Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-08-04

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

Saturday, August 4, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Denktash: 'I'll do my best' for resumption of talks

[02] Mystery computer donors in limbo

[03] British legal firm back anti-antenna campaign

[04] New Church row over plan to upgrade Kykkos abbot to bishop

[05] Labour Ministry to rule on airline dispute next week

[06] Police coy on paedophile report

[07] Car sales down in 2000

[01] Denktash: 'I'll do my best' for resumption of talks

THE UN yesterday officially announced a date for a meeting between Secretary-general Kofi Annan and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash that is widely expected to pave the way for the resumption of stalled Cyprus settlement talks.

Denktash responded to the announcement by saying he would "do his best" to help talks resume, raising hopes that a process gridlocked for the past seven months might be about to get back on track.

In a written statement from Annan's spokesman, Fred Eckhard, the date for the potentially crucial Annan-Denktash meeting was set for August 28, and the venue as Salzburg, Austria.

In a further indication that the settlement process - deadlocked since Denktash walked out of indirect talks in November - might be about to resume, Eckhard said the UN mediator in charge of the indirect talks, Alvaro de Soto, would be visiting Cyprus soon after the Salzburg meeting.

De Soto is to have meetings with both the Turkish Cypriot leader and President Glafcos Clerides.

Clerides yesterday gave a cautious welcome to the announcement of the Annan- Denktash meeting. The President said the resumption of talks stalled over Denktash's demands for recognition of his occupation regime would hinge on the August 28 meeting. "It will depend on what will be said between the Secretary-general and Mr Denktash," he said.

"Our position is that if the Secretary-general calls talks after seeing Mr Denktash then we will respond positively," the President added.

Denktash was reported as saying he would do his bit for the resumption of talks. "It is our duty to help efforts to resume the dialogue with the southern republic," Denktash said, referring to the government.

Observers suggest Denktash is being pressured by Ankara to return to talks because Turkey wants to earn 'brownie points' with the EU to feed her accession aspirations. Reports have suggested the negotiations will be renamed 'indirect' rather than 'proximity' talks to ease the Turkish Cypriot leader's return, by allowing him to claim he is entering a new process rather than returning to negotiations he has declared 'dead'. When he walked out of the last round of proximity talks in November, Denktash said he needed international recognition for his occupation regime before he could return. He has since repeated this demand ad nausseum.

The Greek Cypriot side has always expressed its willingness to resume talks aimed at establishing a bi-communal, bi-zonal federation in Cyprus, so long as their basis was not altered to appease Denktash. Denktash favours a confederal solution.

The leader of governing DISY, Nicos Anastassiades, yesterday said the Greek Cypriot side would wait to see what demands Denktash made of Annan before deciding on whether to attend a new round of talks. He said the talks would be boycotted if their basis were altered.

Yiannakis Omirou, the leader of socialists KISOS, said he hoped Denktash would co-operate so that a new round of constructive talks became possible.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] Mystery computer donors in limbo

A MYSTERY £400 million offer of free computers for local schools was in limbo yesterday as the government again insisted the identity of the donors had to be made public.

On Thursday, the representatives of the unnamed benefactors offered to reveal the donors to President Clerides and Education Minister Ouranios Ioannides alone.

But Ioannides yesterday repeated the government line that the donors had to make themselves known to the whole country before the offer of 160,000 computers could even be considered.

"The representatives asked on the phone if I wanted to hear the name, I said I could not promise that I could know the name alone," the Education Minister said when asked about the donor's compromise proposal.

"Without openness, nothing can go ahead," he said.

Did this mean the government was now shelving the donation offer, the minister was asked? " I think yes, because for us to go ahead we have to know who to talk to, who the donor is," he said. Ioannides said that only by talking face-to-face with the donors could the government satisfy itself that they were capable of coming through on the super-generous offer to provide a computer for every nursery, primary and secondary school and the Cyprus University.

The chairman of the House education committee, Prodromos Prodromou, dismissed the £400 million offer yesterday, saying it was a "non-serious" proposal the government should spend no more time on.

The businessman representing the donors, Christos Theodorou, says only Clerides and Ioannides can know their identities "for reasons of national security and public interest, but also for protection of the donors themselves."

The donation, Theodorou said, was being offered for "genuine and altruistic" reasons.

The spokesman also said that if the government did not want the free computers for schools, then they would be given to students and teachers directly, for use at home.

The mystery offer has been the subject of much negative press speculation since it was made public last week, with a number of reports suggesting there could be hidden motives behind the donation.

Local computer suppliers have been lobbying Ioannides to turn down the unprecedented offer, saying the donation would ruin the local computer business.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] British legal firm back anti-antenna campaign

THE GREEN party yesterday announced that a top British legal firm was backing its bid to take Britain to the European Court of Human Rights over a decision to erect a massive new antenna at the Akrotiri salt lake.

Protests against the new mast, which the greens and local residents claim will spread cancer and damage salt lake wildlife, turned into bloody anti British bases riots at Episkopi and Akrotiri on July 3, with over 40 bases policemen being hurt.

The Green party yesterday called a news conference in Nicosia to present an "initial" agreement with London law firm Leigh, Day & Co jointly to fight the controversial antenna plans in court.

Leigh, Day & Co legal advisor Richard Stein did the talking for the London firm. "If something like this happened in Britain, the government would have a very hard time justifying the environmental destruction and the possible danger for the health of local residents. It would be impossible legally to support such an installation in Britain," he said.

Green party member and lawyer Nicos Clerides said he was confident the antenna plans could be successfully challenged before the European court. "I am certain that we can put together a serious challenge," he said.

Party deputy George Perdikis said a first meeting of lawyers to prepare the challenge before the European Rights court had been set for August 29.

Britain says a 1997 impact study gives her antenna plans a clean bill of environmental health.

The Green party is also organising an anti-antenna protest concert at Akrotiri tonight. Bases personnel have been banned from the vicinity of the Akrotiri football stadium, the venue for the concert, as a precautionary measure.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] New Church row over plan to upgrade Kykkos abbot to bishop

ARCHBISHOP Chrysostomos yesterday confirmed that some members of the Holy Synod, the local church's top body, had reacted negatively to his proposal to upgrade the Abbot of Kykkos Monastery to a bishop.

The disagreement among the clergy is the latest row after almost a year of unrest, with top church members clashing against each other and even with the Archbishop.

The upgrading of Kykkos abbot Nikiforos to bishop is tied to a change in the Church's charter; with 14 bishops, the Church of Cyprus would become completely autonomous. The need for autonomy was best demonstrated last year, when a Major Synod comprising bishops from Greece and the Near East was convened to resolve a local crisis. Already, a tripartite committee has been set up to study changes to the charter.

Reports also suggested that the charter's revision could entail changes to the way bishops - and the Archbishop -were elected. Asked about his successor, Chrysostomos yesterday simply remarked: "I'm still alive."

Nikiforos is seen as a powerful figure in the Church, and there has been speculation that opposition to his upgrading is due to internal wrangling over the succession to the ageing Archbishop.

The Archbishop also confirmed that the Holy Synod would next convene on September 11, when it would re-examine the case of reinstating two Limassol archimandrites, suspended since last November on charges of slandering their bishop, by claiming he is gay.

The Bishop of Limassol was only cleared of allegations he was homosexual after the Major Synod convened last November.

On Monday, one of the archimandrites threatened to "expose" bishops and priests if the ban was not lifted.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] Labour Ministry to rule on airline dispute next week

THE LABOUR Ministry will present its verdict on the latest industrial dispute to rock Cyprus Airways (CY) early next week.

Meanwhile, CY chairman Haris Loizides said he was close to striking a deal with unions to ban strike action during the peak holiday period.

On Thursday, a last-ditch intervention from Labour Minister Andreas Moushiouttas succeeded in getting CY engineers to call off threatened strike action over a six-year-old upgrading demand.

Yesterday, Moushiouttas said he and his subordinates were poring over what they had heard from engineers' union ASYSEKA and CY management during marathon meetings on Thursday and would be making their next move early next week. "What is happening now is that, having heard the two sides, we are evaluating what was said, and we will decide whether to submit a mediation offer or declare a deadlock," the minister said.

He said he was encouraged by the fact that ASYSEKA had decided to suspend strike action for as long as the issue was being negotiated.

But he also warned that he would not hesitate to "apportion blame" to either employees or bosses if his bridge-building effort failed.

ASYSEKA spokesman Nicos Malaos reaffirmed that the union would be holding off on strike action while the Ministry initiative was ongoing. He also fought off criticism over his union's decision to threaten a strike during the peak tourist season, saying the engineers had no desire to cause disruption but had waited long enough for an answer to promotion demands made six years ago.

CY chairman Loizides has made clear airline management will not discuss engineers' demands with the threat of a strike hanging over them.

Loizides yesterday said the larger CY unions had responded "positively" to a management proposal for a gentlemen's agreement for no industrial action during July and August.

The national carrier has a long history of worker strife and was last month hit by two two-hour walkouts, by pilots and engineers.

Communications Minister Averoff Neophytou has slammed striking CY employees as blackmailers, adding that liberalising the air transport sector was the only way to force workers at the national carrier to shed their fondness for strikes.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] Police coy on paedophile report

But Larnaca police chief Nicos Stelikos yesterday declined to confirm the reports. "At the moment there is nothing to justify presenting any suspect before court to seek a remand order," he said when asked to comment on the reports.

On Thursday night, Larnaca police confirmed they were investigating a suspected case of paedophilia, but said they could not provide further details.

According to state broadcaster CyBC, two young women, aged 21 and 22, have told police that they were molested by two men nine years ago, when they were 12 and 13 respectively.

Following the two women's complaints, one made on Wednesday and one yesterday, 10 other women had apparently called Larnaca police yesterday to complain of having been molested by the same two suspected perverts in their younger years. CyBC described the two suspected paedophiles "persons of the arts scene".

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] Car sales down in 2000

Their predictions were yesterday clear in the statistics finally released for 2000.

The number of newly registered private saloon cars dropped 6.5 per cent to 17,729, down from 18,966 signed up in 1999.

Private saloons, which account for more than half the total number of newly registered motors, suffered the biggest share of the slump in the motor trade.

The number of newly registered vehicles as a whole fell 5.3 per cent to 32, 165, compared to 33,973 in 1999.

There was a barely perceptible improvement in road safety. There were two less fatalities in 2000, at 111 rather than 113 deaths in 1999, making a weekly average of 2.13 rather than 2.17.

The number of reported accidents dropped 5.4 per cent.

A total of 3,976 accidents in 2000, rather than 4,203 in 1999, made a daily average of 10.8 compared to 11.5 in 1999.

Although there was a considerable slowdown in the transport, storage and communication sector as whole, ship and flight arrivals were up.

The sector grew 5.5 per cent in 2000 compared to growth figures of 10.8 per cent in 1999.

Ship arrivals were up 8.9 per cent to 5,289 - an average of 14.5 a day. Air passengers increased 10.4 per cent to 3.07 million.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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