Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-11-02

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

Wednesday, November 1, 2000

CONTENTS

[01] De Soto urges patience as Cyprus talks resume

[02] 'We have never registered any company for Milosevic'

[03] Market plumbs new depths

[04] EU hope for alternative medicine

[05] Traffic chaos as cement mixers snarl the streets of Nicosia

[06] Archimandrite hits back at his accusers

[07] Mayor's crusade against traffic

[08] Ombudswoman slams local authorities for failing to crack down on pub disturbance

[09] Vassiliou: confederation not compatible with EU

[01] De Soto urges patience as Cyprus talks resume

Both parties are conscious there are opportunities that exist now. When opportunities arise, they do not wait forever.” But he added: “We don't expect spectacular results - we don't expect to be able to announce major breakthroughs.” He said there was “no prospect just now of face-to-face meetings and the traditional style of give-and-take does not present itself here.

This means that the parties will have to rely on our capacity to provide them with ideas and substantive inputs to urge them along. "What we hope to do over the next few days is to continue on this method, somewhat boringly perhaps, but certainly persistently and with the necessary patience in order to take advantage of events outside of Cyprus,"

De Soto said, outlining his objective for the next 10 days of talks. De Soto described the issues under discussion as “extremely difficult” and said on a number of these the parties remained very much divided. “The issues haven't got any easier over the years of United Nations involvement. In some ways they have become more difficult.”

But he added the recent Greco-Turkish rapprochement and Cyprus EU aspirations gave a certain dynamic to the current process. And he said the talks were now progressing beyond generalities into specifics, and that the process was now treading new ground “for which the script has not been written.”

De Soto emphasised that this new script for a solution must be written with the direct involvement of the parties to the dispute, as the United Nations could not simply impose it. “We do not want to attempt a near framework agreement of principles, we want actually legally binding instruments containing mechanisms for verification of their implementation and also a calendar for their implementation.”

The latest round of talks opened yesterday afternoon with separate meetings between the UN mediator and President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. The current cycle of talks began last December. This round of talks is expected to last until November 10.

[02] 'We have never registered any company for Milosevic'

“We have never registered any company for Milosevic,” said Pambos Ioannides, a lawyer at the firm of DIKO leader Tassos Papadopoulos. “We don't know him and never acted for him. Milosevic has never been our client.”

The Papadopoulos law firm was named by Alithia yesterday as acting on behalf of four of the 12 companies whose accounts have been frozen by the Central Bank at the request of Carla del Ponte, chief prosecutor of the War Crimes Tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague.

“It's not a secret. It's written at the registry,” Ioannides said. “We have registered hundreds of companies, but we do not deal with them on a day to day basis.” Ioannides said he was not personally worried about the investigation and could not say what had prompted Del Ponte to choose the companies she did.

“We have no responsibility whatsoever. We have acted in the same way for hundreds of companies. They have the proper licences in accordance with the law,” he said. However, he admitted it could be possible that a trail involving a maze of companies could lead back to Milosevic.

“It's impossible to know that theoretically, but they can't come after 15- 20 years and say Milosevic was involved,” he said. “It sounds like a cock and bull story to me. I don't know exactly when they were registered but I believe it must date back quite a few years.

We know from time to time there are issues with offshore companies - the US and other good friends like to bring up stories about offshore companies - but to say there is a connection with Milosevic is nonsense.”

Alithia on Tuesday named eight of the 12 limited companies as: “Hillsay Marketing, Lamoral Trading, Vantervest Overseas, Vericom Managing, Browncourt Enterprises, Anextol Trade, Southmed Holdings and Cabcom Marketing.”

Yesterday, the paper said the last four were registered by the Papadopoulos firm between 1986 and 1996. The Central Bank is trying to establish whether the 12 companies had any links with Milosevic and expects the investigation to take a couple of months.

Rumours that Milosevic channelled $100 million in funds through various countries including Cyprus have abounded for years, but the government and Central Bank have consistently denied that the island was involved.

The Cabinet nevertheless complied immediately with Del Ponte's request that certain accounts be frozen, The war crimes prosecutor paid a brief visit to the island two weeks ago as part of a tour of countries in the region to gather information about 38 associates of Milosevic.

[03] Market plumbs new depths

In fact trading failed to get off the ground at all with the index opening two points under Tuesday’s close and merely continued its free fall throughout the entire session.

Volume stood low at £14.7 million, which brokers said, meant cash-strapped investors have decided to sit it out. Many are waiting to see the effects of the Bank of Cyprus’ (BoC) Athens listing, a date for which is expected within the next week.

In the meantime the banking sector is continuing to drag the index down losing another 1.36 per cent yesterday. BoC dropped another four cents yesterday to £5.24 bringing it ever nearer the bottom end of its estimated Athens price of £5.20. Laiki was again the bigger loser of the two, shedding 11 cents to close at £6.82.

Hellenic which has been managing to keep its head above water also lost out yesterday dropping five cents to £1.49. According to brokers investors are no longer asking how the market went but rather how much it dropped.

But there is some optimism that the market will yet stabilise given that many share prices remain unchanged which signals that the small investors are in waiting mode. They said their appears to be a general feeling that the share prices cannot drop much further and that they have reached a level where selling is no longer an option.

Neither are they buying however despite bargain stocks and other, which are undervalued at this point. Liquidity remains a major problem and the return of confidence in the market is still a long way off.

Amongst yesterday’s winners were Lanitis, which gained four cents to close at 70 cents with nearly a million shares changing hands. Salamis also did well adding seven cents to end at £1.17.

GlobalSoft again defied all odds to jump five cents to £6.05 with nearly 300,000 shares changing hands on a volume of £1.77 million, while also in the IT sector, Spidernet gained five cents to close at 89 cents.

Yesterday’s newcomer Tsokkos Hotels suffered the same fate as all recent private placements floating on a disinterested market. The share opened at 43 cents and amid heavy trading, involving nearly six million stocks settled at 39cents, a 21 per cent loss from its IPO price but making it the most active share of the day with a volume of £2.4 million.

[04] EU hope for alternative medicine

Andreas Nicolaou, president of the Cyprus Association of Alternative Theraputics & Register, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the Health Ministry was on their side and had promised to change the law in line with EU guidelines on the issue.

“They said they must first discuss it with the EU,” said Nicolaou, a qualified acupuncturist. “But they are allowing us to practice until it's sorted out.”

Alternative practitioners have recently come under attack by the Medical Association and police investigations are being conducted against two practitioners branded by local doctors as “charlatans”.

Nicolaou said the Association was using a 1960s law to set police against alternative practitioners. He said officers had recently visited one such therapist to search for drugs, and that patients had now become so scared of being caught in police raids they had begun to stay away.

“We are having severe problems,” Nicolaou said. “They are trying to abolish us because we are affecting their interests, telling lies and creating accusations.” He said the Medical Association could not accept that a growing number of Cypriots wanted to try alternative medicine.

“Once they try, they never go back,” he said adding that two out of every four people now preferred to use alternative medicine, with most alternative therapists seeing 30-40 people a day. “We have done our research,” Nicolaou said. “And the Medical Association has done theirs. They want to take money from patients and people don't want to go. “

One of the practitioners under investigation, a crystal therapist, who treats many people free of charge and who was interviewed by the Cyprus Mail last month, said that despite the attitude of the Medical Association many doctors referred patients to him and that he had a lot of doctors as clients in their own right.

Crystal therapy, used in conjunction with acupuncture, involves placing various crystals on areas of the body to revitalise lost energies. The treatment does not involve medicine, operations or surgery, and testimony from several of his patients indicated complete satisfaction with the treatment they received.

Health Minister Frixos Savvides told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that many therapies, such as homeopathy and acupuncture, although not considered as part of the medical profession in Cyprus, were recognised worldwide and were tolerated here.

He said that as long as alternative practitioners did not prescribe medicines, they couldn't intervene. “Treating someone with crystals is unacceptable,” he said, although he seemed unaware that medicine was not being used.

“I only know what I've been told by the Medical Association,” he said and admitted the Health Ministry had not directly received any complaints from clients with regards to the crystal therapy. He said the Ministry had no legal framework to go after so-called charlatans but could warn patients to be careful not to place their trust in people who might take advantage of their misery. “In many cases, they treat people with illnesses but end up creating more problems and people come back to us to correct their mistakes, ” he said.

[05] Traffic chaos as cement mixers snarl the streets of Nicosia

Fifty small and medium-sized companies belonging to the Association of Ready-Made Concrete Producers issued a memorandum to President Glafcos Clerides, the Commerce Ministry and the House of Representatives, demanding action to prevent the island's two large cement industries from “putting them out of business” by starting to produce their own ready-made concrete.

The protestors argued that if the government allowed big businesses to produce ready-made concrete, it would be serving the interests of the few at the expense of over 50 small concrete production companies.

At 10am, cement mixers blocked several central avenues in Nicosia, covering a 5.5km route passing by the House and the Commerce Ministry before ending up at the Presidential Palace at around 12.30. Severe chaos was caused by vehicles crawling in long queues along the streets.

In many cases, protestors acted as policemen, trying to help frustrated drivers to bypass the traffic snarl. “The cement industries can purchase concrete at extremely low prices. We on the other hand do not have the same opportunities. On top of that, in 1999, the two big industries raised the price of concrete selling to us, trying to destroy us,” said the memorandum, signed by association president Neoclis Kyriacou.

“Liberalisation of the market will make things even worse, giving the industries the chance to monopolise production. “We are asking the government to stop undermining our positions and not license the industries to produce ready-made concrete. Also, to make the necessary arrangements for us to be able to import concrete.”

[06] Archimandrite hits back at his accusers

Attorney-general Alecos Markides on Tuesday gave the green light for written charges to be pressed after a police probe into allegations that witnesses had been bribed to bear false testimony against Athanassios before a Church inquiry.

Constantinides spearheaded the homosexuality allegations against the Limassol Bishop. He in turn was charged with fathering two illegitimate children and has been indefinitely suspended by the Holy Synod.

“I am putting some blame on the Attorney-general because after being questioned and providing answers for so long, I expected another outcome,” the archimandrite said yesterday. “However, as I respect the laws and rules of the Church, I respect the laws and the rules of the state and I will help the state to the end. I will not hold back because Tuesday's outcome may have made me look guilty. I repeat, I am not guilty, I am very clean.”

Also charged were Archimandrite Chrysostomos Argyrides, Costas Savva, Eleftherios Psylos and Manolis Georgiou. Markides said that another witness -- hairdresser Christos Stangos -- would not be charged because police had found no evidence of him conspiring against Athanassios.

The five would not be appearing before court at this stage, Markides said. Stangos, Constantinides and the mother of the children he is alleged to have fathered have themselves filed civil suits against Athanassios and some members of the media for allegedly defamatory comments.

Constantinides yesterday added a new name to the list of his alleged tormentors, saying that Kiti Bishop Chrysostomos was also working to destroy him. “For many moths now, I have had a constant battle waged against me by the Bishop of Limassol, by the Archbishop, by the Bishop of Kiti.

It has been an attempt of theirs to eliminate me completely. What they are trying to do is clear. I am not going to let anything happen to me. I am going to be at the forefront of this battle whose purpose is to rid the Church of all homosexual clergymen.

No pressure or court will force me to change my conviction and my battle.” Speaking to the CyBC, Archimandrite Constantinides also challenged Bishop Athanassios to say who he had met during a late September meeting.

“I would like the Bishop to be asked through your radio, who he met on September 28, in Mesa Yeitonia on a specific street and why. Then he can decide whether he is in the right or not.” Asked to elaborate on who he believed Athanassios had been meeting, the archimandrite said: “I don't know, you must ask him the question as journalists and see if he answers. If he wants to, he will answer. If he is honest and really the person he presents himself to be, let him come out and tell the truth.

Just as I dare to tell the truth, it's about time the others came out and told the truth.” Limassol's Capital FM radio station yesterday reported that a senior clergyman had met with other members of the Church and former witness Savva on September 28. The channel said that a few days later on October 3, Savvas had changed his testimony on Athanassios, saying he had been paid to testify against the bishop. Psylos also later said he had been paid to make a false testimony.

[07] Mayor's crusade against traffic

The Union of Municipalities has drafted a private bill that will be sent to the House of Representatives before the end of the year, in an attempt to counteract the traffic nightmare that has engulfed the country.

Demetriades hopes the measures will be put into effect immediately, to alleviate an otherwise long wait for the Transport Ministry to get its act together. “The traffic problem is acute. Even if we had the studies ready today, we would still need three to five years to implement them,” Demetriades said.

The mayor told the Mail, that the private bill would not take longer than a month to be passed by Parliament. He said the proposals were more of an administrative arrangement than a financial commitment. “They include steps to protect the pedestrian, whose life is under threat,” he said.

The bill would force all towns to create a central pedestrian zone and allow cars parked illegally to be towed away by police crane. He wants to see the introduction of £20 or £25 fines for those who park on the pavement, and spoke about the possibility of setting up education classes for drivers.

Speaking about the rather haphazard enforcement of current traffic law, which is shared between police and the municipality, he said he was confident the new bill would improve practice. While the boundaries for enforcement currently overlap between the two authorities, he said the police were slowly withdrawing from the responsibility, turning their attention to other offences.

Transport Minister Averoff Neophytou is commissioning a study to investigate steps that could be taken as a pilot scheme in Nicosia. Demetriades announced yesterday that his idea of building a tramway was to be included in the study.

He pointed to the European trend of “bringing back the trams” in cities of similar size, or smaller than Nicosia. He held up the example of Montpellier and Orléans in France The Minister has postponed his assessment of the situation until after his study has been completed, but he has gone on the record as a supporter of bus lanes in city centres.

[08] Ombudswoman slams local authorities for failing to crack down on pub disturbance

According to ombudswoman Eliana Nicolaou's October 26 report, drawn up following complaints from neighbours, the Improvement Board in 1980 gave the owners of the building housing the pub permission to build a two-storey structure that would house parking places, three shops and two apartments.

“In 1983, the owners violated the licence and illegally turned the structure into a leisure business (pub-restaurant). In spite of this, they were given a licence to operate and serve alcohol, use speakers to play music and were given a licence by the Cyprus Tourism Organisation…

The area is residential and the residents have repeatedly complained to the Municipality that its operation causes them problems.” Nicolaou said the authorities had made repeated visits to the pub since then, but that any changes made had not been adequate.

She said more the local authorities should have taken decisive action. “Engomi Improvement Board and then the Municipality have for more than 15 years done little more than issue warnings to the owners and avoided using their jurisdiction and using all the law provided them to ensure the pub was forced to follow the law.” Nicolaou continued: “The Municipality's lack of will to act did not only have the result of maintaining an illegal structure, but its continuing to function at the cost of the quality of life of its surrounding residents…

The public's comfortable access to their homes is a right that is included in the Constitution.” She said that while Blinkers' owners had decided to move and already purchased another piece of land for this purpose, “the continued use of an illegal structure for the pub cannot be accepted for any longer.”

“Therefore,” she continued, “I suggest that even now, Engomi Municipality take legal action against them (the owners). I also suggest that the CTO investigate the pub being given a licence… and that the Chief of Police issue instructions for the pub to be inspected regularly and press charges whenever inconvenience is caused by the use of speakers, parking, the customers or whenever the operating times are violated.” Municipality officials were yesterday unavailable for comment, as were the owners of the pub.

[09] Vassiliou: confederation not compatible with EU

Speaking at a party news conference, Vassiliou - the government's chief EU accession negotiator - said that for this reason he did not believe the UN would be putting forward a proposal on confederation. He said this was also the message he hoped to have conveyed during a news conference in the occupied areas on Tuesday.

“I cannot imagine that the UN would at any time during the talks currently taking place put forward a proposal for a confederation or any proposals which would not fall in line with the EU aquis communitaire.”

He added the Greek Cypriot side was going to the UN-organised talks, which resumed in Geneva yesterday, feeling assured and confident. “I say this because we anticipate that the UN proposals will be in the framework of Security Council decisions and the EU aquis communitaire…

I cannot see the UN coming to make proposals for the solution of the Cyprus problem that would not fall in line with its ideas on a federal solution. They do not have the right to do this.”

The former president of the Republic added he had observed a great thirst for knowledge and exchanges on the part of the Turkish Cypriots attending during his Tuesday conference in the north, and said that both communities would build the future of Cyprus.

Cyprus Mail 2000

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