Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-08-21

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

Tuesday, August 21, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Government promises assistance after freak storm

[02] Should party leaders go to New York? Partners at each other's throats

[03] Vets mull options to combat scrapie outbreak

[04] Hood men beat up night watchman

[05] Narrow escape after drinking binge turns nasty

[01] Government promises assistance after freak storm

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday pledged financial help to the victims of freak whirlwind that struck the island on Saturday, as meteorologists warned of more storms to come.

The whirlwind struck on Saturday afternoon, leaving one woman dead in the occupied north and causing damages in the government-held areas totalling over £23,000.

The weather turned stormy from about 4.30pm, with the whirlwind continuing its trail of destruction until about 8.30 pm. The stormy weather affected several areas in the Nicosia, Larnaca and Paphos district. In the north, it wreaked havoc in the occupied Famagusta and Morphou areas.

Interior Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou yesterday held an emergency meeting with ministry officials to address the situation.

Twenty-four houses suffered damage in the government-controlled area, with costs totalling around £23,000, Christodoulou said after the meeting. The minister vowed that the government's technical services would repair damages of up to £1,000 immediately.

"The Cabinet will soon decide what to do about the more serious damage. But after such a catastrophe the government can only be especially generous," Christodoulou said.

Saturday's whirlwind came as surprise, with temperatures as high as 36 degrees Celsius. However, Kyriacos Theophilou, director of the Meteorological Department, said yesterday that, "such phenomena are not rare this time of the year and occur because of low atmospheric pressures."

Theophilou warned that the weather would continue to be unstable until Thursday, but not as bad as it had been on Saturday.

"Rains and storms could occur anywhere in Cyprus," he said.

The worst hit area was Troulli in the Larnaca district, where cars and lorries were thrown around by the wind and several homes and businesses damaged.

Electricity and telephone lines were down for several hours in Troulli and nearby Athienou.

Miraculously no one was hurt in Troulli, though cars were damaged and two lorries were overturned. Widows were shattered and prefabricated buildings collapsed. Three families had to leave their homes and move with relatives because their houses were severely damaged.

The storm also destroyed crops, while in Peristerona near Nicosia the manager of chicken farm told police he had lost 15,000 chickens during the storms. In the Paphos district the weather caused landslides and a fishing boat was damaged when it was blown onto rocks.

In the north, a 54-year-old woman died while driving through the occupied village of Kondea, just east of Troulli, when the whirlwind lifted up her car before letting it fall from a great height. A 16-year-old passenger was injured.

Unconfirmed reports said a Turkish soldier manning a guard post on the Kakotris hill northwest of Troulloi had gone missing since the whirlwind struck the area. UNFICYP could not confirm the incident.

Turkish Cypriot press reports also said hundreds of livestock had been lost when barn roofs were blown away by the wind, while torrential rain had caused flooding in the Morphou area.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] Should party leaders go to New York? Partners at each other's throats

GOVERNMENT coalition partners DISY and the United Democrats (UD) yesterday continued to tear into each other over whether party leaders should go to New York with President Clerides for the new round of UN-led settlement early next month.

The long-running spat yesterday evolved into a straight standoff between the two protagonists: DISY chief Nicos Anastassiades and Michalis Papapetrou, the Government spokesman and vice-chairman of junior government coalition partners UD.

Anastassiades - who says he and the other party leaders on the National Council should get to go to New York - implied it might be better if Papapetrou - who says party leaders should stay put unless there are concrete developments at the proximity talks - stayed at home. The DISY leader questioned the UD vice-chairman's Cyprus problem line, expressing fears Papapetrou might "influence" developments as President Clerides begins fresh indirect talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

The President did not hide his annoyance at what has become a running feud between Anastassiades and Papapetrou yesterday. Clerides said it was not up to the two warring politicians to decide who went with the President to New York.

"Neither the one nor the other will decide the issue," was Clerides' brief response when asked about the matter.

In a sideshow to the DISY-UD standoff, Papapetrou yesterday also fought a war of words with the leader of the right-wing New Horizons party, Nicos Koutsou, again over the New York trip.

The leader of main opposition party AKEL, House president Demetris Christofias, described the Papapetrou-Anastassiades wrangle as an "inter- governmental spat" he did not want any part of. But Christofias sided with arch-rival Anastassiades on the New York issue, hitting out at the widespread belief that party leaders view such trips as little more than a shopping holiday.

"We repeat ourselves every time the issue comes up. We (the party leaders) say we should go, some others say we should not. 'You will spend so much money, you will eat up people's money,' they say. I consider this insulting, it is demeaning to the political leadership of the country to suggest they should not be there when the future of the country is being decided," the AKEL chief said.

The leader of socialist opposition party KISOS, Yiannakis Omirou, sided with Papapetrou, saying he did not see the need for party leader to go to the talks unless there were surprise developments.

Few expect the new round of talks to signal big steps forward in a settlement process grid-locked over Denktash's demands for recognition of his occupation regime.

The Papapetrou-Anastassiades spat represented another blow for a shaky government coalition, and the Under-secretary to the President, Pantelis Kouros, called for unity yesterday. "I believe the issue will be resolved in the proper manner when the President. meets the party leaders," Kouros said.

Apparently mindful of the Presidential Palace's concerns for unity, Anastassiades and Papapetrou both agreed yesterday that the issue of who goes to New York could be decided later. But that was about the only thing the two politicians agreed on.

Papapetrou, who again made clear he was speaking as UD vice-chairman and not as Government Spokesman, repeated that he saw no reason for National Council members to be in New York come September.

"The essence of the issue is that at this stage there is no indication there will be serious talks, no indication that Denktash is going there to talk seriously, no indication that they will submit proposals. What we said was 'let's hope this all happens and with one phone call the National Council can be there within 24 hours'," Papapetrou told state radio CyBC.

Papapetrou, who has implied Anastassiades wants to be at the talks because he did not trust Clerides, accused the DISY man of starting the whole wrangle over the New York trip.

Anastassiades hit back, saying that is was "well-known" that Papapetrou's positions on a settlement were "more advanced" than the President's, implying the UD man would be happy to make concessions to the Turkish side.

"It is not Mr Papapetrou who negotiates at the talks, but he is present and it is natural that he can influence things positively or negatively," the DISY chief told CyBC.

Anastassiades was careful to say that his disagreement was with Papapetrou the UD vice-chairman and not Papapetrou the Government Spokesman.

Papapetrou said his positions on a settlement were not divergent from those of Clerides. He also dismissed suggestions of a major rift between DISY and UD and said he was not concerned over suggestions that Anastassiades might urge Clerides to axe him as Government Spokesman.

Papapetrou also took on New Horizons leader Nicos Koutsou yesterday.

The UD man said that Koutsou should stay at home, even if it was eventually decided that the National Council should go to New York. In fact, Papapetrou suggested Koutsou should exclude himself for reasons of "political ethics" because he and his party opposed the federal settlement the UN-led proximity talks were geared towards. "What will Koutsou's function be in New York if we are discussing a federal settlement?" the UD man wondered.

Koutsou, never one to take a verbal blow lying down, said it was Papapetrou who had issues of political ethics to resolve. He accused Papapetrou of favouring a settlement with elements of the confederal solution supported by Denktash. Koutsou explained what his role would be at the talks: "I must be there so I can point out, in proposals the foreigners might submit, the elements which violate human rights and enforce the Turkish position."

He repeated that the New Horizons were opposed to a federal settlement on "human rights grounds".

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Vets mull options to combat scrapie outbreak

THE VETERINARY department yesterday weighed up their options in handling the serious outbreak of scrapie on a farm in Paphos, amid fears that hundreds of other sheep could be infected, given the long incubation period of the disease.

The afflicted farm, one of the largest sheep farms in Paphos, was the main supplier of male breeding rams for the entire country.

The emergence of scrapie has ended its status as a reproductive centre.

The deputy director of the veterinary service, Andreas Orphanides, said yesterday that either the entire flock could be slaughtered, or animals with scrapie-resistant genes could be introduced in an effort to immunise the sheep against the deadly disease.

Strengthening the flock and making it scrapie-resistant would mean that the farm could supply other ranches struck down with the condition in the future.

If the flock was culled, then a replacement one would have to be gathered and fathered from other sources.

"Both choices have their advantages and disadvantages. The [veterinary] committee will assess the two choices and make best decision," said Orphanides.

A decision is expected sometime this week.

On Friday, seven sheep diagnosed with the condition were slaughtered and their carcasses burnt in an immediate effort to prevent the spread of the disease.

All animals sold to other farms over the last five years will be traced and tested as a precautionary measure to determine how many may be infected with the disease.

Scrapie is a fatal infectious disease that affects the central nervous system of adult sheep. It is spread from ewe to offspring and to other animals in the same lambing group through contact with the placenta and placenta fluids.

The veterinary department has reassured the public that there is no human form of the disease.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Hood men beat up night watchman

FOUR hooded men yesterday beat a Limassol water park night watchman senseless and abandoned him bound and gagged, police said.

Yiannis Pafitanis, 49, told officers at the Episkopi police station he had been attacked by four men at 2am while he was on night guard duty at Fasouri water-park.

Pafitanis said one of the men had threatened him with a shotgun while the others beat him using a club and their bare hands.

The men then bound Pafitanis with handcuffs and tape and abandoned him at the scene senseless.

He came to an hour later and managed to free his legs.

Pafitanis managed to drive his car home despite his handcuffs and was taken to Limassol hospital by his son.

A fire officer called to the hospital cut his cuffs while doctors decided to keep Pafitanis, who had lacerations and bruises all over his body, for observation.

Police are investigating.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] Narrow escape after drinking binge turns nasty

A DRINKING binge between three friends almost ended in tragedy after they quarrelled and two of them beat and chased the other with a shotgun, a Limassol court heard yesterday.

Twenty-eight-year-old Michalis Polyviou told police on Sunday night that he had been drinking with Andreas Paphitis, 28, and his 42-year-old uncle Costas Paphitis, both from Kato Polemidia, at their farm when they had an argument.

Polyviou alleged the two men attacked and beat him but he managed to escape.

The two men chased him and fired two shots with a shotgun but missed, Polyviou said.

Polyviou was taken to hospital with a broken nose while the two suspects were arrested.

They were remanded for three days yesterday in connection with illegal possession of a firearm, possession of a firearm with intend to cause harm, and assault with real bodily harm.

The two men denied involvement in the alleged incident.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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