Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 99-06-04

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

Friday, June 04, 1999

CONTENTS

[01] Cigarettes to cost more

[02] 'We will not just accept the missing are dead'

[01] Cigarettes to cost more

The bill was passed by a majority vote, with opposition party Akel voting against after protesting that it should have been part of the "economic recovery" package presented to parties by the government yesterday. With the tobacco price rise widely anticipated, the government tabled the bill in a surprise move designed to prevent tobacco importers profiteering by rushing to import huge supplies.

The plenum also began debating the controversial anti-corruption bill - which would force deputies and government members to declare their assets.

With the exception of Disy deputy Katy Clerides - who argued that passing the bill would be bowing to a "whispering" campaign about public corruption - speakers from all parties vied to outdo each other in expressions of support for the bill.

The debate is to continue next week, with discussion of contentious issues - such as who the anti-graft law should cover and whether it should be retroactive - before a final vote.

Friday, June 04, 1999

[02] 'We will not just accept the missing are dead'

THE GREEK Cypriots will never agree to discuss the missing issue on the basis that are all dead, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said yesterday.

"The Turkish side wants, before we sit at the table to investigate the issue of the missing, for us to agree that they are all dead and then discuss what happened to them," Cassoulides said.

The Greek Cypriot side will only accept that a missing person is dead based on scientific evidence.

Speaking at a press conference to inform the media on the exhumations currently taking place at two Nicosia cemeteries, Cassoulides was responding to comments from the Turkish Cypriot side published in yesterday's Cyprus Mail.

Rustem Tatar, the Turkish Cypriot representative on the Committee for Missing Persons (CMP), said the only way the missing persons issue could be speedily resolved was if the Greek Cypriots accepted the missing were dead.

He said efforts could then be focused on locating the remains. "This we will not accept. Never, never," Cassoulides said.

"From the moment when a disciplined army like the Turkish army is not in a position to give information about its prisoners, for us this is unacceptable," he added.

Cassoulides said it was also unacceptable that the Turkish Cypriot side refused to go ahead with an agreement on the exchange of information on mass graves, reached in July 1997 between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

The reason given by Tatar for the collapse of the deal was that the Turkish Cypriot side wanted the Greek Cypriots to come clean on the 1974 coup, which sparked the Turkish invasion five days later.

The Turkish side says many of those killed in those five days are among the 1,619 Greek Cypriots listed as missing.

Cassoulides categorically denied this, and said that not one single person killed in the coup was on the list of missing persons.

"There is no family with a relative killed in the coup who does not know the fate of their loved one," he said.

He said both Tatar and the Turkish Cypriot side were well aware of this because a full list of those killed in the coup had been handed over to Unficyp Chief of Mission Dame Ann Hercus.

"If their faith is indeed good, he (Tatar) could explain to us why he didn't bring this up when the 1997 agreement was being discussed," Cassoulides said.

Speaking on the exhumations taking place at the Lakatamia cemetery, Cassoulides said the team from Physicians of the World would remain in Cyprus for as long as it took.

The reason the exhumations are taking place now is because new technology is available for DNA testing of the remains.

Cassoulides did say the government hoped the exhumation process would prompt the Turkish Cypriot side to return to the 1997 agreement.

He stressed that mass graves believed to contain the remains of Turkish Cypriots in the free areas would not be opened under the current operation.

This would only happen if the other side started exhumations in the occupied areas, he said.

"The aim at the moment is fully to clear up the issue of our missing buried at the two cemeteries," Cassoulides said.

He said it was likely some of those buried at the cemetery were on the missing list, but only a small number, he stressed.

"Our aim and intention is mainly to deal with a very serious humanitarian issue, which can be solved by us and which will concern a number of families who have a right to know the fate of their loved ones," he said.

The Foreign Minister said the government had no intention of apportioning blame in the issue of missing persons.

"The state owes many apologies, but we inherited the situation and we are trying to clear up these cases and end this situation. I don't think it's the time... but I believe for the whole issue of the missing, the state and are others as well owe apologies."

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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