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/ Party dispute with US embassy 'threatens Cyprus initiative'
/
THE ONGOING dispute between House President Spyros Kyprianou and US
ambassador Kenneth Brill is threatening the American initiative that is
planned for autumn, one paper reported yesterday.
Alithia, quoting a reliable diplomatic source,
said the US State Department was seriously considering abandoning the
initiative as result of the vehement anti-US stance of the majority of the
Cyprus political parties during the war in Yugoslavia. Such is the anger at
the State Department that there are thoughts that the US should distance
itself from any initiative on Cyprus.
The paper puts the blame on Akel and Kyprianou's Diko, the organisers of
the anti-US demonstrations, who are currently involved in a "comic
adventure" with Brill. Kyprianou has demanded that the government seek an
explanation for Brill's refusal to meet him last week.
According to the report, Diko and Akel had both kept silent about letters
they had received from the US embassy in which it explained its displeasure
with the two parties' hostile stance. In both letters, the embassy informed
the parties that it would be difficult for the US to help settlement
efforts in a country which considers Americans to be murderers and whose
parties organised tomato-throwing demos outside the embassy building.
Haravghi, the mouthpiece of Akel, takes a
different approach, accusing the government of "relegating the major issue
into a 'confrontation' of Akel-Diko with the American embassy". Under the
headline, "Brill insists on provoking," it said that the ambassador had
changed nothing "from his original provocative statements".
The reasons Brill had cited "for his provocative involvement in Cyprus'
domestic politics, confirmed the US embassy's involvement in local politics,
" it said. Brill had also confirmed that he had refused to talk to
Kyprianou, said the paper, which castigated the government for claiming it
had nothing to do with the dispute.
Politis, which a few days ago had revealed that
the state medical services had run out of a drug for the treatment of
kidney sufferers, yesterday accused the Ministry of Health of lying and of
misleading the public. The Ministry had announced that "adequate supplies"
of the drug had been received and distributed to all hospitals, a claim
disputed by the paper.
According to the paper, the Ministry had managed to secure a small quantity
of the drug from the stocks of a local importer who had earmarked the
supply for clinical tests. The paper also criticised the Minister of Health
Christos Solomis for ignoring the initial accusations and refusing to order
an investigation into the tenders procedure that led to the unavailability
of the kidney drug.
_Phileleftheros
_ gave prominence to warnings by the Turkish occupation troops that "there
will be serious incidents in the sea off the Famagusta coast if 'violations
of the (dividing) line' continued." The problem was caused by tourists who
regularly took their speed-boats across the line. The warning was conveyed
to Nicos Rolandis, the minister responsible for tourism, by UN
representative Ann Hercus.
Hercus had told Rolandis that there had been at least 200 "dangerous
approaches" by Greek sea craft to the part of the sea controlled by the
Turks.
_Simerini
_ reported that there was a "new wave of panic in Europe from contaminate
food". It said problem had moved to The Netherlands, where it was found
that cows were suffering from a deadly disease known as "cow's Aids".
Twelve farms had been affected.
© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999
