THE DEFENCE Minister yesterday sought to dampen press speculation about a £61 million missile upgrade, saying certain weapon procurement programmes had been scheduled a long time ago and there was no need for them to be discussed in public.
Koullis Mavronikolas was responding to a report in yesterday’s Politis that the government was spending £61 million in upgrading its short-range anti-aircraft missile systems.
The upgrade will increase the missiles’ range and reliability, which diminishes with time, the daily said.
Both systems had been procured in the early 90s.
Mavronikolas said yesterday it was wrong to discuss such issues in the press, but added such arms procurement programmes had been scheduled for a long time.
“The National Guard has specific needs and this has been addressed not only by the current administration; they are also the decisions of the previous administration, and moreover they have gone through the House Defence Committee,” Mavronikolas said.
“So I believe such reports should not appear in the press; we have to show self restraint on issues concerning defence because it is a sensitive area, especially during the period we are going through when we have some developments in the Cyprus problem,” the minister added.
Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides declined to comment on the matter, saying only that the current administration had not made any arms orders since assuming power.
Former president George Vassiliou said spending huge sums of money for military purposes did not serve any purpose, sending the wrong messages and doing nothing to help efforts for solving the Cyprus problem.
Vassiliou said the government should instead embark on a “peace attack” aimed at conveying messages of friendship and co-operation to the Turkish Cypriots, and leave the upgrade of military hardware for when it became clear that Turkey was not willing to abandon its intransigent stance.
EDEK leader and House Defence Committee chairman Yiannakis Omirou played down the matter, stressing the funds for the upgrade had already been approved in the state budget.
“I don’t see where the revelation is; these weapons systems and upgrades are included in the budget (already approved by the House),” Omirou said.
Omirou said the committee had unanimously approved the funds for the two systems, and the defence ministry did not even have to brief them about its intention to proceed with the upgrade.
“The ministry just wanted to keep the House informed for all substantial funds; they briefed the defence committee, which had no objections, about their intention to proceed with the programmes,” Omirou said.
Concerning the timing of the decision, Omirou said the matter of a comprehensive freeze on arms procurement should be discussed before the National Council.
The council should look into whether the occupying forces were downgrading, withdrawing troops or had stopped modernising before making such a decision, he said.
He reiterated that there was absolutely no revelation in the matter, but it was now up to the government to decide whether it was scrapping the deal.
“The House cannot intervene in any way,” Omirou said.
