Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-08-23

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

Thursday, August 23, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] EU commissioner to meet reluctant Denktash

[02] MarkeTrends bosses to go to court over half million pound bouncing cheque

[03] Greenpeace slams government over failure to ratify Mediterranean convention

[04] Mayor's concern at refinery safety

[05] Back to school in a building site

[06] Cyprus slams US and Canadian actions over sea accident

[07] New website the first step to online government

[08] Court rules KYP tried to entrap spy suspect

[09] Wife beating suspect to go on trial

[01] EU commissioner to meet reluctant Denktash

TURKISH Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash will meet European Union Commissioner for Enlargement Gunther Verheugen in Zurich on Monday, on the eve of his appointment with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan in Salzburg the following day.

The European Delegation to Cyprus announced the August 27 meeting yesterday morning, as Turkish Cypriot newspaper reports said Denktash was still reluctant to make a commitment about returning to the negotiating table.

The European Commission initiated the meeting, which has been interpreted by the government as an effort to encourage the Turkish Cypriot delegation to attend the planned resumption of the UN sponsored proximity talks in New York in early September.

The negotiation process ended last December when Denktash's demands for equal recognition fell on deaf ears.

"We hope it will help towards the continuation of the UN-led talks on Cyprus and convince Denktash to return to the talks in a constructive spirit and negotiate seriously," Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said of the Verheugen meeting yesterday.

In a telephone conversation, Verheugen reassured Foreign Minister Yiannis Cassoulides that the Zurich meeting would "in no way" change the EU refusal to grant Denktash equal recognition of his statelet.

Talks have been provisionally booked to start on September 8 or 9, but Denktash told journalists in the north on Tuesday that there was no certainty about his attendance.

"I will not get involved in scenarios that say the talks will begin in September. The start of the talks in September depends on the evaluation of my government and assessments we will make along with Turkey if necessary after my meeting with the Secretary-general," he said.

UN Special Adviser for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto will fly into Cyprus the day after the Denktash-Annan meeting on August 29 for a fresh round of contacts with President Glafcos Clerides and the Turkish Cypriot leader.

A solution to the division of the island is seen as increasingly urgent given the proximity of Cyprus' expected accession to the EU.

Although Brussels has stressed a preference for a united island joining the EU, it has made clear it would accept Cyprus even without a solution.

Turkish Cypriots are alarmed at the prospect of a divided Cyprus joining the EU, fearing it would push Turkey away from Europe and closer to the Muslim world.

They claim that would leave the north isolated and turn the Green Line into a border between Europe and Turkey. Turkey has threatened formal annexation of the occupied areas if a divided Cyprus joins the EU.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] MarkeTrends bosses to go to court over half million pound bouncing cheque

Police said the owner of Galaxy Advertising Co had complained to police that MarkeTrends had issued him with a bouncing cheque for £500,000 in payment for taking over part of his company. The Galaxy boss said the bank had informed him that the cheque could not be honoured because the MarkeTrends directors had instructed the bank not to cash it.

Following the complaint, police launched an investigation and the completed file was handed to Attorney-general Alecos Markides. Markides has now given orders for the three MarkeTrends bosses to be taken to court, police said yesterday.

Police said the court action would kick off "within the next few days".

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Greenpeace slams government over failure to ratify Mediterranean convention

CYPRUS is dragging her feet when it comes to ratifying the amended 1995 version of a key international convention for protecting the Mediterranean Sea, Greenpeace charged yesterday.

In a message sent to the Agriculture and Foreign Ministries, the international environmental pressure group charged that Cyprus had not ratified the 1995 amendment of the Barcelona Convention. Greenpeace also listed five protocols of the convention, relating to specific aspects of conservation and pollution control in the Mediterranean basin, that Cyprus had not yet ratified.

"Six years after the Barcelona Convention was amended, frankly, your credibility is at stake and your political will to act responsibly is increasingly in question," Greenpeace charged the government.

The hard-hitting message to the Foreign and Agriculture Ministries is part of a Greenpeace push to get all signatories to the Barcelona Convention to ratify the 1995 amendment and its protocols by November, when contracting parties are set to meet in Monaco.

None of these instruments of environmental protection have entered into force because they have not been ratified by sufficient signatory countries.

"We would like to express Greenpeace's deep concern with regard the lack of progress by the countries bordering the Mediterranean to implement effectively the Barcelona Convention as amended in 1995 and its amended Protocols," the high-profile pressure group stated.

The Mediterranean is particularly vulnerable to pollution and over-fishing because it is a 'closed' sea connected to the Atlantic only through the Straits of Gibraltar.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Mayor's concern at refinery safety

Lycourgos was speaking yesterday as government officials rushed to the sprawling refinery and depot site to investigate what turned out to be a salt water leak from a pipe connecting the installations of the two oil companies. Officials said the leak, first reported on Tuesday, had smelt of oil because the pipe in question had previously been used to carry petroleum products.

Commerce and Industry Minister Nicos Rolandis defended the Larnaca refinery's safety record yesterday, saying it was one of the safest installations of its type anywhere in the world.

But the Larnaca mayor begged to differ. Lycourgos said safety checks at the refinery and petrol company installations were insufficient and suggested the installations posed a threat to the town's residents.

The mayor's concerns were echoed by members of a delegation from main opposition party AKEL that visited the site yesterday morning.

Lycourgos said it was high time a separate government service was set up to oversee refinery operations, suggesting there were currently too many disparate departments with responsibility for the issue.

The Commerce Ministry's chief inspector of factories, George Sideras, admitted there were "some dangers" from the operation of the oil installations but said safety checks were sufficient to counter these.

The director of the fire service, George Hadjigeorgiou, said he was satisfied with safety precautions at the refinery and oil company depots.

The refinery and depots are to be moved away from Larnaca by 2010.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] Back to school in a building site

WITH less than three weeks to go before the start of the new school year, Phaneromeni primary school in old Nicosia is still a building site, a major renovation project being far from complete.

The historic building is largely roofless and, despite contractors working overtime and at weekends, the Education Ministry admits the work will not be finished in time for the first day of school on September 10.

Students and teachers will have to put up with construction work as a background for their lessons and some will have to move to temporary classrooms in a nearby building at least until the end of September.

"We are very concerned because there will be certain problems. We are trying to find certain solutions, which will of course be temporary," the Education Ministry's director of primary education, Grigoris Hoplaros, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday.

"The contractor is promising he will be finished by the end of September - they are working night and day and weekends too and things are moving along and we are pressuring them all the time," he said. The Phaneromeni builders are not actually working nights but are putting in extra hours at the end of each day.

"By the tenth of the month, the contractor will hand over nine or ten classrooms and then, in the next 10 days, some more classrooms, as far as I have been informed," the ministry official said.

But he conceded that lessons would have to begin with building work going on all around and that alternative sites would have to be found to take some pupils for the start of the school year. A Church-owned building near the school has been earmarked as a possible temporary lessons venue.

"I am hopeful, though I cannot promise anything, that we will find a solution that will not damage the smooth running of the school," Hoplaros said.

"We are very concerned and we are doing our best but this is an old building and the work has to be done very carefully and can take that bit longer," the ministry man said.

Complaints about unfinished or sub-standard school facilities from parents and teachers are a feature of the start of almost every new school year on the island.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] Cyprus slams US and Canadian actions over sea accident

THE GOVERNMENT yesterday released a formal statement condemning a joint Canadian-US criminal investigation into the alleged ramming of an American trawler by a Cyprus-flagged tanker, in which three fishermen died.

Government officials accused the US and Canada as having violated the UN Law of the Sea Convention by initiating criminal proceedings in the case of the Russian-owned tanker Virgo. According to the international maritime convention, prosecutions for accidents in international waters must take place according to the laws of the flag state.

Problems began when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police boarded the Virgo with a search warrant issued by the Supreme Court of Canada and removed the official log book, navigation charts and other documents of recent voyages.

The Cypriot official on board the ship at the time informed the Mounties that investigations should be carried out by the Cypriot government and that Cypriot officials should be informed of the issuing of warrants in the future.

However, a second warrant was issued and Canadian police removed the Russian crew from the ship without informing Cypriot officials.

In the statement, Cyprus' Department of Merchant Shipping pointed out that the US-Canada investigations could "severely inhibit any action Cyprus may find necessary to take against those who might be accountable if it can be established that the Virgo was involved in the incident."

According to Cypriot officials, no formal communication has been received indicating that a criminal investigation was initiated or was being carried out and that the consent of Cyprus for the conduct of a criminal investigation on behalf of Cyprus was never sought.

Cyprus will continue its own safety investigations into the incident.

The Cypriot-flagged Russian owned ship came under suspicion after three fishermen on board the US trawler Starbound were killed on August 5, when their boat was hit by an unidentified ship off the coast of Massachusetts.

The Russian captain of the Virgo and two crew members were arrested at Washington's request on August 14 in the Atlantic province of Newfoundland. They appeared in court the next day to learn the United States wanted to try them on charges of involuntary manslaughter, misconduct and aiding and abetting.

The arrested crew members have been released on bail and are due to appear in court again on September 13, when they could be extradited. That decision lies with Washington, which now has 60 days to make a formal extradition request.

The US Coast Guard is leading the probe and two US officials flew to Newfoundland to look at the Virgo, which was one of a dozen or so vessels being examined as part of the investigation.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] New website the first step to online government

THE CURTAIN was lifted on a new central government website yesterday at a news conference by Finance Minister Takis Klerides and Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou.

The website, www.cyprus.gov.cy, which was officially launched yesterday, evolved from a PIO internet site set up in 1996 and from other official websites, Klerides said.

The minister said the official website of the Republic of Cyprus was an entry point for all government departments and services.

All existing web pages of ministry departments are incorporated into the Internet site to enable citizens reach the information they want more easily, he explained.

"We plan to upgrade the website in order to offer Cypriot citizens all government services through the Internet. But that will take some time pending a legal procedure," Klerides said.

"But when we have sorted everything out, members of the public will have the opportunity to fill and send official forms and applications to government departments through the site," he added.

The website currently offers information about government departments and contacts as well as about the history and culture of the island.

Government documents and positions on political issues such as the Cyprus Problem, daily news, specialised reports and the Government Spokesman's daily briefings are also published on the site.

Users can also express their views and make formal complaints through the site.

"The scheme is aimed, among others, at enlightening the international community about the Cyprus Problem and Cyprus' EU accession course," Papapetrou underlined.

Papapetrou admitted that Turkey had a much stronger lobbying mechanism than Cyprus, but argued that, "now with this website there are no economic, political and regional borders".

The construction of the website cost the state £5,000 and it took about a month and a half to be set up.

"The reason why we did not provide this service earlier is because it took us a long time to set up an electronic system necessary to run this website and any other government sites. That cost about £500,000," Klerides said.

The text appearing on the Internet site is in Greek and in English, and some parts are being translated into Turkish.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[08] Court rules KYP tried to entrap spy suspect

The court found that members of the intelligence services (KYP) had tried to entrap 30-year-old Sotiris Katsikas and threw out the state prosecution case as unreliable.

Katsikas was charged earlier this year while serving a jail term at the Nicosia central prisons for fraud. According to police, the Greek approached a fellow inmate with a proposal that they work together to pass information to the Turkish secret services.

The court heard that KYP officers went undercover in the prison and befriended Katsikas, telling him they were Turkish sympathisers and interested in spying against Cyprus.

In their decision yesterday, the three Criminal Court judged said the actions of the KYP officers constituted entrapment and rendered the prosecution case unreliable.

Katsikas was acquitted of the charges but did not walk free. Though he has served his sentence for fraud, the ex-soldier remains behind bars for non- payment of a £500 debt.

Katsikas was serving with the Greek contingent in Cyprus, ELDYK, at the time of his arrest for fraud. He was subsequently dismissed from the Greek army.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[09] Wife beating suspect to go on trial

The Limassol District Court met behind closed doors to consider the evidence against a 28-year-old man arrested after a domestic incident in the town last Friday.

Police say the man assaulted his wife after she objected to him coming home late from a night out with his friends. The suspect allegedly beat his wife on various parts of her body and then stubbed out his cigarette on her neck, causing severe burns.

The court decided to refer the case to the Criminal Court and ordered that the 28-year-old remain in custody till that date. The suspect was charged with causing grievous bodily harm and with domestic violence.

The alleged victim was at court yesterday with her mother, who noisily demanded that police ban the suspect from ever nearing her daughter again.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article