Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 00-12-23

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

CONTENTS

[01] CyTA blasted for `unacceptable' call blocking

[02] Welcome to the `Kyknos Stock Market'

[03] Government confirms consul held in diamond case

[04] EAC denies not publishing report on summer power cuts

[05] £10,000 for Turkish Cypriot beaten up by police

[06] Death of Stavros Galatariotis at 75

[07] Father and son deny trying to defraud state lottery

[08] Teachers' unions brace for lengthy pay battle

[01] CyTA blasted for `unacceptable' call blocking

CALLBACK service operators on the island are engaged in a head-on confrontation with the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA), which they say has illegally blocked their phone lines for the second time this year. The row first erupted in June, when CyTA first blocked the lines and claimed that callback service operators violated Cyprus law. But according to Achilleas Demetriades of New Telecommunications System, a callback service operator in Limassol, CyTA never actually took legal action and then ceased `call masking' or blocking the lines, only to resume the practice in November. "It is common knowledge that they (CyTA) purchased a state-of-the-art device costing around £500,000 to block the lines and intercept the calls. This is an arbitrary and unacceptable action, " Demetriades yesterday told the Cyprus Mail. He said this action was illegal for two reasons. First, because under the law CyTA was not allowed to take such action, and second because intercepting phone lines was an infringement of privacy rights. But he conceded that the relevant Cyprus laws on telecommunications were "rather vague. We have no qualms about entering litigation, but one thing is for sure, a solution must be found." Until now the semi-governmental organisation has had a monopoly over rates for international calls, but the appearance of discount callback service operators forced CyTA to drastically cut rates up to 70 per cent on selected destinations. Meanwhile local rates are to be increased significantly, as according to CyTA they are the lowest anywhere in Europe. One reason international rates are so high is because they subsidise local calls. Currently CyTA is the only legal provider of telecommunications services on the island, but this will change as Cyprus needs to fall in line with EU regulations on full liberalisation of the telecommunications industry, the deadline being January 1, 2003. This would involve abolishing the subsidising of services. "This situation is hurting us financially, and we hope that the issue will be resolved sometime soon," Demetriades said, adding that his company had sent a letter to the Minister of Communications and Public Works, also circulated to the Speaker of the House, the Attorney- general and the Auditor-general among others. The letter to Communications Minister Averof Neofytou, a staunch and vociferous supporter of liberalisation and streamlining the public sector, noted that CyTA was spending hundreds of thousands of pounds daily to operate the call masking device, "the sole aim of which is to preserve the regime of monopoly".

[02] Welcome to the `Kyknos Stock Market'

TOTAL volume on the stock market soared to £56.6 million yesterday, £33.2 million or 58 per cent of what was a result of frenzied trading in Kyknos shares. While the all-share index rose 3.21 per cent, Kyknos stocks jumped 32.9 per cent as a phenomenal 29.3 million of its shares changed hands in the space of 90 minutes, causing brokers to dub it the `Kyknos Stock Market' yesterday. Kyknos, the target of a fierce takeover bid between Sharelink and Era investments companies, added 30 cents to its share which closed at £1.21 and again boosted interest in the investment and financial sectors which outperformed everything in sight, recording gains of 7.27 per cent and 9.84 per cent respectively. The stampede for Kyknos left blue chips in the shade for the third day running. The FTSE/CySE index showed a modest gain of 2.49 per cent, slightly out- performing the banking sector which ended 2.18 per cent in the black. Bank of Cyprus (BoC) and Laiki were at the bottom of the five most-active list yesterday as Kyknos, Sharelink and GlobalSoft took the lead. BoC added seven cents to close at £3.38 and Laiki rose one cent to £3.18, each bank clocking up around £1 million in volume. Sharelink was the number-two traded share, with more than three million changing hands. The stock jumped 21 cents to £1.42 on a volume of £3.9 million. GlobalSoft ended the day in third place after adding 17 cents to end at £5.33 on a volume of £2.3 million. "The Cyprus Stock Exchange has announced that they will be changing their name to Kyknos Stock Exchange?," the CSE web analyst said yesterday. "I hope that they are not watching us from abroad because we will be the laughing stock of the globe. Some people are going to get the best of this and some people are going to get the bitter end, and when it's over, we will see brokers, politicians, CSE officials, etc, going on TV and talking about the mania that has been present in the CSE the past week, and they will say what we should have done. It will be déja vu all over again." Another broker said at least the index ended on a positive note overall, which might help investors to rest easy over the holiday period. Trading will resume next Wednesday.

[03] Government confirms consul held in diamond case

GOVERNMENT sources yesterday confirmed that Cyprus' consul to the Democratic Republic of the Congo was detained earlier this week on suspicion of diamond smuggling. According to newspaper reports from Congo, Kyriaki Christodoulidou was caught trying to fly out of Kinshasa Airport with "thousands of pounds worth" of diamonds. She was reported as telling customs officials the package containing the diamonds had been given to her and that she had been unaware of its contents. According to her former husband, who is currently on the island, Christodoulidou has now been released. He said that she had been framed, a result of the fierce competition between rival organisations struggling for the control of the diamond market. Freelance diamond traders are reported to be planning to create a diamond exchange in the republic, a move not welcomed by those who control the huge share of the market. Christodoulidou, a lawyer, was apparently involved in the undertaking, and on the day of her arrest was leaving for Belgium where she was to submit all the necessary paperwork on the Congolese diamond exchange. She was arrested after customs officers allegedly found a packet of diamonds in the document envelope. The Cyprus Mail has learned that the diamonds were of little value, and not worth "thousands of pounds". Christodoulidou said the envelope had been handed to her, and that she had been unaware of its contents. Foreign Ministry sources yesterday said they were looking into issue, and that Christodoulidou would be dismissed immediately if found guilty of smuggling.

[04] EAC denies not publishing report on summer power cuts

THE ELECTRICITY Authority (EAC) yesterday dismissed press reports that it had not published a damning report on last July's widespread power cuts. According to a story in yesterday's daily Phileleftheros, an EAC committee commissioned to investigate the causes of the power cuts found they were caused by faulty workmanship and not the summer heat, as was widely believed at the time. The paper claimed that because of this, the EAC avoided publishing the report after its completion. But yesterday the EAC dismissed the allegations, saying the authority never concealed the truth from the public, and always acted with total transparency. In a two-page statement the authority said the newspaper report was twisting the truth, adding that the findings of the committee had been disclosed at a news conference in September. The statement cited next day reports in the daily press, which laid the blame on the private contractor who built the power substation 22 years ago. But despite the findings of the authority's committee, Auditor-general Chrystalla Yorkadji launched an independent investigation into the matter. Echoing the EAC committee, however, the auditor found that there had been omissions and bad workmanship in a switch panel at the substation, which distributed power to a large area in the centre of Nicosia and its outskirts. According to the EAC its findings were fully adopted by the Auditor-general, "a fact which revealed the correct and impartial work" carried out. The Auditor-general's report added that if the construction of electricity substations had not been delayed, there would have been alternative power sources for the Nicosia areas, which suffered lengthy power cuts during the scorching summer heat. A spat erupted in the days following the cuts between the EAC and Nicosia Mayor Lellos Demetriades, over who was to blame for the delays in the construction of substations in Nicosia.

[05] £10,000 for Turkish Cypriot beaten up by police

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday said it would comply with a European Court of Human Rights ruling ordering it to pay some £10,000 in compensation to a Turkish Cypriot heroin smuggling suspect viciously beaten by police five years ago. "The government respects the decisions of international bodies," Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said. He promised the government would learn the lessons of the damning court ruling and "draw the necessary conclusions" for future action. "Of course there are weaknesses and problems and the government is fighting to solve these problems," Papapetrou said, pointing the finger at the police force. The court ruling, released late on Thursday, condemned Cyprus for "inhuman" treatment of Osman Eimez Yousouf, who was arrested after a drug squad sting operation in the buffer zone near Lymbia village on October 7, 1995. "The Cyprus government admitted that, during and immediately after the arrest of the suspect, the police deliberately abused him," the court stated in its ruling. Yousouf, 34 at the time of his arrest, was unexpectedly released to return to the north on December 1 -- three days before he was due to stand trial on 11 drugs charges -- after he filed a complaint that he had been badly beaten by police. Police insisted the suspect had been injured while resisting arrest. But his injuries were so severe that the Nicosia District Court had to convene in Larnaca hospital to remand him the day after his arrest. It later emerged that police wearing balaclavas had continued to beat Yousouf inside Larnaca hospital on the night of his arrest, ignoring nurses' protests. Nurses said officers used a sharp instrument to slash Yousouf on the ear, back and soles of his feat. The Strasbourg court noted that nothing could excuse the treatment meted out to Yousouf: "Even under the most difficult conditions, such as in the battle against organised crime, the European Human Rights Convention completely bans torture and abuse of detainees." Cyprus was ordered to pay £10,400 Sterling in compensation to Yousouf, who comes from occupied Louroudjina village, not far from Lymbia in the Nicosia district, where he was arrested five years ago. At the time of Yousouf's release, the government denied it was trying to swap the Turkish Cypriot for two Greek Cypriots held in the north at the time. One of the Greek Cypriots, 19-year-old National Guardsman George Karotsakis, was set free by the Turks a few days after Yousouf's release. This is exactly the sort of exchange the relatives of Panicos Tsiakourmas, still being held by the Turks yesterday, are demanding that the government make, by releasing Turkish Cypriot drug suspect Omer Tekoglu from Larnaca police holding cells. The government has ruled out any such swap deal. Coincidentally, Tekoglu and Yousouf were both arrested for allegedly trying to sell exactly the same quantity of heroin -- two kilos - to undercover drugs squad officers. Yousouf was also suspected of involvement in animal snuggling and of working for the Turkish secret services, MIT. The leader of main opposition party AKEL, Demetris Christofias, yesterday said the government had no choice but to comply with the Strasbourg court ruling. "A government fighting for respect for the human rights of our whole people by condemning Turkey and taking her to human rights courts has no choice but to pay for wrong actions," he said. Cyprus has been pushing to get Ankara to comply with an earlier European Court of Human Rights decision ordering Turkey to pay massive compensation to Greek Cypriot Titina Loizidou for denying her access to her Kyrenia property because of the occupation. Christofias, like Papapetrou, said the police were at fault in the Yousouf case: "These are actions not of the government but of certain bodies which get out of line and cause these problems for the Cyprus Republic," the AKEL leader said.

[06] Death of Stavros Galatariotis at 75

STAVROS GALATARIOTIS, one of the island's best-known industrialists and philanthropists, died yesterday at the age of 75. Limassol-born Galatariotis set up the family firm Georgios S. Galatariotis & Sons Ltd - named after his father -- in 1946. The group has since expanded to include some 25 companies. He established the Cyprus Cement Works company, at Moni, in 1970. He was also director of CCC Holdings & Investments Ltd and CCC Tourism Enterprises Ltd. Galatariotis also served on the boards of various semi-governmental organisations, such as the Electricity Authority of Cyprus (EAC), the Development Bank and Cyprus Airways. In 1986, France honoured him with the title of `Commandeur' of the French Legion in recognition of his work promoting French-Cypriot friendship. A father of four, Galatariotis also had a reputation as a major donor to charities.

[07] Father and son deny trying to defraud state lottery

A 66-year-old man, Zacharias Papantoniou, was yesterday remanded in custody for six days by Paralimni District Court on suspicion of complicity in a state lottery ticket scam allegedly involving his son Michael Michael, who was remanded in custody on Wednesday. During a drug search operation, police say they found in Michael's basement some 3,000 `instant lottery' scratch tickets. Five hundred tickets were hung from a string to dry, and investigators believe a special fluid had been applied on the scratch areas to conceal that they had been tampered with. Michael allegedly cashed in the scratch cards that won various amounts. His father, Zacharias Papandoniou, was remanded in custody after investigators told the court that more than 500 lottery tickets had been kept in his house. Both Michael and Papantoniou deny the allegations.

[08] Teachers' unions brace for lengthy pay battle

THE SCHOOLS crisis deepened yesterday over a government proposal presented to secondary schoolteacher unions OELMEK and OLTEK on Wednesday night. Both unions have dismissed the proposal over pay rises and the creation of new posts as not being in line with established agreements with the government. Meanwhile the union of primary school teachers, POED, has accused the government of undermining it. A meeting between POED and Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides yesterday failed to iron out their differences. The Minister stressed that the government's proposals to both OELMEK and POED were final, but the primary school teachers are sticking to their guns and say the union's Council will decide their next step. The disputed secondary schools proposal includes the creation of two new levels of position between `teacher' and `principal' status. Specifically, it proposes an additional 23 headmaster places, and opens up 447 lower grade positions. But OELMEK says that the government has gone back on what had been agreed on the number of new positions. The OELMEK Council will meet on Wednesday to decide the union's official reaction to the proposal. "The proposal is unacceptable," said OELMEK chief Andreas Stavrou yesterday. The primary school teachers' union POED argues that opening up new positions downgrades the status of its teachers, and says that the proposal would cost millions of pounds to implement. POED Chairman Sophocles Hadjiyiannis said yesterday: "According to the proposal, the status of a primary school deputy headmaster becomes the same as the status of a secondary school teacher. And the status of a primary school headmaster will be equal to the status of a secondary school deputy headmaster if the government goes ahead with its plan." The spat between the Education Ministry and the secondary school teachers began when primary school teachers went on strike, demanding pay rises to bring them in line with secondary school teachers. The secondary school teachers then reacted by asking for an upgrade in their own salary status -- to maintain the current difference with their primary school colleagues.

Cyprus Mail 2000

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