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/Pittas dream turns into a nightmare/ THE FIRE that destroyed the newly-
built Pittas dairy factory situated just outside Nicosia replaced the
Kosovo crisis as yesterday's main front-page story.
Alithia
reported that three hours had been enough for the fire completely to
destroy the brand new Pittas factory. This was the biggest blaze since the
one in 1965, which destroyed the Larnaca oil refinery. Thanks to the timely
intervention of the Fire Brigade a major environmental disaster had been
prevented, the paper said. The firefighters made sure that the fire did not
spread from the factory floor to the refrigerated store-rooms where five
tons of ammonia was being kept. If the fire had reached the ammonia, there
would have been an explosion that would have released toxic gas into the
atmosphere, forcing the residents of the surrounding villages to vacate
their homes.
Politis
under the headline "10 million reduced to ashes", noted that the brand new
factory was destroyed before it had been officially opened. This could be a
blow to the Cyprus economy, as the consequences of the fire were expected
to affect many sectors of the economy. The government was already
considering how it would support the dairy producer who buys a quarter of
the island's daily milk output.
Simerini
said that the state-of the-art factory had always been the dream of the
owners who had set up their dairy business in 1939. On February 8 this year,
the factory was put into operation, "only for the dream to turn into a
nightmare on Sunday morning". The paper said: "The factory and the hard
work and sacrifices of decades turned into ash. The damage was estimated to
exceed the 10 million pounds, for which the factory was insured. And now
they have to start from the beginning again."
Phileleftheros
claimed that Britain had asked the Cyprus government to lift the embargo
against the occupied north as a good will gesture that would encourage Rauf
Denktash to attend negotiations. The issue had been raised by British
Foreign Office under-secretary Joyce Quin during her meetings in Cyprus
last week. The Cyprus government replied that it had formulated a
comprehensive proposal for the participation of the Turkish Cypriots in EU
accession talks, but that this was rejected by the Turkish side without
discussion. It also noted that neither Denktash nor Ankara had given any
indication they were ready to co-operate.
Haravghi
reported that Nato was set to send ground troops into Kosovo, a view
reinforced by the arrival of more Apache assault helicopters in Albania.
Macedonia had agreed to the stationing of more British and German troops on
its territory, while Slovenia and Romania had given Nato permission to use
its airspace in operations against Yugoslavia. The paper claimed that the
land operations would be undertaken by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA),
which was being trained by American and German officers. Nato hoped that
the KLA would act as the bait that would force Serbian tanks and armoured
vehicles out of hiding so they could be taken out by Nato air force, which
would be supporting the land forces.
To Tharros claimed
that "foreign decision centres, in co-operation with local interests, were
working out devious plans for the destabilisation and 'dissolution' of the
National Guard". Reliable sources had told the paper that the Cyprus
security services were aware of this plot and had taken all the necessary
precautions.
© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999
