-general Alecos Markides has already made it clear there is nothing to stop ministers granting the relaxations afresh.

The relaxations allowed Thanos Hotels to build their massive complex on the coast West of Latchi port -- within an area earmarked for a National Park -- bigger than local planning zonation dictated.

The construction of the hotel was fiercely opposed by greens in both Cyprus and abroad, who want the unspoilt Akamas peninsula protected as a wilderness area.

Environmentalists fear the Anassa represents the thin end of a development wedge that will "destroy" the remote peninsula before the government gets round to implementing its 10-year-old promise to declare it a National Park.

Alecos Michaelides lost his cabinet post in the wake of months of negative publicity about the granting of the relaxations for the hotel.

Wednesday, June 02, 1999

[03] Committee named to seek end to hotel strike

THE CABINET yesterday appointed a three-member committee to investigate the continuing strike at two Larnaca hotels.

Announcing the Cabinet's decision yesterday, Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas said that the Committee would be presenting its findings on all aspects of the dispute as soon as possible.

Moushiouttas said that retired judge Savvakis Nicolaides had been appointed as president of the committee, which also included former labour disputes court president Takis Papamiltiades and Takis Christophis.

Moushiouttas said both workers and management had welcomed the move.

"We accepted the Cabinet's decision," Sek's secretary-general on hotels, Nicos Epistethiou, yesterday told the Cyprus Mail. "We will continue the strike at the two hotels, but not call any additional measures such as sympathy strikes until we see the outcome of the investigations."

The dispute at the Lordos Beach and Golden Bay hotels began on January 31 when 53 members of staff were dismissed after sections of the hotels were turned over to outside contractors.

Lordos Holdings, which owns the two hotels, said the changes were necessary to combat chronic losses at the hotels.

The increasingly bitter conflict has landed striking workers and union members in court, with Lordos Holdings taking out court orders prohibiting pickets from blocking the hotels' entrances.

For their part, unions have called sympathy strikes, the most recent affecting hotels across the island last Thursday and ports and airports on Monday.

The government had sought to bring both sides to binding arbitration, but the unions refused unless the sacked workers were first reinstated, something that management refuses to discuss.

Wednesday, June 02, 1999

[04] Cyprus denies Ocalan claims of support

The denials came in the wake of claims by Ocalan during his trial in Turkey that both Cyprus and Greece had provided his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) with training camps and other support.

"The government of Cyprus is not involved in any way in any of the accusations made against it by Mr Ocalan," government spokesman Costas Serezis said yesterday, although he added that Ocalan's claims could be linked to possible activities by individuals.

For his part, Archbishop Chrysostomos denied Ocalan's claim that the Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus gave the PKK money, though he admitted that the Church had been asked to provide financial assistance to Kurdish refugees in Cyprus.

"The Church, like all Cypriots, feels sympathetic towards the Kurds and their just struggle for human rights, but we have not given any financial assistance to the rebel group," said Chrysostomos.

Ocalan was arrested in Kenya on February 15. At the time, he was travelling on a Cypriot passport in the name of Cypriot journalist Lazaros Mavros, a known Kurdish sympathiser.

Wednesday, June 02, 1999

[05] Kurd jailed for illegal entry

Famagusta District court judge Tefkros Economou was passing sentence on Kurd Abdurahim Tanmbosa. The 36-year-old admitted to entering the Famagusta area illegally after arriving in the occupied areas via Kyrenia port on Monday. He was picked up by Famagusta police on Tuesday evening.

Tanmbosa told the court he was a supporter of the Kurdish separatist PKK and faced imprisonment if he was sent back to Turkey.

"Under the circumstances, the people of Cyprus view the cause of the Kurdish people with sympathy," Economou said. "But the Cyprus authorities have a duty to protect national sovereignty," he added.

The court sentenced Tanmbosa to two months imprisonment for illegal entry.

Wednesday, June 02, 1999

[06] 'Cyprus in talks for Ukrainian tanks'

According to a report in the International Defence Review, the government is holding talks with the Ukrainian Kharkov Morozov Design Bureau and its associated production company, the Malyshev plant, for the acquisition of the T-84 MBT battle tanks.

These would complement 45 Russian T-80s bought in 1993. More of the Russian tanks were optioned, but it is thought that when the government decided to order new tanks at the beginning of the year, the Russian prices were too high, and the Ukrainian tanks will be more cost-effective.

Each T-84 is priced at $2.2 million. The Ukrainians can promise the delivery of 10 to 12 tanks within four to six months. Additional ammunition and ancillary equipment will be provided at cost.

The T-84 is based on the T-80 UD design but has a different turret. There is also a T-84UDK command tank priced at $2.3 million.

Cyprus currently has 27 T-80Us, 14 T-80UDs and four recovery T-80s, as well as BMP-3s and AMX-30s.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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