Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 05-12-28

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] FM MOLYVIATIS: 2005 WAS A GOOD YEAR FOR GREECE

[02] PASOK TO RAISE CONSUMER PROTECTION IN PARLIAMENT

[03] THE CULTURE MINISTRY ON LISTING OF KNOSSOS AS WORLD HERITAGE SITE

[04] PM INTERVIEWED BY LITERARY MAGAZINE "DIAVAZO"

[05] PROSECUTOR ASSIGNED TO PAKISTANI ABDUCTIONS CASE

[06] DRUG ARRESTS IN NORTHERN GREECE

[07] NO ISSUE OF ABOLITION ON MACEDONIA-THRACE, AEGEAN MINISTRIES

[08] DEVELOPMENT MINISTER BRIEFS PM OVER POLICY ISSUES

[01] FM MOLYVIATIS: 2005 WAS A GOOD YEAR FOR GREECE

The year that is coming to a close was a good year for Greece, allowing for optimism in the coming year, foreign minister Petros Molyviatis said Wednesday, speaking to reporters after a meeting with prime minister Costas Karamanlis.

"The year that is coming to a close was a good year for our country. We achieved our (foreign policy) targets, and the country's international position was strengthened. Consequently, in the coming year, we may look forward to a safe and smooth course for Greece on the international scene," Molyviatis said.

Asked whether he would remain in the foreign ministry in the event that a rumoured government reshuffle actually takes place, Molyviatis said "I am not concerned by the reshuffle issue".

Questioned whether he was prepared to leave the ministry if the prime minister requested him to, Molyviatis reiterated that he was not concerned with the reshuffle issue, adding that "everyone accepts the prime minister's decisions".

[02] PASOK TO RAISE CONSUMER PROTECTION IN PARLIAMENT

Main opposition PASOK intends to initiate discussion in Parliament on the protection of consumers from substandard products after the holidays, PASOK MP Anna Diamantopoulou said on Wednesday after a meeting with the owner of the Moustakas toy-shop chain George Moustakas, who is president of the consumers association and the toy traders association.

Diamantopoulou was accompanied by PASOK MP Christos Protopapas on a tour of a toy emporium in Peristeri, where she was briefed on the special labels indicating that products meet the criteria set by the European Union.

[03] THE CULTURE MINISTRY ON LISTING OF KNOSSOS AS WORLD HERITAGE SITE

The Culture ministry on Wednesday announced that it had taken all necessary action for the inclusion of the archaeological site of Knossos on Crete in the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, while noting that action was now needed by "bodies that have shown inertia in recent years" in order for Knossos to receive the treatment and upgrade it deserved.

The announcement was put out in response to a newspaper report quoting the prefect of Iraklion, who blamed the ministry and UNESCO services for leaving Knossos off the list of World Heritage Sites for 2006.

The ministry said that UNESCO had already agreed to include Knossos as far back as 2003 but had asked for certain additional infrastructure changes in accordance to UNESCO specifications that the local archaeological service had been informed about.

[04] PM INTERVIEWED BY LITERARY MAGAZINE "DIAVAZO"

An interview with Prime Minister and Culture Minister Costas Karamanlis will be the first in a series of interviews with Greece's political leaders planned by the literary magazine "Diavazo", which asked the premier to share his early reading experiences from childhood to the present day.

Excerpts from the interview, which is due to appear in the next few days, that were released by the magazine to the Athens News Agency reveal that Karamanlis was brought up on a literary diet of Jules Verne, Greek author Penelope Delta and comic books.

As a student, the Greek prime minister said that he made a great effort to read the major left-wing and revolutionary writers, such as Karl Marx and Che Guevara, even though he did not espouse their philosophy.

Admitting that Marx's "Capital" was tough going, Karamanlis unreservedly recommends it for its valuable insights into social problems of that time, even if not for its conclusions:

"Marx was the first political thinker that applied such sensitivity and great analytical acuity to the major problem of the degradation of the workers of his time. History may have proved that he made a mistake concerning the regulatory, at least, part of his theory. But careful study of his descriptions of the conditions of life of proletariats, and of the roads that a society can take that does not in practice care for its less privileged members is, I believe, necessary reading for all those who, regardless of their ideological starting point, see people at the centre of political action."'

During the interview, the premier also answers questions regarding the government's policies for libraries in schools and local communities, an area that is greatly underdeveloped in Greece, promising an additional 300 school libraries by the end of the year 2006.

[05] PROSECUTOR ASSIGNED TO PAKISTANI ABDUCTIONS CASE

First-instance court public prosecutor Nikos Degaitis was on Wednesday assigned the investigation into the alleged abductions of some 20-odd Pakistanis living in Greece last summer, who say they were held for interrogation by Greek and British intelligence agents after the terror attacks in London.

The head of the First-Instance court public prosecutors' department Dimitris Papangelopoulos presented Degaitis with the case file that has been put together by the Athens police, which is principally made up of the depositions and suits filed by the Pakistanis making the complaint and various press reports on this issue.

The file also contains a suit filed by intelligence service (EYP) trade unionists against the newspaper "Proto Thema" for endangering Greek agents by publishing their names.

The investigation will now focus on the Proto Thema article listing the names of the agents who allegedly carried out the abductions and interrogations, and on the deposition of the lawyer representing the Pakistanis, who is seeking prosecution of the agents.

A meeting on the case was also held between Papangelopoulos and Supreme Court Public Prosecutor Dimitris Linos on Wednesday. Emerging from the meeting, Linos stressed that the case was very serious and had to be handled responsibly and with due consideration.

"My orders for a priority investigation will self-evidently not act at the expense of a full investigation of the case. The primary goal is to discover the truth. And the first thing that must be established is whether the events reported by the alleged abduction victims occurred," he said.

The abduction and interrogation claims have been denied by Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis and by the Pakistani Embassy in Greece, which said that it had received no complaints from the relatives or friends of the alleged victims, as well as Pakistani Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao when he was in Greece for a quadrilateral meeting on preventing organised crime two weeks ago.

According to one of the two lawyers representing the group, however, the Pakistani Embassy had been informed of the abductions on the very next day after they occurred and had done nothing, while putting pressure on the victims not to report the incident to the authorities.

The abductions were reported by the head of the Pakistani Community in Greece Tzavet Aslam, while the left-wing Coalition (Synaspismos) party has also been active in seeking an investigation into the matter.

British foreign secretary Jack Straw has also denied the allegations as "utter nonsense".

[06] DRUG ARRESTS IN NORTHERN GREECE

An Albanian national was arrested Wednesday by police in Kastoria while attempting to smuggle 30 kilos of hashish into Greece.

According to police, the Albanian man, who was arrested in the Kato Pteria village, crossed the Albanian-Greek border into Greece on foot, carrying the hashish in a travel satchel.

Local security police were investigating the case to locate possible accomplices in Greece.

In a second incident, two men were arrested in the Kordelio district of Thessaloniki after nearly half a kilo of heroin was found hidden in the yard of one of the detainee's home.

Police said that a search of the home of a 26-year-old man in Kordelio, minor quantities of heroin were found, while further search turned up 451 grams of heroin and a precision scale buried in the yard.

The 26-year-old and another 30-year-old man, believed to be the former's accomplice, were arrested.

[07] NO ISSUE OF ABOLITION ON MACEDONIA-THRACE, AEGEAN MINISTRIES

There was no issue of abolition of the two geographical ministries (ministry of Macedonia-Thrace and ministry of the Aegean) in an upcoming government reshuffle, Macedonia-Thrace minister Nikos Tsiartsionis said Wednesday.

"There is no such issue, given that these two ministries received the largest increase (in funding) from all the others in this year's budget," the minister said, adding that statements concerning the upgrading of the Macedonia-Thrace ministry were valid, and portended the course of the two ministries.

Asked whether he would remain at the Macedonia-Thrace ministry after the reshuffle or would find himself in a different post, Tsiartsonis said that this was the exclusive prerogative of prime minister Costas Karamanlis.

Tsiartsonis visited the Hippocration hospital in Thessaloniki on Wednesday morning, where he met with the hospital administration and visited patients, to whom he presented gifts and wished them seasons greetings and a speedy recovery.

He later visited the city's central market, where he met with Thessaloniki mayor Vassilis Papageorgopouos, and exchanges holiday greetings with and hear complaints by consumers and merchants.

Tsiartsionis said the complaints were heard every year, adding that he acknowledged that the difficulties remain, but stressed that the government had a specific policy on tackling high prices on the market, noting that "it is not something that can be corrected with a magic wand", but adding that there was a common effort to achieve the best.

[08] DEVELOPMENT MINISTER BRIEFS PM OVER POLICY ISSUES

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Wednesday met with Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas and was briefed over the ministry's initiatives in 2006.

Speaking to reporters, after the meeting, Sioufas said he presented the ministry's plans to promote large investment projects in the natural gas sector, the signing of a contract to build a natural gas pipeline between the cities of Komotini and Alexandroupoli in Northern Greece and a draft legislation envisaging the creation of an Energy Strategy National Council to be tabled to parliament soon.

The Greek minister briefed the PM over a tender for the supply of 900MW of power in the country by three new private electricity power stations. Sioufas said the tender would be placed for public debate to ensure full transparency and safeguarding the public interest. Sioufas said the government was publishing, today, a law on deregulating the domestic natural gas market and told reporters he briefed the PM over plans to reform the industrial web in the country through the creation of new industrial zones and supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises.

The Greek minister said ministry and regional authorities were systematically inspecting domestic markets to ensure their smooth operations during the Christmas and New Year season and stressed that the Greek Premier showed particular interest for a series of innovative projects promoted in regional Greece.

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