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Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 99-08-25Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999CONTENTS
[01] Clerides struggles to bolster imageBy Charlie CharalambousPRESIDENT Clerides yesterday reshuffled his cabinet in an attempt to improve the government's rock-bottom popularity rating.Three new ministers and a new government spokesman will be sworn in today following the resignation on Monday of Defence Minister Yiannakis Chrysostomis and government spokesman Costas Serezis.Communications Minister Leontios Ierodiaconou resigned from the 11-man cabinet last month, although he remained in office pending the reshuffle.With two ministers and the spokesman resigning, Clerides was left with no choice but to give his administration an eagerly-anticipated facelift.The President had hoped to delay the reshuffle until November, but frenzied speculation on those expected to be axed prompted Chrysostomis and Serezis to jump before they were pushed.With those two leaving of their own accord, unpopular Health Minister Christos Solomis became the only cabinet member to get the chop yesterday.To lessen the blow Solomis was offered -- and accepted -- a less high-profile job in government. The nature of this new post was not made public.The cabinet newcomers are: Nicosia Disy deputy and Alpha TV boss Socrates Hasikos, 43, as Defence Minister; Paphos Disy deputy Averoff Neophytou, 38, as Communications Minister; and Apollon football club chairman Frixos Savvides, 47, from Limassol, as Health Minister. United Democrats vice chairman and lawyer, Michalis Papapetrou, 52, is the new government spokesman.They will be sworn in at 8am today and the new cabinet will meet at the Presidential retreat in the Troodos mountains later in the morning.Neophytou, the youngest minister in the cabinet, is the biggest surprise of the new crop; he has only been a deputy for three years.One political observer said yesterday that Hasikos was apparently the third choice as defence minister after both Efstathios Efstathiou of Edek and former government spokesman Christos Stylianides turned down the post.A decision on the ministerial replacements came late in the day after a flurry of activity at the Presidential Palace, where a shortlist of names was thrashed out between Clerides, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides, and ruling party Disy boss Nicos Anastassiades.A number of those on the shortlist reportedly declined to join the cabinet because they did not want to represent a government tarnished by allegations of sleaze and incompetence.The government has struggled to muster any kind of public support, especially since Clerides diverted the Russian S-300 missiles to Crete under intense international pressure last December.This led socialist party Edek to leave the government, which has since been made up solely of Disy-backed ministers and one from Disy's junior coalition partner, the United Democrats.The new appointments reflect the influence of Disy in the government and the reluctance of the opposition to give any credibility to an administration it says is on its last legs.A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold}Wednesday, August 25, 1999[02] Bourse back to work and up againBy Hamza HendawiTHE CYPRUS Stock Exchange was quick to put Monday's sorry events behind its back, returning to normal yesterday with prices rising by 2.78 per cent and volume at a decent �38.76 million. All seven sub-indices finished up except for that of the "other companies" sector. The all-share index closed at 358.35, the seventh consecutive record close. An impromptu strike by brokers on Monday to protest the suspension by the bourse's authorities of three brokerages for failing to clear a backlog of overdue transactions brought chaos onto the market and left investors fuming and volume at �2.11 million, the lowest since the start of the year. Under an interim deal mediated by Finance Minister Takis Klerides in a series of emergency talks on Monday, brokers agreed to return to work yesterday. Their return was conditional on the Cyprus Stock Exchange authorities changing policies which they hold responsible for what they see as an atmosphere of threats in the bourse. Monday's stoppage has further hurt the image of a market whose reputation suffered from a week-long closure earlier this month and a shorter stoppage late last month to allow brokerages and listed companies to clear a backlog of backroom administrative work. The backlog has resulted from a sharp increase in the number of transactions -- from a daily average of 500 to 4,000 -- following the introduction of a fully automated trading system in early May to replace the open-cry system. The stock exchange has been telling brokerages for some time now to hire more backroom staff, but the brokerages counter that a central depository system expected to be operational next year will mean that those hired now will be made surplus then. The brokers, according to informed sources, are suggesting that the market hold three sessions, rather than five, a week. In yesterday's trade, Popular Bank rose by 88.50 cents to close at �8.84 with a volume of �8.16 million, or 20.8 per cent of the entire day's trade. Hellenic Bank, a share that has appreciated some 300 per cent so far this year and is scheduled for a four-for-one split next month, notched up �1.62 to close at �11.90. The Bank of Cyprus, the market's supremo and engine, remained conspicuous by its absence. The bank's titles are not due back on the bourse before August 30 after its two-week break to allow for a two-for-one split was extended by another week. Louis Cruise Lines' shares, which had been widely tipped to hover around �3.50 by now, rose by a meagre 6.5 cents to close at �2.42 with a volume of �2.01 million. The share was embroiled in controversy the day after it made its market debut when it was revealed that two of the company's top executives, including its managing-director, sold tens of thousands of shares and warrants on the first day of trade. Later revelations that the company gave a substantial number of shares to political parties as part of its private placement further dampened investors' enthusiasm. A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[03] NGO slams government for failure to assist quake relief missionBy Athena KarseraTHE CYPRUS branch of Doctors of the World yesterday condemned the government for doing nothing to assist their Turkish quake rescue mission, though they were satisfied with their own contribution to the relief mission. Speaking to reporters about their trip to the disaster zone yesterday, Doctors of the World's Cyprus' head of mission Dr Neophytos Xenofontos said that the government -- as during past relief efforts -- had offered no assistance to the group, not even paying for their air-tickets. "Previously we asked for the Interior Ministry to help pay for a group to give aid to people in Palestine. Our food and board would have been paid for there, but the government refused even to pay for our tickets." Xenofontos did, however, later concede that the Interior Ministry had paid for a mobile unit with medical goods to be sent to Turkey. He said a second mission would be sent to Turkey but that it would mostly consist of delivering pharmaceutical goods, perhaps with Cypriot doctors also filling in for their Greek colleagues. As many as 40,000 people are feared dead in the devastating earthquake that struck north-western Turkey last Tuesday. The Doctors of the World team arrived in Turkey last Thursday and returned to Cyprus on Monday. Xenofontos added the NGO's doctors had gone to Turkey on their own time and so could not be away from their usual jobs for extended periods: "They are volunteers." Cyprus Branch vice-president Dr Eleni Theocharous said the organisation did want to remain autonomous: "We do not want to be completely funded by the government, but we would like some financial help." She said Greece's branch of Doctors of the World had received some financial help from its interior ministry. Nurse Savvas Papademetriou, who was part of the three-man mission to Turkey, added to the bitter complaints: "The Cypriot authorities did not even call us once to see how we were doing." The team left Turkey at the insistence of the Turkish government, who said there was not much the Cypriot doctors could do at that point. "What they need after this type of disaster are surgeons, and our team did not contain a surgeon," Xenofontos said. The doctors also noted that -- contrary to media reports -- there were enough Turkish surgeons on the scene to treat the injured. Papademetriou said he had been impressed by the way the group had been treated by their traditional enemies. "To my surprise they treated us well at the Turkish Embassy (in Athens)." Dr Argyris Andreou, who was also part of the mission, said that one thing would always stay in his mind: "When we were leaving and got off the bus that had picked us up from the airport and took us from village to village, I went to shake our Turkish driver's hand and he embraced me and kissed me on both cheeks." Papademetriou, who understands some Turkish, added: "The driver said 'Thank you brother'." Pathologist Dr Nicholas Panayiotou, a Cypriot living in France, said he had always wanted to volunteer for a good cause and to visit Turkey as his family had originally lived in Turkey and he speaks Turkish. "Because I was worried about our safety as Cypriots, I told the others we should try to stay in Istanbul because I wondered how the Turks in villages would see us." But Panayiotou said his fears had been unfounded: "The Doctors of the World t-shirt gave us some protection. The logo on ours was in Greek but I had stickers in French that we could have stuck over the patch in case of an emergency. In the end this was not necessary." Panayiotou was in Cyprus for the 11th World Congress of Overseas Cypriots when the earthquake struck and like the other participants, Papademetriou and Andreou, used a second non-Cypriot passport for their journey. Xenofontos explained: "Cyprus has no diplomatic ties with Turkey and even though we had some assurances that the mission would be accepted with Cypriot passports, we had no way of knowing whether this would actually be the case." Papademetriou added: "The (Turkish) ambassador in Greece said it wouldn't be a problem, but we might have got there and been arrested by a customs officer who didn't know any better." Theocharous said importance should not be placed on the passports the doctors had travelled on, but on the fact that a Cypriot mission had been there. "We always travel on two or three different passports," she added. The three-man group travelled from Cyprus to Greece and then were offered free flights by Turkish Airlines into Istanbul. Arrangements had already been made for a Greek military C-130 plane to take them to Turkey, however, and the mission decided to take advantage of this flight as it would be leaving earlier. Once in Turkey, they were taken by bus from Istanbul to badly hit villages in the Turkish countryside. Panayiotou said there had been many foreign volunteers and that the Cypriot team had not been treated differently from any of the others. One thing did make an impression on him, and that was that families who had escaped alive from the ruins immediately moved to safer areas leaving their trapped kin behind as they felt nothing could be done too save them -- "and this was just 24 hours after the quake." Theocharous said the Organisation's Cyprus branch had been asked in the past whether they would ever give aid to Turkey and that she had always answered that they were a non-political body that offered help to people torn by war, civil-war and natural disasters. "We do not distinguish between colour, nationality, language or religion." Xenofontos added that they had not hesitated for a moment: "We are people first and then Greek Cypriots." A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[04] Kyprianou warns earthquake sympathy could be prejudicial to CyprusHOUSE President Spyros Kyprianou warned yesterday that the Greek Cypriot side would face pressure to compromise in efforts to solve the Cyprus problem because of widespread international sympathy for Turkey in the wake of last week's devastating earthquake there.It is thought that last Tuesday's earthquake in north-western Turkey may have killed as many as 40,000 people. Speaking at the 11th World Congress of Overseas Cypriots in Nicosia, Kyprianou said the earthquake "had empowered Turkey's position and had won international sympathy." "In the following months," he added, "there will be such developments that in the end, the compromises will be asked from us." Kyprianou said the foreign interest shown in the Cyprus problem usually meant they each had ideas for a solution that was in their particular interest. He said Cyprus did not care what the plans were called, but was more concerned about their content. Kyprianou said Cypriots overseas had an obligation to persuade the international community that Cyprus could not accept "genocide" such as that which he said occurred during the 1974 invasion. He said the international community had gone to war against Yugoslavia in the name of preventing genocide, but would be legalising similar events by accepting a confederation in Cyprus. The House president said Cypriots overseas had an even greater role to play than ever before, "as this period is linked to the fate of our country." "It is not an exaggeration to say that if there is a solution that causes division, whether we get into the European Union or not, the Hellenic element would be in danger after 20, 50 or 100 years." He said that Cyprus had to adopt a more aggressive diplomacy. "This is a time for vindication and confrontation not high diplomacy." On the issue of Cypriots living abroad, Kyprianou said that the House Interior Committee had decided to request that the government help solve problems faced by the overseas population. He said that requested action included a minister being appointed in charge of diaspora affairs. A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[05] Chef beaten up in disco attack shows slight improvementBy Martin HellicarAN AYIA Napa chef hospitalised in a critical state following a vicious attack in the resort town earlier this month was yesterday showing a "slight improvement," doctors said. "There is a lot of work to do still," a doctor at the Nicosia general's neurosurgery ward said of Loukas Ioannou's condition, but he added that the 28-year-old cook was now off the ventilator. Ioannou was rushed to the hospital with a fractured skull following an attack at the Black and White disco in the early hours of August 3. He underwent emergency surgery and was then placed on the ventilator, being unable to breath unassisted. "He is not in a coma, he can see and shows signs of understanding what is being said to him," the hospital doctor said yesterday. A British tourist faces trial for the attack on Ioannou before the Assizes court in Larnaca on September 20. Gavin Kieran Gallimore, from Southgate, north London, is expected to face charges of causing grievous bodily harm to the chef. The 30-year-old was arrested in Ayia Napa the day after the attack on Ioannou. Police believe the incident happened after Ioannou accidentally bumped into the suspect with his shoulder in the packed disco. Gallimore, a quantity surveyor, is then alleged to have punched the chef and slammed his head on the disco bar before the 28-year-old collapsed to the floor. A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[06] Turk jailed for illegal entryA TURKISH grocer was jailed for one month yesterday for illegally entering the occupied areas in 1975 and the free areas earlier this week.Father of three Yakyp Ugar was arrested on Friday in the Athienou area after police spotted him driving a Mercedes van with occupied area number plates. Ugar, a Turkish national, said that he had come to Cyprus in 1975, arriving at occupied Famagusta harbour -- an illegal port of entry. Ugar, 47, said he got lost after leaving the occupied village of Louroudjina. A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[07] Government 'hiding dam reserves to promote desalination'By Martin HellicarTHE GOVERNMENT is "hiding" a dam holding three million cubic metres of water in an effort to convince the public of the necessity of further desalination plants, environmentalists claimed yesterday. The Green party -- vociferous opponents of desalination -- held a press conference on the shores of the Arminou dam, in the Diarizos valley, Paphos, yesterday. They said the water behind the remote reservoir's walls never showed up on state water statistics. "We reveal today the presence of three million cubic metres of water in the Arminou dam, which are never mentioned in Agriculture Ministry announcements on the state of our water reserves," the fringe party claimed. "The fact that the Agriculture Ministry systematically conceals the presence of three million cubic metres of water... is, in our opinion, part of a broader policy for misinforming and creating panic among the public so as to make desalination policy more acceptable," the greens added. The government is promoting desalination as the solution to the island's chronic water shortage. Two mobile desalination plants are planned for Ayios Georgios, Larnaca, and Zakaki, Limassol, while a contract has been signed for a second static plant at Larnaca. Strong opposition to the mobile plants from local residents, and the arrival of rains last winter, convinced the government to "go slow" on its plans. The Green party says water conservation, particularly in the agricultural sector, is a better solution to water shortage problems than costly, polluting, desalination. The greens noted yesterday that the volume of water in Arminou dam was second only to that in the Kourris, Asprokremnos and Evretou dams. "It represents half as much water as the Zakaki plant would produce every year," the Green party said. A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[08] Louis charters cruise ship to French companyLOUIS Cruise Lines yesterday announced that one of its ships had been chartered by a French company, saying that its first assignment would be a millennium cruise.According to a statement from Louis, the Sapphirewas chartered to the France Croisi�rescompany through Navi Air Conseil S.A. The Sapphire's millennium cruise tour begins on December 28 from the Seychelles and will finish on November 11, 2000. Included on the cruise's route are South Africa, the West and Eastern Mediterranean, the North Sea and the Scandinavian Fjords. Louis said the move had made the company $16.5 million, not including additional profit's from the ship's bars, casinos and gift shops. It also provided an opening for the company into the French market, Louis said. © Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999A:hover {color: #800000; font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold} Wednesday, August 25, 1999[09] College fury at ministry claim of illegal work placementsBy Martin HellicarPRIVATE colleges are incensed by Education Ministry claims that they bend the rules to secure their foreign students trainee placements with local hotels. Foreign students following tourism-related courses are entitled to take up Summer job placements with local hotels as part of their training. But the Education Ministry stipulates that foreign college students only get what placements are left after Cypriots studying at the state-run Hotel Institute have been accommodated. According to the Ministry's director of tertiary education, Constantinos Yialoukas, private colleges do not follow the rules. Instead, colleges strike "illegal" deals with hotels to guarantee their foreign students placements, Yialoukas claimed on Monday. Private colleges retorted yesterday, saying the official was guilty of tarring good and bad colleges with the same brush. "The problem is that the Ministry uses generalisations," the principal of one top private college in Nicosia told the Cyprus Mailyesterday. He said there might be some, less legitimate, establishments that were, at times, guilty of bending the rules, but the ministry's criticisms could certainly not be applied to the vast majority of private colleges. "If the Ministry have something on some college they should name that college, otherwise they should say nothing," he said. He flatly denied that his college might be guilty of the kind of impropriety suggested by Yialoukas. "We may not always stick to all the bureaucratic procedures but we certainly never do anything illegal," he said. These sentiments were echoed by the director of another top Nicosia private college. He suggested the Ministry was making these statements because it was worried it could not control the numbers of foreign students working in the tourism industry. There are some 3,500 foreign students on the island. Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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