Clerides visits ground zero in New York

By Maria Myles

PRESIDENT Glafcos Clerides said in New York yesterday that terrorist attacks must not be allowed to happen again.

He was speaking during a visit to the site where the World Trade Centre once stood, known as ground zero, accompanied by Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou.

They were received at the entrance of the sealed-off area by a representative of New York Mayor Rudi Giuliani and two officers from governor George Pataki’s office, one of whom lost a brother in the September 11 attacks.

“The message that we should send is that everybody has to co-operate, the whole of humanity needs to co-operate, so that we do not allow such terrorist attacks to occur as they are contrary to our civilisation, our history and our religion,” Clerides said.

As the presidential motorcade approached the site one could sense the feeling of loss and destruction, and a bad smell still lingers more than two months after the attacks with hijacked airliners that killed an estimated 4,500 people in New York and Washington and unleashed the war in Afghanistan.

The President and First Lady Irini Lila Clerides mounted the steps to a wooden look-out point, specially constructed on site for visiting dignatories, to be briefed about the current state of the clean-up effort.

“In memory of the international victims of the World Trade Centre attack,” reads a banner on a huge board bearing the names and flags of all the countries whose citizens were killed.

Messages of solidarity and support are inscribed along the wooden rails surrounding the look-out point. Many pledge eternal love for those who died, while others express a resolve to fight against terrorism and never to allow such acts to happen again.

The presidential entourage, which included Cyprus’ Ambassador to the US Erato Kozakou Markoulli and Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Sotos Zackheos, spent little more than 15 minutes at ground zero – but long enough never to forget the feeling of loss and the scale of the destruction in human terms. (CNA)

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.