Anti-plan protesters in demo at palace

NATIONAL Council members were booed and whistled at on their way to a crucial meeting with President Glafcos Clerides at the Presidential Palace last night as hundreds of demonstrators gathered to protest against the Annan plan.

Earlier DISY leader Nicos Anastassiades was punched and AKEL general-secretary Demetris Christofias was called a traitor on their way into the Palace, and United Democrats vice chairman George Christofides had his car damaged during minor scuffles.

The council was meeting to put the finishing touches to their commentary on the revised plan submitted by the UN to the two leaders earlier in the day, and to await the answers of the smaller parties on whether they would accompany Clerides to Copenhagen. The four bigger parties — DISY, DIKO, KISOS and AKEL — confirmed earlier they would be going to Denmark.

Around 300 protesters, including DIKO deputy Marios Matsakis, gathered outside the Palace but the demonstration got out of hand when several ‘stormed’ the palace walls early in the evening.

The protesters also blocked the road during rush hour and shouted abuse at anyone entering the grounds. “If they (the government) sign in Copenhagen they better not come back,” Matsakis told the Cyprus Mail.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.