UK urged to consider partition

2010-11-09

IT IS time for the UK government to “consider the formal partition of Cyprus” if the current round of UN-backed reunification talks fail, former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw wrote in The Times yesterday.

His statements came ahead of next week’s meeting between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York, and a visit by the Turkish President Abdullah Gul to the UK yesterday to collect this year’s Chatham House Prize from the Queen.

Our View: The fight against racism cannot be fought on the streets

2010-11-09

PERVERSELY there was one positive thing to come out of the violence that took place on Larnaca’s sea-front. It sparked a public debate about attitudes towards immigrants, society’s responsibilities, the absence of government policies and, most worryingly, the growth of organised racism. This would not be of any consolation to the Turkish Cypriot man, who was stabbed and is in hospital, but the episodes have forced people to start talking about the immigration issue.

The case of the stolen documents

2010-11-09

NOWADAYS we are all very dependent on the email system. Indeed, it is hard to imagine what life was once like without emails. The United Nations team in Cyprus is no exception. As you can imagine, it sends a stream of emails backwards and forwards to New York. And bearing in mind I spend half of my time at home in Adelaide, I get a lot of emails from Nicosia myself.

Minister targeted for Eurocypria collapse

2010-11-09

ANGRY employees of state airline Eurocypria yesterday tried to storm the Finance Ministry building in Nicosia resulting in a brief standoff with police.

Chanting “Stavrakis, resign here and now,” and “No more buts, we want work now,” the demonstrators gathered outside the ministry’s headquarters demanding they see Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis.

A group of demonstrators tried to rush inside the building but were thwarted by police deployed at the entrance.

The some Eurocypria 300 employees hold the Finance Minister personally responsible for the winding down of the company, and say promises were broken.

They claim that during two meetings with airline union reps last month, Stavrakis had assured them no one would lose their job.

Festival violence: the blame game starts

2010-11-09

THE effects of last Friday’s fracas between nationalist groups and festival goers at the antiracist Rainbow Festival were still being felt across Cyprus.

With one Turkish Cypriot singer stabbed and at least 12 others – foreigners and locals alike – injured, it was commonly agreed that even this violent outcome was nowhere as bad as it could have been.

Migrant support group KISA attempted to explain its reasons for holding the festival on the same day, time and place as an earlier planned march by three nationalist groups to protest illegal immigration, saying in a statement that the decision was made “collectively with all organisations for migrants and human rights”.

Bad planning and not enough police

2010-11-09

SEVERAL eye witness accounts and a video tape have revealed a serious lack of planning by police leadership ahead of Friday’s demonstrations in Larnaca, which saw around 25 unarmed and unprotected policemen deployed initially to control more than 100 angry nationalists.

It also emerged yesterday that Larnaca Mayor Andreas Moyseos called Police Chief Michalis Papageorgiou three times before Friday to relay the mounting rumours of a violent mob turning up to protest at the Rainbow festival.

Moyseos said yesterday “There were intense rumours circulating that people were planning trouble. They had distributed leaflets to the public.”

Coalition seeks common ground on economy

2010-11-09

COALITION partners DIKO and AKEL held a meeting yesterday with President Christofias and the Finance Minister to discuss the state of the economy, agreeing to continue the talks.

“It was a very good discussion, very productive, conducted in a constructive climate,” government spokesman Stefanos Stefanou told newsmen later.

He said discussions revolved around two ‘pillars’: first, the immediate measures that must be taken to raise revenues, and second a three-year plan to curb state expenditures.

Yesterday’s meeting involved the sides sounding each other out. No written proposals were submitted. Economy experts from DIKO and AKEL are to hold more in-depth talks with the Finance Minister and his team over the course of the week.

Broad support for communications ministry’s budget

2010-11-09

MPS WERE yesterday pleased to see a reduction of regular expenses in the Communications and Works Ministry’s 2011 budget.

The Committee’s deputy chairman, DIKO’s Angelos Votsis, said he was satisfied with the fact that the ministry had provided a 1.0 per cent reduction in regular expenses and 14.7 per cent increase in development expenses.

Speaking after the meeting, Votsis said Communications Minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis had responded to all questions posed by MPs and the majority were pleased with what they heard.

“I would like to believe that this ministry does a serious job, that it is a ministry of development and that this year we will have good development figures, which will help the Cyprus economy in its entirety,” said Votsis.

German tourist drowns in Paphos

2010-11-09

A 72-year-old German tourist died whilst swimming off the coast in Chlorakas in Paphos on Sunday lunchtime.

Carl-Fritz-Siegrief Bittorf, who was staying at a hotel in the area, was swimming in the sea with a number of other holidaymakers, when one of them realised that the German had lost conciousness and that his body was sinking down to the seabed.

Bathers in the area rushed to his aid and managed to pull him out of the water and onto the beach. Despite their efforts and those of the ambulance crew to revive him, he died.

The victim was a regular visitor to the area, mainly during the winter time.Fellow bathers said that the waters had been calm at the time of the incident.

Queue nightmare in Paphos government offices

2010-11-09

A NUMBER of government offices in Paphos are still short staffed despite assurances from the state that these problems would be resolved.

A lack of staff in both the town planning department and the land registry offices in particular has meant that the public have been subject to continuing delays and long queues.

According to local MP Fidias Sarikas, considerable pressure to improve staffing levels was put on the relevent government departments by Paphos authorites months ago, but little has changed.

He said that although the town planning department received a few new staff, the land registry were given none.

The MP added there are long queues at the land registry department every day.

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.