Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 99-08-10

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

Tuesday, August 10, 1999

CONTENTS

[01] Reshuffle rumours rife as Clerides insists he's still on holiday

[02] Louis share furore raises issue of party funding

[03] Church to scrap engagement ceremonies

[04] Dame Ann orders police to cover up

[05] Messages scattered over Agros in plea for missing student to return

[06] Former boxing champion 'outraged' at drugs search by Ayia Napa police

[01] Reshuffle rumours rife as Clerides insists he's still on holiday

THE PRESIDENT appears to be in no hurry, but speculation about who is to get the chop is a long-anticipated cabinet reshuffle was rife yesterday.

Upon return from his aborted Greek island cruise on Saturday night, a typically discreet Clerides seemed more interested in getting back into holiday mode than in who was to be in or out of a ministerial seat.

He brushed aside questions about a reshuffle by saying he would not be doing anything about the cabinet till November.

In fact, he said he was dealing with nothing of importance at the moment, describing August as a "dead period" in local and international politics.

Clerides' customary Aegean cruise in his yacht, the Katie II, was called to a halt on Thursday after the 60-foot boat began taking in water off Rhodes. Yesterday, Clerides said he was on holiday for another week.

The President is expected to bring in new faces in an effort to improve his government's image, tarnished by a series of scandals. With opposition parties cold-shouldering the President's efforts to create a "broad-based" government, new ministers are likely to be drawn mostly from governing Disy, and junior coalition partners the United Democrats (UD).

Three of the twelve cabinet members are seen as favourites for the chop, while another two may go and a sixth is reportedly keen to leave of his own accord.

Government Spokesman Costas Serezis is considered a dead cert to go, his recent public spat with the leader of Disy, Nicos Anastassiades, making his position untenable.

But the man touted as his likely replacement, high-flying Disy deputy Prodromos Prodromou is reportedly reluctant to take on a job seen as a poisoned chalice.

Defence Minister Yiannakis Chrysostomis is also widely expected to get the chop. Embarrassing revelations about the army running dangerously low on ammunition and using the wrong fuel in its battle tanks for three years have done the former judge no favours.

The names of former Government Spokesman Christos Stylianides and Disy deputy Antonis Karas are being mentioned as Chrysostomis' possible replacements.

Health Minister Christos Solomis is also unlikely to stay. The scandalous disappearance of vital kidney drugs from hospitals, still under investigation, has done no favours for a minister already perceived as uncaring by both public and press.

Androula Vassiliou, of the UD, is odds-on favourite to succeed Solomis.

Many within Disy and the UD are reportedly keen to see the back of Justice Minister Nicos Koshis, despite the fact that he is the government's most popular minister, his gung-ho crime-buster image sitting well with a public increasingly concerned about gangland violence. Clerides is apparently keen to keep Koshis.

Disy and the UD are, reports suggest, also keen to oust Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas, with Costas Themistocleous (currently Minister of Agriculture) touted as his successor.

Again, the rumour is that Clerides wants the incumbent -- who abandoned Diko to support him in the last Presidentials -- to stay.

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Tuesday, August 10, 1999

[02] Louis share furore raises issue of party funding

The exchange will not re-open for business till Monday, to allow time to sort out a backlog of transactions, generated by the unprecedented current public interest in buying stocks and shares. This is the second time in the last few weeks the market has been forced into a temporary halt.

Trading on the stock market has reached record highs, which saw July's volume outstrip the market's performance for the whole of 1998.

But not all is on the up on the market, with the furore gaining momentum yesterday over reports that ruling Disy and opposition Diko obtained hundreds of thousands of shares by private placement when Louis Cruise Lines was floated last week.

Edek issued a statement calling on Disy and Diko to donate to the Defence Fund all their "ill-gotten" gains from trading in Louis shares.

"We call on the two parties to acknowledge that what they have done is incompatible with political morals and ethics and to donate their profits to the Defence Fund," a party statement read.

Though it is clear there is nothing illegal about parties obtaining shares in a company by private placement, most agree with socialist Edek that accepting privileged share deals from a company could compromise a party's independence.

Disy has given nothing away about its possible involvement in the Louis share offer, but Diko has officially confirmed it did purchase Louis shares by private placement. Party leader Spyros Kyprianou confirmed the reports on Sunday, repeating there was nothing illegal about Diko making money in this manner.

The House president has, however, acknowledged that there is an issue of political importance involved. In an announcement issued yesterday, Kyprianou said he would be calling party leaders to an extraordinary meeting to pore over the issue as soon as parliament reconvened after the Summer break.

He called for an end to public debate on the subject till after party leaders had had a chance to get to the bottom of the matter.

President Clerides has stuck his head out, dismissing speculation about the acceptability of parties investing on the stock exchange.

"Legally and in general I would say there is nothing illegal about any party buying (shares)," he said on Sunday. "It may make a profit or it might make a loss, it is the business of that party alone," he said.

But the general feeling among deputies yesterday was one of concern about parties dealing in shares, and also for how parties secured their funds in general.

Representatives from Diko, Disy, Edek and the United Democrats (UD) vied to out-do each other in a battle for the moral high-ground.

Nicos Cleanthous, Diko vice-president, said what was of importance was not just shares but the "wider issue" of how parties obtained their funds.

"Those who say there are some suspect goings on (on the stock exchange) should look at the realities. They should look at elections, how they are won or lost, who is involved, who has ways of getting involved with their financial clout and sometimes directly determining the result," Cleanthous said.

Diko backed a loser in the last Presidential elections.

Those parties pointing the finger at Diko and Disy should be prepared to be completely open about their sources of income, he suggested.

Disy deputy Dimitris Sillouris said there was an urgent need for openness about party funding. "Through openness we will see to what extent some people get kickbacks by giving money (to parties)," he said. "They give £10, 000 to a party in order to later secure a contract worth £1 million."

Sillouris, who did not comment on his own party's reported dealings in Louis shares, also said it would be wrong for parties to be given preferential treatment on the stock market.

Doros Theodorou of Edek said there was a need for legal control of the whole issue of party funding. "We need legal control of how much companies can give to parties," he said.

UD vice-president Michalis Papapetrou went further, saying parties had become nothing but "job securing and favour dispensing agencies."

"I think the time has come for complete openness (about party funding)," he said.

The Louis share issue has been dogged by controversy from the day it hit the market. Two of the company's top executives caused acute embarrassment by selling tens of thousands of their shares and warrants on the first day of trading in the titles. Investors and traders viewed their actions as suggesting little confidence in the company's future.

The price of the Louis shares and warrants nose-dived last Wednesday and Thursday after they hit the market with a bang on Tuesday. By close of trade on Friday they had regained some ground, closing at £2.99 and £1.87 respectively.

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Tuesday, August 10, 1999

[03] Church to scrap engagement ceremonies

IN A drastic move to discourage sex before marriage, the Cyprus Orthodox Church will scrap engagement ceremonies for good this autumn.

With engaged couples more often than not sleeping together as soon after the church ceremony is over, the Church has decided that enough is enough.

"It's been misconstrued, people treat an engagement like a marriage, the Church cannot accept that," a Holy Synod source told the Cyprus Mailyesterday.

Although no figures are available for the total number of engagements each year, they are roughly the same as for marriages.

There were 7,184 marriages in Cyprus during 1997 -- of which 4,145 were church weddings, according to the latest official figures.

As Cyprus has the highest rate of marriages in Europe (11 per 1,000 of population), the shock decision by the Church is seen as an attempt to uphold the sanctity of wedding vows.

"Cyprus has one of the highest crude marriage rates in the world because people do not usually cohabit as they do in Europe and America," said an official at the Department of Statistics and Research.

Cypriot couples will have to forgo the blessing of a church engagement from October, following the Holy Synod decision. And only those who planned to tie the preliminary knot before the end of September will be allowed to do so.

"All those who planned an engagement before October will go ahead, and then the ceremonies will stop," the source at the Archbishopric told the Cyprus Mail.

He said the Church had decided to take such a controversial step because parents and couples were abusing the institution and treated it like an excuse for cohabitation.

He said the Church was unhappy about couples "using the excuse of being engaged so they can live together in sin," (or as man and wife) -- usually with their parents' consent.

Accusations reportedly brought before the Synod suggest that some families are arranging engagements purely as a money-spinner, only for the couple to split-up soon after the profits have been counted.

It is traditional -- as it is at weddings -- for guests to give cash instead of gifts at engagement parties, in an attempt to give the couple a comfortable start in life.

Total sums are usually well into the thousands.

Priests read out a circular on the decision to a stunned faithful at church services across the island on Sunday.

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Tuesday, August 10, 1999

[04] Dame Ann orders police to cover up

THE DAYS when knobbly-knees cruised the buffer-zone are no more since Unficyp chief Dame Ann Hercus orchestrated a swift cover-up.

The display of Irish policemen's legs was a view Dame Ann could apparently not tolerate, decreeing the new fashion code last month.

Unfavourable reports in the British Sunday press suggested a rebellion was afoot among the 15-strong mixed Garda force.

But the UN insists the force was in fact keen to ditch the heavy woollen khaki shorts in favour of lightweight cotton trousers.

UN spokeswoman Sarah Russel told the Cyprus Mailyesterday that "Unficyp were keen to get rid of the shorts" purely for "professional and practical" reasons.

"The cotton trousers are also cooler," she added.

"The Irish police are very happy with the change, they prefer the light trousers to shorts," Russel insisted.

Irish police having been showing their legs since taking up peacekeeping duties in 1993, when the Swedish contingent left.

Now they must patrol the 180-kilometre cease-fire line in temperatures of 40C along with their Australian counterparts who never wavered from the long pants option.

"It's more professional because everyone is wearing the same kit now, not half in shorts and half in trousers," said Russel.

Furthermore, even the female Garda officers -- who are given a choice -- now fancy wearing the trousers for a change.

"Females in the Irish civilian police force all chose to wear trousers," said Russel.

To hammer the message home, Irish police commander chief superintendent Michael Fitzgerald said: "My people have only expressed gratitude."

Whether shorts in the sun will be back on the menu when Dame Ann leaves her post is being kept a closely guarded secret.

She resigned at the end of July for "family reasons" only weeks after being promoted to deputy special representative by New York.

Although back at work yesterday for the first time since her resignation, Dame Ann will leave in September.

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Tuesday, August 10, 1999

[05] Messages scattered over Agros in plea for missing student to return

But Agros police said yesterday the messages had not yet yielded any result.

Peter Rieder, a Swiss student, disappeared from the Agros house he was sharing with four other students and their professor at approximately 3am on July 29.

The university team was staying in the village to learn about geological studies.

A police helicopter on Sunday made the unusual trip to scatter the leaflets after Rieder's girlfriend Noemie's tearful pleas on television remained unanswered.

The short note says, "Dear Peter, I am in Agros. Don't be afraid to contact people if you need help. I love you very much and I want to be near you. I promise that I will make sure that nothing happens to you. Noemie."

Noemie, who came to Cyprus when she heard her boyfriend had gone missing, hoped that the poignant message would persuade Rieder, 32, to return home.

The geology student's trainers were found in the village late last week but did not provide police with any new information.

Rieder is 1,84m tall, has a regular build, light brown hair, a light beard and blue eyes. He was last seen wearing red shorts and a red T-shirt.

Anyone with information on Rieder's whereabouts should contact their nearest police station.

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Tuesday, August 10, 1999

[06] Former boxing champion 'outraged' at drugs search by Ayia Napa police

FORMER boxing champion Nigel Benn was subjected to a drugs body search and had his hotel turned over during his stay in Ayia Napa as a DJ last month.

Although Britain's ex-WBC super-middleweight title holder was never formally arrested or charged, he is said to be outraged with his treatment at the hands of Cypriot police.

A police source confirmed to the Cyprus Mailthat Benn had been personally checked and that his hotel room had been thoroughly searched following a tip-off.

He was led away by police, while signing autographs among astonished on- lookers in Ayia Napa's main square.

During the summer months, Benn, nicknamed the Dark Destroyer, makes guest DJ appearances at Ayia Napa's Pasha disco -- part of the reason why the resort is being touted as the next Ibiza.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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