By Jean Christou
CYPRUS will send humanitarian aid to Yugoslavia, the government said yesterday.
Government spokesman Costas Serezis said medicine, food and clothing would be sent for refugees, but he did not specify whether the aid was meant for ethnic Albanians or Serbs.
Cyprus’ position on the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia has remained unclear in a country where the majority of the population is pro-Serb.
The government has expressed concern about atrocities committed against civilians and has criticised Serb actions but the House of Representatives has also passed a resolution condemning Nato.
Both Serezis and Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides hinted last week that the government has to take a stance which is in the national interest, independent of its feelings on the subject.
Serezis said the aid would be sent via Greece and would be discussed during meetings in Athens today between Cassoulides and his Greek counterpart, George Papandreou.
“Because of its position and its involvement in the whole issue, the Greek government will guide us on how to go about it,” Serezis said.
Meanwhile Dr Eleni Theocharous, Cyprus’s representative for the international organisation Doctors of the World, said yesterday a Cypriot team would leave for Yugoslavia within 48 hours.
“Our aim is to re-establish contact with Serbian doctors,” she said. Theocharous said there is a huge need for surgical supplies.
“We plan to work in hospitals and to deal with emergencies,” she said. Theocharous said the team’s destination is the village of Kryova, a few kilometres outside the Kosovo capital of Pristina where the Cypriot doctors already have contacts from a previous mission.
“We may go to Pristina, depending on conditions,” Theocharous said.
But she made it clear that the attentions of the Cypriot doctors would not be focused entirely on the Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo.
“There is some discrimination in the distribution of aid,” she said adding that little was being done for the Serbs who are being bombed by Nato.
“All the aid is going to Albanians and I have nothing against that, but the Serbs need help too,” she said.
