Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-04-11

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

CONTENTS

[01] Cyprus hails Pasok triumph

[02] Blair willing to step in to help Cyprus solution

[03] Market soars on Greek election results

[04] Minister’s one-man protest to help unpaid nurses

[05] 81 per cent displeased with politicians

[06] Edek partners abandon Social Democrats

[07] Pet monkey bites off girl’s fingers

[08] New study shows Akkuyu seismic fault is active

[01] Cyprus hails Pasok triumph

Clerides was in London for talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Socialist Pasok won Sunday's general election battle by a narrow margin – just 50,000 votes -- from right-wing New Democracy party led by Constantinos Karamanlis.

Pasok got 43.7 per cent of the vote, while New Democracy was only a breath away with 42.7 per cent.

Acting President Spyros Kyprianou yesterday congratulated Pasok and its President for their victory, but also New Democracy and its leader for their success – a significant increase in their support.

"The Greek people decided. The popular mandate is there. It was not a surprise to me. I more or less expected the result," Kyprianou said.

Acting House President and right-wing Disy Chief Nicos Anastassiades congratulated the Greek Prime Minister for his re-election and New Democracy for the result and for the dignity and ethos it had exhibited during the election campaign.

In an announcement issued yesterday, Diko congratulated Pasok and Costas Simitis for their success, and expressed the hope that the new government and Parliament would build a strong and widely respected Greece, and would handle national issues with success.

Left-wing Akel Leader Demetris Christofias congratulated the victor and added that a battle had been fought between to great parties.

He expressed the conviction that: "the Greek Government would continue to have the Cyprus problem among its priorities."

The Socio-Democratic Movement issued an announcement saying Pasok's victory confirmed its leading role in a new era of great challenges, the completion of Europe, and strengthening of Greece's position in Europe and the world.

"It is hoped the government and the political forces of Greece will continue their support of Cyprus for a just and fair solution of our national problem," the announcement said.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[02] Blair willing to step in to help Cyprus solution

Speaking after a meeting in London with the British Prime Minister, President Glafcos Clerides said Blair had a very positive attitude on the Cyprus issue and had told him that he was willing to intervene personally.

"I can say I am very satisfied with the meeting," Clerides said.

During the meeting, the two leaders had discussed ways in which Britain could assist UN-led efforts to push the Cyprus issue forward.

Britain's special Cyprus envoy Sir David Hannay was also at the meeting as was Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides.

"We also stressed the fact that we have not yet entered negotiations for a solution, " Clerides said. He said this was due to the refusal of Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to negotiate unless his breakaway regime in the north of the island is recognised as a separate state.

"We examined this matter in depth and reached the conclusion that there are ways in which we can face the situation," Clerides said.

Clerides and Denktash are expected to engage in a third round of UN-led proximity talks on May 23 in New York. The third round is said to be the decisive round, but Denktash is insisting on a confederation while the Greek Cypriot side is working with the international community on a bicommunal bizonal federation.

Recent polls show however that over half of all Greek Cypriots are opposed to a federation.

Questioned on this issue, Clerides said he did not take such polls into consideration but admitted he himself would have preferred a unitary state.

"However, I accept the federal solution because it is the only feasible solution," he said.

Clerides returns to the island today.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[03] Market soars on Greek election results

SHARES scaled to a four-week high yesterday as the bourse continued to climb, bolstered by more liquidity coming in from institutional investors and Greek Premier Costas Simitis' razor-thin election victory, dealers said.

The CSE all-share index closed at 543.57 points, its highest level since March 10, when it closed at 547.4 points before going into a tailspin.

The market opened sharply higher at 535.51 points, slipped to an intraday low of 530.62 before trimming intraday slides to clamber up 24.98 points, or 4.82 per cent.

Volumes reached £37.1 million on almost 10,000 trades, a level unprecedented since the market's heyday last autumn when the bourse was forced to set quotas to limit paperwork.

"Small investors are starting to come back to the market. I don't expect the rally of 1999, but there will be a rise on selected stocks," said Cisco’s Stavros Agrotis.

Traders said the removal of uncertainty associated with the Greek elections was expected to help the Greek stock market, which has been flat for months. That, in turn, would have an impact on Cyprus because of the local blue-chip firms, which are angling for a parallel listing of their shares there, they said.

One fund manager said that investment firms that had been sitting on piles of cash reaped in IPOs were also making an appearance on the market.

"None of them want to miss the boat in case the market rises further. They don't want to be saddled with expensive shares," he said. However, the market was expected to take a clear direction when Demetra, the investment firm controlled by co-op banks, hits the market with 130 million shares, and almost 200,000 shareholders. No specific date has been given for its flotation.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said a trader.

The market has been going up in leaps and bounds for the past five sessions. From last Monday, the market has been shored up by more than 68 points, with most of the gains going to blue-chip shares and industrials.

However pleasing the performance might be to small-time investors who got burnt after entering the bourse before it started its climbdown in late November, traders said they should not get carried away.

"The advance is a bit more sudden than I would have liked it to be," said Agrotis.

Upbeat tourism stocks led advancers with a 9.18 per cent jump, centred on a 38 cent climb for Argos, a 31 cent rise for Libra and a 40 cent appreciation for Astarti Development. In terms of turnover, Leptos Calypso was among the top three companies yesterday, with 1.12 million shares.

Banking stocks jumped 4.7 per cent, in tandem with the general index. Bank of Cyprus was up 50 cents to £8.90 while Laiki were up to £13.14, rising 40 cents.

Universal Savings Bank, which yesterday posted a 64.5 per cent rise in its 1999 unaudited net profits, continued to advance strongly, adding 43 cents to £6.83. The bank also announced that it planned a rights issue of 6,250, 000 new shares with an exercise price of £2.40 to fund its further expansion. The shares would be allocated at a ratio of five rights for every seven shares held.

In other sectors, Severis and Athienitis Financial Services announced they had entered agreement with Cypress Investment and Finance to acquire a 20 per cent equity stake in Argus Financial Group. The acquisition, said SAFS, would be effected through its issue of 486,955 ordinary shares with a nominal value of 50 cents each.

Glory Betting also announced plans to increase its share capital through a rights issue. The rights issue would be given to shareholders at a ratio of one right for every three shares held, and one rights share for every three warrants held.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[04] Minister’s one-man protest to help unpaid nurses

HEALTH Minister Frixos Savvides is refusing to take his ministerial salary until part-time nurses working in state hospitals receive several months of unpaid wages.

He said yesterday he expected the issue to be settled by Easter, with more than 200 nurses receiving back pay for up to five months of unpaid work.

Savvides began refusing his own pay some three months ago in a personal protest at the fact that government hospitals had no procedures for paying part-time nurses, so were simply not paying them at all.

Despite this, the nurses continued their payless work month after month.

"The big difference," he told the Cyprus Mail yesterday, "is that I can afford to go without pay. But the nurses cannot.

"The nurses are all fully registered nurses, he said. "They are working in various hospitals, most of them in Limassol," he said. "From time to time we employ them to cover needs, such as when we had a bit of a problem with a flu epidemic during Christmas in Limassol," he recalled.

The nurses are not being paid, he said, "because nobody bothers" to sign their hospital pay vouchers. "It's up to the people in charge where these nurses have been employed" to fill out their pay forms, he added.

"But there was no system in place whereby these people were put on record the day they were employed. The system was not there for the heads of each department to certify their presence and their hours of work, and send this information to the manager of the hospital, to be submitted to the ministry, and the ministry to double-check it and refer it to the accountant-general. This system did not exist," he said.

Savvides acknowledged the nurses' devotion to duty amounted to "volunteering - because we don't pay them," and said the situation was "outrageous".

"(But) the fact of the matter is," he added, "because they are temporary employees, if they start shouting, they will be fired."

"This is my responsibility, because I am the boss of this ministry. So I took full responsibility, and I felt I had to share this with the nurses, and I said I won't get paid until they get paid.

"I tried to appeal to their (bosses') feelings: I said ‘I won't get paid until the last nurse gets paid.

’ But this didn't work for a while," he said.

"But after I shouted and screamed a bit, everything is in order. Now it (the payroll system) does exist - hopefully," he said. But technically, he added, the hospital bosses "should have instituted the (pay) procedures, not me."

"Now all the lists have been completed, they have been submitted to the Accountant-general, and hopefully by the end of this month - and definitely before Easter - everybody will get paid," Savvides said, "including myself."

"But with the kind of people I have around me, I say ‘hopefully’, because what is missing from the service is not knowledge or procedures... it's feeling," he said.

"You have to feel that some nurse with two children, working for six months, without getting paid - she cannot afford to feed her kids. This is basic," he said.

"For God's sake," he added, "they are working for the government! If the government doesn't pay them, who else will?"Savvides said he expected all the nurses' back pay (and his own) to be settled "by Easter time. We hope to have a nice Easter," he said, adding: "And if there is a next time, God forbid, then a few heads will roll. That’s a promise."

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[05] 81 per cent displeased with politicians

PRESIDENT Clerides' popularity is continuing to wane, according a poll commissioned by Politis newspaper, but some members of his cabinet have come out on top.

In the parliamentary stakes, Akel general secretary Demetris Christofias leads the way, followed by socialist leader Vassos Lyssarides in second place.

Overall, 81 per cent of Cypriots are unhappy with the political scene and only 25 per cent fully support and are satisfied with the political party they belong to. Over 45 per cent support parties with whom they are not satisfied, while 26 per cent said none of the parties had anything that would persuade them to join and support that party.

The poll, carried out last month, reveals that Clerides' popularity has only been lower at the time of the cancellation of the Russian S-300 missiles at the end of 1998.

By February 1999 his popularity had dropped to 32 per cent.

It began to rise again in 1999, probably due to the prospect of talks on the Cyprus issue, but has now fallen back to just 37 per cent.

Clerides was at his most popular in April 1996 with a 56 per cent approval rating, but began to drop steadily from that point although he managed to get re-elected in February 1998.

The government's most popular minister, according to the poll, is Justice Minister Nicos Koshis. Over 80 per cent of those polled were satisfied with the job he was doing – an increase of four per cent since last October.

The biggest jump in the popularity stakes was recorded for Communications and Works Minister Averoff Neophytou from 30 per cent to 66 per cent, putting him in third place.

Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou is the second most popular minister among those polled, with 68 per cent satisfied with the work he was doing, a rise of 16 per cent since last year.

Also popular is Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides in fourth place with 58 per cent satisfied with his work. However he has lost 2 per cent since the previous poll.

Health Minster Frixos Savvides and Defence Minster Socrates Hasikos, although low on the list, have gained popularity in the past six months. Although only 38 per cent of those polled were satisfied with Hasikos, he has gained 12 per cent, while Savvides at 52 per cent has gained 25 per cent since last October.

Losers in the popularity stakes were long-time cabinet members Nicos Rolandis, the Commerce Minister, and Yiannakis Cassoulides, the Foreign Minister.

Cassoulides, in sixth place, has lost six per cent since last year, falling to 53 per cent, and Rolandis has lost eight per cent to 45 per cent.

The least popular Minister, jointly with Hasikos, is Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous with only 38 per cent believing he is doing a good job.

On the parliamentary scene, Akel leader Demetris Christofias came out on top with almost 74 per cent being satisfied with the way he operates.

Over 57 per cent were satisfied with Socio-Democratic leader Vassos Lyssarides and over 50 per cent with United Democrats leader George Vassiliou.

Nicos Anastassiades, leader of ruling Disy only managed to impress 48 per cent of those polled and Diko leader Spyros Kyprianou only 37 per cent. Over 50 per cent said they disapproved of Kyprianou.

New Horizons leader Nicos Koutsou received an approval rate of 44 per cent and Greens leader George Perdikis 40 per cent.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[06] Edek partners abandon Social Democrats

THE recently formed Socio-Democratic Movement (KISOS) has fallen apart, with only one of its founder members remaining on board.

The split comes less than two months after the movement’s February 20 inaugural conference.

The centre-left party was formed late last year by the merger of Vassos Lyssarides' socialist Edek and the smaller Movement for the Regrouping of the Centre, headed by Kypros Chrysostomides.

But Chrysostomides' group has now left the fold, complaining of "lack of trust" between its members and former Edek members.

The Regrouping Movement abandoned ship on Sunday, its members walking out of a meeting of the KISOS political bureau after failing to secure a postponement of the movement's first electoral conference.

Chrysostomides yesterday said his Movement wanted the June electoral conference to be put back four months because former Edek and Regrouping Movement members "were heading for confrontation."

Lyssarides, leader of KISOS, apparently turned down the request, arguing such a postponement would harm the image of the new party.

Lyssarides yesterday expressed surprise at the withdrawal of the Regrouping Movement, insisting Edek had welcomed its members with open arms. He said former Edek members had "not only shown love but had been in love" with Regrouping Movement members.

The split means the new KISOS is the old Edek, and the new party's woes do not end there, with even former Edek members set to abandon the fold.

An Edek contingent led by prominent lawyer and former deputy Efstathios Efstathiou has announced it will be forming a new party in the near future.

KISOS has been keen to play down this splintering and to insist that any rifts will be healed.

Five parties were originally in talks to merge to form a new centre party. On November 16, 1998, Edek, the Regrouping Movement, the Movement for Political Renewal (led by former Government Spokesman Chrystos Stylianides), George Vassiliou's United Democrats and Spyros Kyprianou's Diko came to an initial agreement to merge.

But things began to go sour in April 1999, when Edek - who had spearheaded merger efforts - stopped talking to the United Democrats and Diko after differences on Cyprus problem policy were aired publicly. The Movement for Political Renewal abandoned merger efforts soon after.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[07] Pet monkey bites off girl’s fingers

AN ILLEGALLY owned monkey bit off and ate a little girl’s two fingers in Limassol this Sunday.

What should have been a pleasant afternoon outing turned into a nightmare. The Klovoulou family was visiting friend Nicos Charalambous, when the incident happened. Before going into the house, Klovoulou decided to show his friend’s monkeys to his two daughters.

The two Rhesus monkeys, a male and a female, are kept in two cages in Charalambous’ back garden.

Dr Klitos Andreou, the Veterinary Department surgeon responsible for animal welfare, told the Cyprus Mail that all monkeys were dangerous and that adequate warning signs had to be displayed.

Reports indicate that Charalambous, who also kept dogs, did have a "Beware of the Dog" sign on his fence, but that there was no mention of the potential dangers of his more unusual pets.

Fascinated by the monkeys, three year old Sophia poked two fingers through the bars. In a second, one of them swooped forward to bite them off. In agony, the girl was rushed to the nearest clinic. Her mutilated index and middle fingers were stitched and bandaged. The monkey was rushed to the vet and operated on in a vain attempt to retrieve Sophia’s fingers.

The case is under police investigation to ascertain whether either the monkey’s owner, or Klovoulou are guilty of misconduct.

Dr Andreou confirmed that under Cypriot law it is illegal to possess a monkey without a permit. "Permits are only granted to zoological gardens and clinics. Limassol Zoo is the only place on Cyprus which houses monkeys legally," he said.

In addition, only monkeys bred in captivity and imported from the UK, the Netherlands or Switzerland and are allowed entry to the island.

"Only these countries provide full assurance of the animals’ origin and we must know the full details of its origin before granting a permit," explained Dr Andreou.

But Charalambous does not have a permit. Furthermore, as a private resident, he would not qualify for one if he applied. He acquired the monkeys 15 years ago when permits were not law, through a private sale, to rescue them from their unsuitable home at Limassol’s old port, where they were kept next to the reptile house.

In keeping with the then regulations, he registered them and the Veterinary Department disciplinary office fulfils its obligation of bi-annual health and safety visits.

Therefore the Veterinary Department were fully aware of, and indeed passively endorsed Charalambous’ illegal ownership of pets of dubious origin. There seems no framework in place to challenge the residency pets which predate the new legislation, but which are now deemed illegal.

When asked about this inconsistency, Dr Andreou said that he would await the official report, to arrive tomorrow, before taking further action.

Guidelines for keeping wild animals as pets are currently under review by both the Council of Europe and the Cypriot authorities. The Cypriot recommendations, in accordance with the Law for the Protection and Welfare of Animals, are to be published in the next few months.

Tuesday, April 11, 2000

[08] New study shows Akkuyu seismic fault is active

The Turkish Electricity Utility (TEAS) and Energy Ministry insist the Ecemis fault, near the Akkuyu Bay site on Asia Minor's South coast, is inactive.

Turkey is pressing ahead with plans to build a nuclear reactor at Akkuyu despite strong opposition at home and abroad. A study by the Greek Ministry for the Aegean has shown that Cyprus would more than likely be swamped by nuclear fallout in the event of an accident at an Akkuyu plant. Environmentalists point out that Cyprus would also be affected by releases of radioactive waste during routine plant operation.

At an Istanbul press conference yesterday, Greenpeace presented a report on the seismology of the Akkuyu area by Turkish expert Dr Hasan Cetin.

"Previous reports... concluded that the Ecemis fault has been inactive since Plio-Quaternary times, approximately two million years ago. Looking at the results today, derived from advanced research methods, the conclusion is that the Ecemis fault is active," Dr Cetin said at the press conference.

Melda Keskin, energy campaigner for Greenpeace Mediterranean, said Cetin's findings should convince Ankara to shelve its controversial plans for Akkuyu.

"This new evidence is further undeniable proof that the nuclear plans must be abandoned. The blind obsession with nuclear energy is even more apparent when authorities insist on building plants directly on or near to an active fault line," Keskin said.

Greenpeace believe the real reason for Turkey's persistence with plans to build an Akkuyu reactor is a desire to have a source of weapons-grade plutonium.

In Cyprus, both greens and the House of Representatives have repeatedly protested against Turkey's plans for Akkuyu.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 2000

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