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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-11-23
CONTENTS
[01] DISY threaten to sink Pourgourides bird bill
[02] Immigrant captains jailed for six months
[03] UN spokeswoman leaving Cyprus
[04] Police display captured explosives
[05] Cyprus protests Prodi comments on accession
[06] De Soto due in Cyprus
[07] Government warns against Turkish tourism
[08] Counting the cost of a Major Synod
[09] Beef exports prove Cyprus is BSE-free
[10] Church ban on Chrysanthos expires tomorrow
[11] CY claims huge response to winter offers
[12] Clerides: coastguard needs new equipment to deal with immigrant influx
[01] DISY threaten to sink Pourgourides bird bill
DISY is set on a collision course with its own deputy, Christos
Pourgourides, over his plans to introduce a bill making it illegal to eat
songbirds caught on lime sticks and in mist nets, known as ambelopoulia.
Pourgourides' aim is to put a stop to the cruel trapping practices -- which
are widespread despite being banned since 1984 -- by cutting off demand for
the expensive delicacies. But the governing party's leader, Nicos
Anastassiades, has now publicly warned Pourgourides that DISY will "call
him to order" if he persists with promoting his private member's bill.
Anastassiades issued his warning during a speech to party members from the
Famagusta area, where the bird trapping is most prevalent, on Tuesday
night. Anastassiades appeared to take his cue from the Paralimni Mayor,
Nicos Vlittis, and Famagusta DISY deputies Antonis Karas and Lefteris
Christoforou. Vlittis, Karas and Christoforou have led the district's
defence of its illegal trapping practices, insisting lime sticking and mist
netting are a time-honoured tradition that needs preserving. But DISY
spokesman Tassos Mitsopoulos yesterday insisted Anastassiades' bone was not
with the content of Pourgourides's bill, but with the way he had presented
it. "It has always been party policy that a proposed bill is agreed by the
party first before being made public. In this case, DISY first heard of
Pourgourides' plans via the newspapers," Mitsopoulos said. What
Anastassiades had done on Tuesday night, Mitsopoulos said, was to warn
Pourgourides that he faced his party's wrath if he did not withdraw his
private member's bill to allow time for the party to pore over it. But
Mitsopoulos also admitted that it was no coincidence that the DISY leader
had issued his warning while addressing Famagusta area members. "No, it was
not a coincidence, the Famagusta area members raised the issue," the DISY
spokesman said. Mitsopoulos also made it plain the party was unlikely to
back Pourgourides' bill. He said the party's position on the lime sticking
and mist netting was that Cyprus should end the kill by enforcing existing
legislation - which bans both the trapping and the sale of ambelopoulia in
restaurants - rather than through the introduction of fresh legislation.
"This is not a priority issue for the party, the laws already exist, they
just need to be enforced," Mitsopoulos said. Pourgourides, a seasoned anti-
corruption campaigner and no stranger to controversy, is unlikely to stand
down in the face of his party's pressure. Pourgourides wants the
consumption or possession of ambelopoulia to be punishable by up to a
year's imprisonment or a fine of up to £1,000. Environmentalists insist
police are not doing enough to enforce the existing bans, and the evidence
"on the ground" suggests trappers have little fear of being penalised.
Police point to records of arrests, but admit that tackling the trappers is
not their top priority. Pourgourides says the practice is unacceptable and
is giving the island a bad name abroad. The Times, the Daily Express and
the Daily Mail have all recently carried stories about the widespread and
blatant bird killing. The Daily Mail described Cypriots as "the most
merciless bird killers in the Mediterranean". Britain's powerful Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) has called on Brussels to block
Cyprus's entry unless the lime sticking and bird trapping is halted. The
RSPB call came after its under-cover officers estimated, on a recent visit
to the island, that some 20 million songbirds fall foul to lime sticks and
mist nets every year in Cyprus. Once a traditional, small-scale activity,
the bird trapping has been turned into a high-tech industry, with tape
lures often being used to attract migrants to their doom. The high prices
the banned delicacies fetch in tavernas -- £1.50 each - makes the trapping
a multi-million-pound industry.
[02] Immigrant captains jailed for six months
By a Staff Reporter FOURTY-three immigrants held for illegal entry into
Cyprus paid $1,000 a head to be taken to Italy but were instead offloaded
at Cape Greco near Famagusta, a court heard yesterday. The Syrian and Iraqi
immigrants were arrested last week while wandering in Ayia Napa. Thanasis
Papanicolaou, prosecuting, told the court that the immigrants had boarded a
boat in Lebanon and left for Italy in stormy seas after paying $1,000 each.
The two Lebanese captains of the boat, 30-year-old Mohamed Turkman, and
Maher Anaem, 18, were yesterday sentenced to six months in jail for illegal
entry and endangering human lives by using an unsuitable vessel. The pair
told the court that they did what they did because they were poor. Ten of
the illegal immigrants were jailed for two months. The men protested they
had been misled by the captains, who had promised to take them to Crete or
Italy. An Iraqi man apologised for the inconvenience caused to the
authorities, adding he would be executed if he returned to Iraq. Judge
Yiasemis Yiasemi told the group their illegal actions gave the impression
that Cyprus was under siege, and disrupted the island's life. The rest of
the illegal immigrants are currently being held in a purpose-built facility
at the the central prison in Nicosia. Among them are six women, two of whom
are pregnant, and 13 children.
[03] UN spokeswoman leaving Cyprus
By a Staff Reporter UNFICYP spokeswoman Sarah Russell will be leaving
Cyprus at the end of the year, she confirmed yesterday. Russell said she
was leaving Cyprus for Geneva where her husband, who also works with the UN,
had been posted. "We take it in turns to follow each other to different
postings," she said. "It's my turn to follow him," Russell has been with
Unficyp for the past two years. "I am sorry to be leaving Cyprus. I would
like to have stayed longer," she said. Russell could not give any
indication of who would be replacing her, either temporarily or
permanently.
[04] Police display captured explosives
By a Staff Reporter POLICE yesterday put on display an arms cache found
buried in an orchard in a mountain village, containing enough explosives to
reduce a residential block to rubble. The cache was found in the orchard of
26-year-old soldier Yiannakis Spanos, at Sina Oros in the Nicosia district.
Police found 30 kilograms of TNT, two fragment grenades, two smoke grenades,
and a number of detonators along with several feet of fuse. Two Enfield
rifles and a large number of bullets of different calibres were also
confiscated. Spanos was arrested on Monday for possession of four pounds of
TNT. Along with Spanos, police arrested 78-year-old Spyros Zachariades from
Strovolos in connection with the possession of the explosives. The cache
was found in wooden army boxes placed inside three barrels, which were
buried in the orchard. Police suspect they have uncovered an underworld
ring, adding there could be more arrests soon.
[05] Cyprus protests Prodi comments on accession
CYPRUS will protest against statements made by European Commission
President Romano Prodi that the accession of a divided island could cause
tension within the European Union. Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou
yesterday described Prodi's statements as unacceptable and against the
spirit and letter of the Helsinki summit. Speaking to London Greek Radio
yesterday, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said he had instructed
Cyprus' ambassador to Brussels to make representations to Prodi's office
over the statements, which were carried in an interview with an Athens
newspaper. Cassoulides said that the terminology of the EU conclusions in
Helsinki should be used instead of other terms. On Tuesday night, the
minister told a gathering in London that the Cyprus problem was a European
concern, irrespective of whether the Republic was a member-state of the EU
or not. He said the issue involved two EU members, Greece and Britain, and
two candidates, Cyprus and Turkey. Cassoulides also warned against Turkish
moves to intimidate the European Union regarding Cyprus' accession to the
EU and subsequently its own candidacy. He said that if Turkey were allowed
to intimidate the EU into denying accession to Cyprus, it would try the
same tactics to force its own candidacy through. "Turkey has been warned,
she knows the content of the Helsinki decisions, all she has to do now is
to convince Turkish Cypriot leader to co-operate for an honourable
compromise in order that Cyprus joins the EU as a united country,"
Cassoulides said. The EU officially declared Turkey a candidate in Helsinki
in December 1999, and invited Ankara to contribute to a Cyprus solution,
saying that a political settlement was not a precondition for Cyprus'
membership, but would facilitate accession. Cassoulides said the EU would
also be taking into account the government's efforts and contribution to a
negotiated settlement. "So far we have a very strong case," he said. "The
problem of Cyprus is already a European one, whether Cyprus is in or out of
the EU." Cassoulides left London yesterday for Sochaux in France to attend
a meeting of Foreign Ministers for EU member states and candidates. He
will then travel to Vienna for a ministerial meeting of the Organisation
for Security and Co-operation in Europe on Monday and Tuesday.
[06] De Soto due in Cyprus
By a Staff Reporter THE UN Secretary-general's Special Advisor for Cyprus
Alvaro de Soto will arrive on the island on Sunday for brief contacts with
the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides. Government Spokesman Michalis
Papapetrou said De Soto would be received by President Glafcos Clerides on
Monday. The spokesman also announced that the National Council, the top
advisory body to the President on the handling of the Cyprus question,
would convene tomorrow. De Soto is also scheduled to meet Turkish Cypriot
leader Rauf Denktash and others, but the full programme of meetings has not
been finalised yet. The UN diplomat, who holds the rank of Under-Secretary-
general, is expected to sound out the two sides on their initial reaction
to a non paper presented by UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan during the last
round of proximity talks, which ended in Geneva on November 10. De Soto
will remain on the island for only two days and intends to give a news
conference before leaving on Wednesday morning. He has already conducted
five rounds of proximity talks, during which he handed the two sides a
plethora of papers on the four core issues under discussion (constitution,
territory, security and property-refugees). Before coming to Cyprus, De
Soto is scheduled to have contacts in Athens and Ankara.
[07] Government warns against Turkish tourism
By a Staff Reporter THE GOVERNMENT issued an official statement yesterday,
warning that Turkey bars Cypriot passport holders from entering the country
as tourists, after a Nicosia travel agent announced plans to take a 40-
member party to Istanbul at Christmas. The Foreign Ministry said it had a
duty to draw attention to the dangers and the emergency complications that
could arise during a holiday, such as an accident or illness. "Cypriot
citizens have the right to travel to any country they desire, including
Turkey. As is well known, however, Turkey does not allow entrance for
tourists, who hold Cypriot passports," the statement said. The information
contradicted that of the Turkish Embassy in Athens, who assured the Cyprus
Mail that Cypriot passport holders could be issued with a visa to enter the
country. The trip is organised by Tsangaris Tours, whose owner
Christodoulos Tsangaris feels there is a market for Turkish tourism in
Cyprus. If the trip goes ahead, it will be the first guided tour of
Istanbul for Greek Cypriots since the 1974 invasion. Tsangaris visited the
Turkish Embassy in Athens four times seeking permission for the visit. He
was told that the visa applications could only be processed after all the
other arrangements had been made. Some 40 Greek Cypriots have paid £450
each for the holiday and Tsangaris has expressed interested in running a
second trip in the spring because so many people wanted to go. Tsangaris
dispatched the relevant documentation to Athens this week and was told it
would take 10 days to arrange the visas.
[08] Counting the cost of a Major Synod
QUASHING persistent homosexuality allegations against Limassol Bishop
Athanassios did not come cheap for the local Orthodox Church. But the exact
cost of bringing in and putting up two Patriarchs and 18 Bishops for last
week's Major Synod, which pored over and duly threw out the gay claims, is
a closely guarded secret. The 20 visiting clergy, plus their considerable
entourages, were put up at Nicosia's four-star Forum Intercontinental hotel
for a week. But the luxury hotel has strict instructions from the
archbishopric not to divulge the size of the bill for the esteemed
visitors' stay. "We have instruction in writing not to say anything on
that," the hotel's operations manager, Michalis Kyriakides, told the Cyprus
Mail yesterday when asked for an estimate of the cost of the clerics' stay.
Kyriakides said only that the Patriarchs' and Bishops' stay had not come
cheap. The Archbishopric was anything but forthcoming on the matter. "We
do not know the cost yet," an archbishopric spokesman said. "The bill has
not come in yet," he added. If the Major Synod delegates stayed in suite
accommodation and each one of them brought but a single assistant, then the
bill for the week would come to just over £27,000, for bed and breakfast
alone. The Forum Intercontinental is owned by the Church and operated by
the Louis Group. It is therefore likely that the Church secured a special
price for the visiting Major Synod participants, but, even if the delegates
paid local rates, the total cost would still be over £19,000. The
Archbishop's hope that a Major Synod ruling would put an end to a saga that
was doing nothing for the Church's reputation seems to have been fulfilled.
Athanassios' most powerful detractor, his Paphos colleague Chrysostomos,
while not withdrawing his claims against the Limassol Bishop, on Tuesday
spoke of "turning over a new leaf" and putting the matter aside. Archbishop
Chrysostomos called the Major Synod - only the second ever to meet on the
island - following months of persistent lurid allegations against
Athanassios. The Limassol cleric always denied the claims. The Major Synod
cleared the beleaguered bishop, but did not delve into claims by his many
supporters that he had been the target of a conspiracy to oust him from the
Church.
[09] Beef exports prove Cyprus is BSE-free
By a Staff Reporter CYPRUS has signed up to all the new measures put
forward by European Union member states to combat mad cow disease,
Agriculture Minister Costas Themistocleous said yesterday. There has so far
been no incidence of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in Cyprus.
Themistocleous cited healthy beef export statistics to stress that the
island was free of the disease. All cows older than 30 months taken for
slaughter are to be tested for traces of the disease. A reactor is due to
be ordered from Ireland to facilitate mass testing. The minister added
that Cyprus would henceforth prohibit the use of dead animals in the
production of meat meal. Themistocleous said the use of meat meal had been
banned from cattle feed since 1990 in response to fears about the
transmission of BSE. Meat meal, however, is still fed to pigs, fish and
poultry. Themistocleous said Israel and Lebanon were upping their demand
for Cyprus beef. He added that providing that Cyprus cattle passed the
tests, the country could corner a major Middle East market, in the light of
fears over European beef. Some 20,000 calf-carcasses were exported to
Israel and Lebanon in the last four years. "When foreigners trust us and
want our products, Cypriot consumers have no reason to be concerned with
the local product," he said. He stressed there was no need to panic.
Measures to control the spread of BSE have been enforced in Cyprus for a
number of years.
[10] Church ban on Chrysanthos expires tomorrow
By a Staff Reporter DISGRACED former Limassol Bishop Chrysanthos is welcome
to conduct services in the Paphos area, Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos said
yesterday. The controversial invitation came two days before the expiry of
a ban imposed on Chrysanthos in November 1998 as fraud allegations against
him mounted. Chrysanthos yesterday said he had heard nothing on the matter
from the Holy Synod, which imposed the ban. Church sources suggested the
ban would be lifted automatically tomorrow. The former Limassol Bishop is
currently on trial on charges of defrauding a British-based investor out of
$3.7 million. He denies the charges and all the other fraud allegations
against him.
[11] CY claims huge response to winter offers
CYPRUS Airways (CY) said yesterday it had received a huge response to its
special winter fares, particularly on the Athens route. "A lot of people
are taking advantage of the offers for long weekends in Athens," said CY
spokesman Tassos Angelis. "The fares are cheap and there are some good
offers at the hotels as well." Angelis said numbers were up on last year
and that the company had laid on a third daily flight to the Greek capital
since 1999. Response for Salonica, to which CY operates three flights per
week, had also been good, he said. The new fares, which came into effect on
November 1 and will run until the end of March 2001, offer up to 50 per
cent reductions to passengers over 63 and to families where the head of the
household pays the regular fare. Fares to Athens under the special winter
scheme for accompanying family members and OAPs are £70 for a day flight
and £54 for the night flight. For Salonica the special fare is £91. A
similar offer also applies to London (£145 on the reduced fare), and to
flights to mainland Europe. CY has also slashed fares for the remainder of
the travelling public, who can now travel to Athens for £96 on a day flight
and £86 on the night flight. The fare for Salonica clocks in at £128. To
avail of the offer, passengers must book and pay for tickets 10 days in
advance. Tickets are non-refundable and cannot be changed. In this category,
flights to London can be had for £247 for the day flight and £204 for night
flights. Travellers must remain in London for a minimum of six days and
return no later than 35 days. The special fares do not apply during the
Christmas holiday period December 15-January 15.
[12] Clerides: coastguard needs new equipment to deal with immigrant influx
PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides yesterday asked for urgent reinforcements to the
coastguard with additional patrol boats and helicopters to block the influx
of illegal immigrants to the island. More and more illegal immigrants have
been arriving on the island in recent weeks, prompting the government to
take measures to prevent the logistical and often political problems that
ensue. In a meeting attended by Interior and Justice Ministers,
Christodoulos Chritodoulou and Nicos Koshis, and the chiefs of police and
the intelligence service, Clerides stressed the need for the prompt
procurement of two additional patrol boats and three helicopters. Speaking
after the meeting, Christodoulou said they had discussed in depth the issue
of illegal immigrants and had taken decisions concerning four basic
parameters of the matter. The first, Christodoulou said, was the purchase
of two additional patrol boats, which will have night operation
capabilities to flank the existing three. "The President has asked that the
procedures to acquire the boats be fast," said Christodoulou. This meant
that the cumbersome and time-consuming tenders procedure would have to be
bypassed. Christodoulou said that the expected acquisition by the National
Guard of three helicopters with search and rescue capabilities would be
sufficient. He added: "What is of paramount importance is to speed up the
procurement procedure of these helicopters." The issue is currently stuck
in the House, which has not yet agreed to release the necessary funds.
Quoting Clerides, Christodoulou said that if the procurement were delayed
beyond May, then the government would examine leasing three helicopters, at
least for the summer season when the fire hazard was high. The meeting
decided to create additional facilities in Larnaca for the comfortable
accommodation of around 300 people. Such space currently exists in the
central prison in Nicosia, but according to Christodoulou it was not
enough. Clerides yesterday asked Christodoulou to visit Lebanon and Syria
for discussions with his counterparts regarding existing agreements
concerning the return of illegal immigrants to the country of departure,
and finding of ways of improving bilateral co-operation. Christodoulou told
reporters that the President had also asked for the expedition of the
procedure for the acquisition of coast surveillance radars, which was
scrapped after irregularities were discovered in the process. The matter is
currently under investigation by an ad hoc committee. The government has
invited new tenders.
Cyprus Mail 2000
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