Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 98-03-25

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Wednesday, March 25, 1998

CONTENTS

[01] Cordovez warns Denktash

[02] UK barmaid 'was forced to sleep with 300 men'

[03] Nuclear nightmare looms over Cyprus

[04] Missing committees to merge

[05] Crew airlifted from stranded ship

[06] New deadline to cure car park chaos

[07] Terrorist moss is spreading fast

[08] 'Teenager made sex calls during break in'

[09] Celebrating 1821

[10] Thrashing out hotel compromise

[11] January arrivals up 10 per cent

[12] Pirate video seizures on the rise

[13] Underdogs could meet in final

[01] Cordovez warns Denktash

UN CYPRUS envoy Diego Cordovez has warned Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash not to sever his links with him, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) reported yesterday.

The Ecuadorian diplomat, appointed by UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan to push forward the Cyprus peace talks, was quoted as saying in Athens: "The one thing that Mr Denktash has to be careful of is not to cut his links with me."

Cordovez left Cyprus on Sunday after failing to persuade Denktash to resume UN-led talks aimed at reuniting the divided Mediterranean island.

Denktash, smarting from the EU's decision to open accession negotiations with the Cyprus government at the end of March, refused to engage in political talks unless they took place between "two states".

"If this is his position we have a difference of what has so far been accepted by the two sides and it has to be referred to the Security Council and see how it will react," Cordovez told CNA.

"My informal initial consultations indicate the Council would not change (its position)."

And Cordovez described the Turkish Cypriot leader's stance towards the island's EU membership as a, "very sort of rigid attitude of not joining under any circumstances, certainly not before Turkey joins."

Cordovez said that Denktash had refused to meet other Cyprus envoys gathering in Geneva tomorrow to discuss the next step in the stalled negotiations.

The Turkish Cypriot leader is scheduled to meet Annan there on Friday.

Cordovez said he pointed out to Denktash that as far as the intercommunal talks were concerned both leaders were treated equally.

"The talks have been conducted until now as intercommunal and this was a decision by the two community leaders which has been endorsed by the Security Council," he said.

But Denktash made clear yesterday he would stay away from the negotiating table whatever the UN may decide.

Denktash is expected to convey his hardline stance to UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan when they meet on Friday.

"We have made it clear that we are ending the talks. Why should we talk, since the (EU) accession process is continuing? If they insist too much we shall bring back to the foreground integration with Turkey," Denktash told the Turkish daily Milliyet.

Denktash's threats, that UN peacekeeping efforts in the occupied north may be obstructed as part of a tit-for-tat policy, prompted a stern response yesterday.

"It is vital that Unficyp be allowed to carry out its mandate without hindrance," said UN spokesman Waldemar Rokoszewski.

[02] UK barmaid 'was forced to sleep with 300 men'

A YOUNG British barmaid told a Larnaca court yesterday that she was forced to sleep with up to 300 men by her Cypriot employer.

"I was forced to go with up to three men, day or night, over a three-month period," 21-year-old Karen Hewitt told a Larnaca court.

The barmaid said she slept with punters because she feared her younger sister Michele would receive a beating if she refused to.

Hewitt said her sister had been beaten up before in order to pressure her, Karen, into having sex against her will.

Hewitt is a prosecution witness in a trial against three men charged with pimping and forcing women into prostitution.

The three, who deny the charges, are Tassos Anastasiou, 30, George Mavros, 28, and Demetris Demetriou, 35.

It is understood that in her statement to police, Hewitt named a number of local hoteliers, doctors and teachers who allegedly paid £50 to sleep with her.

Hewitt said she started work at the Ayia Napa bar, run by Anastasiou, on arriving in Cyprus in January 1997, and stayed there until March 1997.

Soon after arriving at the bar she was told to sleep with a 50-year-old man and taken to an apartment for the purpose, Hewitt said.

Hewitt also told the court that she saw Anastasiou receive £50 from the middle-aged man.

According to Hewitt's testimony, she was not paid as a prostitute but was given a free condom every time she went with a client.

The trial continues on Friday with testimony from Michele Hewitt.

[03] Nuclear nightmare looms over Cyprus

THE THREAT of nuclear disaster hangs over Cyprus should Turkey go through with plans to build two nuclear power stations.

The prospect of nuclear stations only 250 kilometres from Nicosia has sent off alarm bells in Cyprus. Local environmentalists have joined their voice to a Greenpeace campaign, while the government has asked the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) to examine whether the power stations will be located in an earthquake zone.

Voices are also being heard that Turkey could have its eyes on obtaining plutonium 239 &#151; a key ingredient for an atomic bomb.

Why else would it turn to nuclear power at a time when other countries were abandoning it and the World Bank &#151; which helps finance energy projects &#151; was refusing to give loans for nuclear stations because they did not make good economic sense?

The House Environment Committee, which yesterday debated the issue in detail, also heard clear warnings about the health risks of nuclear power stations and the dangers of disposing of the effluents.

Turkey is planning to build three power stations &#151; two at Akkuyu on the south coast and one in the Black Sea area. Its plans face stiff opposition from environmentalists, but the army seems to keen to promote the plan.

If built, their contribution to total electricity production would be only 5 per cent. The overall cost of the stations (construction of the reactors, management of the nuclear fuel, disposal of the waste, maintenance and research) would far exceed the cost of importing equivalent energy from neighbouring countries.

"For Greece and Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, the construction of a power station in the Aegean would constitute a permanent nightmare," committee chairman Demetris Eliades said. Risks cited included the seismology of the area, shipping raw materials and disposing of the waste, the possibility of leaks and accidents, even terrorist attacks.

Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides noted the sites chosen were within an earthquake zone &#151; there were two major quakes there this century. That is why the government has asked the IAEA to examine the issue and rule on the suitability of the proposed site. No reply has yet been received.

Labour and Health Ministry experts were explicit. They said there were health hazards attached to nuclear stations irrespective of the danger of accidents. Radiation, they said meant a higher incidence of leukaemia and cancer, particularly among children.

University of Cyprus professor Charalambos Tsertas suggested that Turkey may actually be flirting with the idea of acquiring nuclear weapons. The kind of reactor to be installed at one of the Akkuyu plants could be used to produce plutonium 239, a key ingredient for nuclear bombs, he added.

Greens protested that the government had been late to react. George Perdikis noted that, had it not been for ecologists, nothing would have been heard about the nuclear reactors.

[04] Missing committees to merge

Both the leader of the Pancyprian committee for relatives of the missing persons, Nicos Theodosiou, and the acting president of the National Struggle committee, Agapios Chiratos, yesterday spoke of re-unification.

Chiratos paid tribute to the "24 years of struggle for the missing persons" that Father Chrystoforos had made. Theodosiou also acknowledged the priest's contribution to the missing issue.

But he said it was now time for the two committees to work together in order to "avoid the mistakes of the past."

Father Christoforos had in the past stood in the way of the merger of the two committees.

The priest tended his resignation on Monday night following the collapse of his claims that 14 missing persons were alive and living in a friendly neighbouring country. The claims, dismissed as groundless by the government, were originally made by Michael Kyprianou, a Cypriot living in Canada.

Kyprianou said the 14 missing had been thrown into the sea by the Turks after spending 23 years in a jail in Turkey. The 14 were rescued by passing fishermen and taken to a neighbouring country, Kyprianou claimed.

[05] Crew airlifted from stranded ship

A Wessex helicopter from the British military base of Akrotiri was scrambled at about 11pm on Monday to rescue the crew of the Greek-owned Demetrios 2, bases spokesman Captain John Brown said.

The crew - four Greeks, two Syrians and two Pakistanis - were lifted off the 1,793-tonne vessel at about 11.30pm. None of them was injured.

"The small cargo vessel ran aground west of the Paphos lighthouse," Brown said. "The Captain required urgent assistance and we were able to provide it," he said.

The Demetrios 2, owned by Silver Star, ran aground on rocks about 500 metres from shore.

Brown said the ship's captain had sent a mayday signal at about 10.25pm.

"The eight crew were lifted from the ship and brought to Paphos airport by midnight," Brown said.

The vessel was on its way from Greece to Syria with a 700-tonne cargo of wood.

[06] New deadline to cure car park chaos

LARNACA airport car park continues to inconvenience, and the company which installed the new automated system has less than a week to put things right.

The problem &#151; of automated machines that spit out bank notes and barriers with a mind of their own &#151; was back before the House Communications Committee yesterday.

Officials said many problems had been resolved over the past few months, although they acknowledged there were occasional hiccups. These they hoped would be resolved by the end of the week with the installation of new pay machines, as promised by the company.

The public has become more adept in using the machines, while long queues at peak hours should be alleviated by the installation of another two pay machines &#151; bringing the total to four.

But the same officials &#151; both from civil aviation and the state's mechanical services &#151; confirmed the state was still not satisfied with the operation of the new system.

Instead of taking official delivery, it has given the supplier a final deadline to ensure it is problem-free by the end of March, or face the cancellation of the contract.

Deputies were not satisfied.

They said they had been given assurances in November the issue would be resolved one way or another by the end of that month. Now the deadline had shifted, the peak summer season was only just round the corner and there was no firm word from the authorities on what would happen if the problematic machines refused to co-operate.

Diko's Nicos Kleanthous was particularly scathing: he said either gross inefficiency or lack of co-ordination was to blame, and accused the authorities of being too timid to take legal action.

Alternatively, he suggested, someone wanted the whole system to collapse &#151; and then hand it over to the private sector as a gift.

Employees had complaints of their own.

"The whole system was supposed to serve the public and cut down on staff costs. It has done the opposite," a Sek official representing airport workers said.

And he added: "The public is being inconvenienced. As for employees &#151; there were nine working with the previous system. Now the new one requires nine and another eight who either monitor the machines or pinpoint the problems. So there has been anything but savings."

The Sek official said the problems were numerous. As examples he cited the case of two cars whose drivers owed some £800 between them. "They never paid a penny," he said.

Another driver had put a pound note in the pay machine to pay for a 55 cent ticket. The machine gave him £45 in change.

Another driver only got as far as putting in the parking ticket and received the same handsome sum. Airport employees stepped in.

Committee chairman Nicos Pittocopitis asked for the complaints in writing. And he asked government officials to submit all the correspondence between the company and the state, as well as the contract, next week.

[07] Terrorist moss is spreading fast

THE FISHERIES department is keeping a close eye on an invasive "terrorist moss" colonising large tracts of the sea bed around Cyprus.

But the director of the Fisheries department, Andreas Demetropoulos, said nothing could be done to control the spread of Caulerpa racemosa. The only hope is that the rapid spread of the "pest" species - which is displacing native species from the sea bottom and disrupting the natural ecological balance - will not continue.

"It is normal after the explosive initial growth of an invasive species that it drops to a lower level; it is likely that this will happen with the moss," Demetropoulos said yesterday.

"But there is nothing we can do to control the spread. The only answer is not to allow foreign species to invade in the first place," Demetropoulos said.

The alien moss, nicknamed "terrorist moss" by divers tracking its rapid spread, entered the Mediterranean from its Red Sea home through the Suez canal.

"The moss has been spreading since it first appeared in 1990," Demetropoulos said.

"We cannot be sure how the spread will continue, but we are continuing to monitor the situation," he said.

C. racemosa, a problem across the Eastern Mediterranean, was last week the subject for a scientific summit in Crete. The summit was attended by both Cypriot and Turkish delegates.

According to a recent report in the Turkish Daily News, the coastline of northern Cyprus is scheduled for a "terrorist moss" survey this Summer.

[08] 'Teenager made sex calls during break in'

Police believe the 17-year-old boy is responsible for 35 cases of burglary and theft in the Ayia Napa and Protaras areas.

Police said that in one such break-in the suspect made "blue calls" costing £991 from an Ayia Napa home.

Famagusta CID questioned the teenager last week as a suspect in 19 burglaries and thefts; during his first remand period, he admitted to committing a further 16 offences, a Larnaca court heard yesterday.

Among the usual stolen cache of electrical appliances and hi-fi equipment, police were also surprised to recover a wet-suit.

[09] Celebrating 1821

The national holiday is held each year to commemorate the Greek uprising of 1821, which culminated in Greek independence after 400 years of Ottoman rule.

In keeping with other years, pupils from the island's secondary schools and tertiary education will participate in the parade, joined by Cypriot war veterans, scouts and representatives of other organisations.

The parade in Nicosia will proceed past the Greek embassy where president Clerides will deliver his address, flanked by Greek Ambassador to Cyprus Kyriakos Rodousakis, Archbishop Chrysostomos, House president Spyros Kyprianou and other officials.

[10] Thrashing out hotel compromise

The unions are threatening strike action, claiming bosses are contravening collective agreements and illegally laying off workers. A first meeting was held yesterday.

SEK's Nicos Epistethiou said yesterday that nothing had been decided at the meeting, but that all parties were interested in a "peaceful solution".

[11] January arrivals up 10 per cent

According to the Department of Statistics and Research, arrivals were up by 9.5 per cent compared to January 1997.

Of the total 97,079 visitors, the largest group were British (44 per cent) and then Germans (11.5 per cent).

The average duration of stay was nine nights and the average age of those arriving was 43.

There was also an increase, 8.5 per cent, in Cypriots going abroad in January.

[12] Pirate video seizures on the rise

Speaking at a press conference, Michalis Komodikis, head of the organisation, said 59 raids last year netted a total of 1,520 video cassettes. As a result of this, 16 legal actions were initiated, including one case where a Larnaca offender was fined £400 plus £1,000 costs for possessing a single pirated video.

Total fines imposed in 1997 amounted to £2,082.

He added that the policy of naming a Cyfact expert on search warrants and having him accompany police whenever premises were searched was of great help in the battle against piracy.

Cyfact also issued a list of new and yet-to-be released titles officially protected against video piracy. These include box office hits like Titanic, Tomorrow Never Dies and My Best Friend's Wedding, as well as films which have not yet been released on the island, such as The Truman Show, Species 2 and The Replacement Killers.

There is a two-month waiting period between a film's cinema release and its Cyprus home video availability.

[13] Underdogs could meet in final

THIS season's cup final could be between two clubs that have never appeared in a final before - Ethnikos Achna and Apop.

First though, they have to knock out their respective semi-final opponents, whom they meet in first leg clashes today, with the odds stacked against them.

Ethnikos are away to champions Anorthosis, who have set their sights on the league and cup double, while Apop are at home to Apollonas, whose only realistic hope of qualifying for Europe is a cup win.

Ethnikos, who showed their minds were on the cup in Sunday's 1-1 draw against Apoel, will not be over-awed by the visit to Anorthosis.

Earlier in the season, the small village club dealt a big blow to Anorthosis' reputation of being invincible on their home ground. They won 2- 0 to end an unbeaten home record that lasted almost four years. Will they repeat the feat today?

Although Achna have lost only once in their last 17 league games, they are without a win their last three ties and are looking a bit tired.

Coach Slobodan Vutsecoviv, admitted that his side were "psychologically tired" after Sunday's draw. This is inevitable for clubs with small squads. The coach rested three key players on Sunday in the hope they would be better prepared today.

Ethnikos will no doubt play their usual counter-attacking game, hoping that they will find openings in the Anorthosis rear guard on the break. This is why their primary objective will be to avoid an early goal that will upset their game plan.

Anorthosis, who will be at full strength, were the only semi-finalist to have won their league game at the weekend. They crushed Apop in Paphos 4-0.

Apop coach Nicos Argyroulis was very critical of the way his players surrendered to Anorthosis, without putting up a fight after conceding two early goals.

His side were weakened, it must be said, by the absence of the two Michailovices, Arsene and Radmilo. The former was suspended while the latter, who has been very important to Apop, was in Yugoslavia; the club says he will return.

Apollonas still have a theoretical chance of winning the double although, after the weekend's goalless draw with Ael, they are five points behind the leaders. Winning the cup is a more realistic target, as coach Motsa Vukotic has admitted.

They are the favourites to win the tie against Apop, but they will remember how they struggled to overcome Salamina in the quarter-finals - they needed an injury-time penalty to earn a draw against a side reduced to nine men.

The absence of a proven goalscorer has been Apollonas' main weakness this season. They are very strong defensively, but their attack is weak, depending on midfielders to score goals. Their top scorer this season is midfielder Spoliaric.

At least today they welcome back Niki Papavassiliou, another midfielder who often gets into scoring positions, after a long lay-off.

The return legs will be played in a fortnight.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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