Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-04-06

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

Friday, April 6, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Plenum passes mutual funds law

[02] Motorists testify about Tsiakourmas' abandoned car

[03] Standing as an independent to expose scandal

[04] Government tables amended health plan bill

[05] Co-operative under investigation over sackings and jobs for relatives

[06] Teenager injured in the eye by firecracker

[07] New shop hours could be in place before elections

[08] Heroin suspect could die if drug packets explode in his stomach

[09] More gypsies cross from the north

[10] Russian tourism on the rise

[11] KISOS and UD slam parties' 'unethical' involvement in stock market

[01] Plenum passes mutual funds law

The government meanwhile tabled before parliament a controversial bill providing for the establishment of a stabilisation fund to bolster the slumped market.

The passing of the mutual funds legislation means individual investors will be able to club together to set up joint funds for investing in shares of one or more companies. DISY deputy Prodromos Prodromou said the new law would protect small investors from the ups and downs of the market. "Private investors now can, without risk, do what institutional investors do," he said.

The plenum also unanimously approved bills further defining and upgrading the role of the Securities and Exchange Commission and imposing a cap on the number of market transactions a broker can undertake depending on the capital at his disposal.

But the government's biggest market revival effort, the establishment of a £100 million bourse stabilisation fund, seems unlikely to win such all- round support.

A relevant bill was tabled before the plenum yesterday but opposition parties have made no secret of their disapproval.

Having failed to secure cross-party support for an original plan for direct state financing of the fund, the government bill tabled yesterday proposes that the fund be paid for through the levies charged on stock market transactions.

But KISOS leader Vassos Lyssarides summed up opposition party disdain for the plan when he described it as a government gambit aimed solely at wining votes ahead of the May parliamentary elections.

The stabilisation fund bill is not expected to be voted on by the plenum before the elections.

After a long and often heated debate, the plenum yesterday evening threw out a controversial government plan for Cypriots studying abroad to be allowed to cast their votes for next month's elections in specially set up polling centres in Greece, Britain, France and Germany.

DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades pleaded for approval of the relevant amendment, saying it would allow "thousands of our finest young people to vote". DISY enjoys solid support among younger voters.

The DISY proposal was rejected by 30 votes to 16. A KISOS proposal that all registered Cypriot voters abroad be allowed to vote in Cyprus embassies was rejected by 28 votes to 18.

Deputies decided to make their last session before the elections, on April 19, an all-day affair in order to get though the backlog of bills before them.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] Motorists testify about Tsiakourmas' abandoned car

All testified that they had seen the car abandoned on the road with the doors open and the lights on. Tsiakourmas, 39, who is diabetic, has been accused by the Turkish Cypriot side of possessing two kilos of cannabis.

On Tuesday, an Irish member of UNFICYP was flown in to testify to threats from the Turkish Cypriot side to 'kidnap' a Greek Cypriot following the arrest of Turkish Cypriot drugs smuggler Omer Tekogul from the mixed village of Pyla 10 days before Tsiakourmas disappeared. Tekogul was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment last month.

However, the testimony of the Irish officer was cut short by prosecution objections and the 'court' agreed to disallow the testimony.

Also on Tuesday, other witnesses told how they saw Tsiakourmas` car and witnessed three of four people whom they could not identify. One man said he heard someone shouting "Let me go" in Greek, but he felt scared and left the area.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Standing as an independent to expose scandal

Petros Yiassemides has been involved in public life since 1956, spending much of that time campaigning to bring those involved in the Hellenic Chemical Industries (HCI) scandal to justice.

The company, in which the government was the main shareholder, has since the early 1980s been implicated in allegations that it published misleading information in its prospectus.

This allegedly led to £100 million of government and private funds from some 2,700 shareholders being wasted on a venture that never came into being. No action was taken against those named as responsible by an official enquiry.

Announcing his decision to stand yesterday, Yiassemides said he had been a shareholder and held a managerial position in HCI until his opinion on its dealings forced him to resign and begin his campaign.

Yiassemides has testified before the investigative committee set up to investigate HCI, sent letters on the matter to the House Finance and Watchdog Committees, taken suits on before the courts, held news conferences and written countless articles about the issue.

He even admitted to deliberately libelling individuals believed to be involved in the scandal, "to be given the opportunity to prove before the courts that what I say is true," but has never been sued on these charges.

His contacts with deputies, ministers, party leaders and even Presidents, have led him to the conclusion, "that, beyond a doubt, all the political parties are involved in the covering up of various financial crimes and scandals."

This, he said, was what had prompted him to stand as an independent.

"I hope I will be given the opportunity to continue my efforts as a deputy. This is the only way for the crime of HCI to be uncovered along with other crimes and scandals," he said.

Yiassemides said that if he was elected his goals would be to bring the guilty parties to justice, "put an end to the years of all the parties' silence and hypocrisy over financial crimes and open the scandal-filled drawers of the parties."

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Government tables amended health plan bill

The bill was yesterday tabled before the House plenum and is expected to be voted on in two weeks, on April 19, the plenum's last session before it dissolves ahead of the May parliamentary elections.

DIKO still opposes the plan as it stands, demanding the introduction of radical changes, while two of the four amendments that AKEL has asked for have been included in the government bill.

DISY, KISOS and the United Democrats support the plan as it stands, while AKEL is insisting on its changes.

Two of these have now been introduced: that pensioners living on less than £300 a month will not have to contribute to the plan and that state hospitals will remain in state hands.

But the government has rejected the two other changes the left-wing party has asked for.

The demands were for employees' contributions to be reduced from two per cent of their wages to 1.5 per cent and for representatives of the public to be present on the board set up to co-ordinate the scheme.

The government will not take any public contributions to the scheme until it is ready to deliver services, in approximately five years' time.

The decision was announced on Tuesday amid efforts to avert a 48-hour strike threatened by public service and banking unions, who feared they would lose out on benefits provided by their own schemes. The government insists they will continue to enjoy any extra benefits they receive from their current schemes.

After yesterday's meeting of the House Health Committee, which was held behind closed doors, Health Minister Frixos Savvides who presented the bill to deputies, said: "Parties will have between now and April 19 to position themselves on the amendments. I hope that just as Jesus Christ is resurrected at Easter, the Health Plan will resurrect when the House reconvenes after Easter to vote on the bill."

Under the proposed scheme, all employees would contribute two per cent of their wages to the plan. The employer would contribute a further 2.55 per cent and 4.5 per cent would be footed by the state.

Committee chairman Andreas Parissinos of DISY appeared optimistic that the plan would gain House approval.

"We discussed the amendments that have been introduced. There was a good atmosphere at the meeting. The bill will be tabled before the Plenum today and the House will vote on it in two weeks," he said yesterday.

The minister met with civil service union PASYDY and bank employees' union ETYK earlier in the day.

ETYK said it was pleased with the bill's provisions. PASYDY has yet to position itself on the plan.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] Co-operative under investigation over sackings and jobs for relatives

The Co-operative movement's commissioner, Erotocritos Chlorakiotis, has already appointed a committee to investigate the allegations.

One of Co-marine Co-operative's directors, Pavlos Pavlou, admitted before the Committee meeting looking into the matter yesterday that the company had fired 16 of its employees, but insisted they had received adequate compensation.

Pavlou also admitted that after the employees had been made redundant, the company had hired his daughter and his son-in-law without any vacant positions having been announced before.

The revelation outraged deputies, who were severely critical of Pavlou. He responded by accusing deputies of being "malicious".

"My daughter has more qualifications than most. She graduated from Surrey University. Why should the girl be left without a job after everything that her dad has done for the co-operative?" he asked.

Deputies said they had evidence proving that the sackings had come about after the co-operative had lost large amounts of money on the stock market.

Rikkos Erotocritou of DISY charged: "The company has given money under the table to people who had no right to receive money from the co-operative. Plus, it spent £100,000 on renovations after sacking the 16 employees. We are talking about a major economic and political scandal."

Chlorakiotis said that the co-operative movement was a public institution and that £3 billion passed through it every year.

"I will help those sacked employees to get jobs in other co-operatives where there are vacancies," he promised.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] Teenager injured in the eye by firecracker

Andreas Hadjimichael, 17, was yesterday recovering in Larnaca hospital after being seriously injured in the eye after a firecracker exploded in his hands.

The incident happened at 8.30pm on Wednesday in a field next to Phaneromeni church in Larnaca as the boy was setting off fireworks with friends.

He had just lit a triangular firecracker when it exploded, injuring his left eye. Hadjimichael was rushed to Larnaca hospital where he was still receiving treatment yesterday.

The head of the hospital's ophthalmic clinic, Titos Christofides, said: "This youth was the victim of a firecracker. We hope and believe he will not lose his eye but I would like to use this opportunity to give young people a message that, on top of being used for entertainment purposes, fireworks can handicap someone for life."

People are maimed every year in accidents caused by illegal explosives. Police are currently imposing a draconian crackdown on firecrackers.

Police on Tuesday confiscated around 67,000 illegal factory-made firecrackers, confiscated from a 70-year-old licensed importer of fireworks.

The seizure was the biggest single haul so far, bringing to 120,000 the number of firecrackers confiscated across the island so far this year.

Police have also warned pharmacists and shops selling fertilisers of other potentially explosive materials to be especially careful when dealing with young customers interested in suspicious supplies. The sale of this type of materials is prohibited to anyone under 18.

The authorities have also been visiting schools and community centres to tell youths about the dangers of explosives.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] New shop hours could be in place before elections

While the bill is not expected to go to the vote until the plenum's April 19 session, the last before the House dissolves ahead of the May parliamentary elections, Committee president Avraam Antoniou was yesterday optimistic it would be adopted.

The proposal sees shops closing at 8.30pm in the summer and 7pm in the winter on weekdays, 5pm on Saturdays in the summer and 3pm in the winter. Wednesday closing would remain at 2pm in summer and winter. Afternoon closing will be from 2-5pm in the summer, which would be defined as running from June 15 to the end of August.

Speaking after a closed Labour Committee meeting yesterday, Antoniou said: "The rights of the employees will also be catered for, even in the framework of a continuous working day with no more than one hour's closing during (winter) afternoons except where early closing applies." He said that a shift system would be introduced to maintain shop worker's rights.

Melios Georgiou, the general-secretary of shopkeepers' union POVEK, said that the union was satisfied by the Committee's decision even though the outcome had not been completely in line with what the union had wanted.

The Labour Ministry late last year announced that 1-4pm siesta hours would only come into effect during July and August, not from June to mid- September, as had been the case since the 1930s. Currently, shops remain open until 5.30pm in the winter and 7pm in the summer with 2pm closing on Wednesday and Saturday.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[08] Heroin suspect could die if drug packets explode in his stomach

Mostafa Sabzipour, 33, from Iran was remanded in custody for eight days, as police waited for the three packages to pass through his system.

Investigating officer Vassos Tandis told the court that x-rays had shown the suspect to be carrying four packages in his stomach.

One passed through Sabzipour's system shortly after his arrest at Larnaca airport on Wednesday. It was found to contain 22 grams of heroin.

But the remaining bags were still in the suspect's stomach, Tandis said, warning his life could be in danger if he did not pass the bags soon. Sabzipour could die if one of the bags exploded in his stomach, the police officer said.

Tandis said the remaining bags were thought to contain between 80 and 100 grams each.

The investigating officer also told the court that Sabzipour had had a fake hotel reservation for a Larnaca hotel and that the police had information that someone was waiting to pick the suspect up from the airport and take him to Limassol to meet with drug dealing contacts.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[09] More gypsies cross from the north

The nine men, four women and five children, who crossed near Peristerona, were taken to the local police station for questioning before being given shelter at a Nicosia hotel.

They will join the 30 others at the hotel, who crossed on Tuesday. The hotel is under police guard until the government manages to establish a holding centre to process the gypsies' identities and establish if they are Cypriot.

Plans to place the centre near the village of Kotsiatis fell through on Wednesday when residents complained, but the government said it would have a new centre ready by Monday.

Since the beginning of March, over 150 Turkish Cypriot gypsies have crossed to the south. In the past week, nearly 100 entered the Republic. Most have been relocated to Paphos and many are still living in tents in villages around Polis Chrysochous.

The gypsies say they are escaping from the economic woes besetting the breakaway Turkish Cypriot regime in the north and are receiving state benefits of around £375 per month for a family of four.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[10] Russian tourism on the rise

CTO officials, who have just returned from the Moscow Tourism Fair, said dozens of Cypriot companies had taken part in the fair and that, coupled with the recent code-sharing agreement between Cyprus Airways (CY) and Aeroflot, numbers would be up substantially this year.

The new agreement provides for 17 flights weekly between Cyprus and Russia, not including charter flights.

Some 146,000 Russian tourists visited Cyprus last year, an 8.8 per cent rise over the previous year's 134,000.

If the tourism flow goes as well as expected this year, 160,000 Russians will visit the island.

The CTO said it has planned a strong advertising campaign in Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Belarus while Russian journalists will also be invited to Cyprus to experience the island's tourism first hand.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[11] KISOS and UD slam parties' 'unethical' involvement in stock market

On Tuesday and Wednesday both ruling right-wing DISY and centre-right DIKO published details of their share dealings and insisted that they had done nothing illegal by investing on the CSE in 1999 after buying shares on private placement.

But in a statement yesterday, KISOS said that it had said then and repeated now that although technically legal, such practice was certainly not ethical.

"It's not whether this is legal for political parties, but whether it's moral and within their ideology to be involved in financial dealings," the statement said.

It said that in August 1999, when the "privileged receipt of shares" by DISY and DIKO was revealed, "we, as EDEK then, said that the two parties acted in a way incompatible with political ethics and moral codes."

KISOS said the parties had accepted preferential treatment, which was the same as taking a gift worth hundred of thousands pounds, and had acted in a profit seeking manner, "giving the message that the role of the stock market was to get rich easily for those who were clever and who had the right connections."

"Today, we still hold these opinions, and insist that in order for the dignity of politics and politicians to return, parties, politicians and senior party officials should be an example of ethical behaviour and avoid any financial or profit taking activities," the statement said.

The UD statement said the publication of the CSE dealings by the DIKO and DISY highlighted the need for transparency in the financial dealings of the political parties.

"It is a problem when the people who make the laws, such as those on private placement shares, also have an interest in the matter and for these to be hidden," the statement said.

"We are also concerned that those who have financial interests in the stock exchange expect to be considered reliable in their political activities and effective in their suggestions to solve the problems of the stock exchange."

The UD believes the new parliament, which will be voted in next month, should amend and complete the laws on the functioning of the CSE and should introduce new laws that would force political parties and deputies to state what their private interests and activities were.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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