Cyprus Mail: News Articles in English, 01-12-23

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cyprus-mail.com/>

Sunday, December 23, 2001

CONTENTS

[01] Deadlock over fallen bastion continues

[02] Selling below cost 'is not illegal'

[03] Tourism 'better than expected'

[04] Insurance costs to rise

[05] We'll meat again

[06] Trees planted in riverbed protest

[07] College-to-university proposals 'unimaginative'

[01] Deadlock over fallen bastion continues

ANTIQUITIES Director Sophocles Hadjisavvas yesterday warned that unless work was allowed to resume on repairing the Venetian wall at the Roccas bastion in Nicosia it was in danger of total collapse.

"If we don't take measures - and this it not a new story because I've been warning the United Nations for many years now that the wall will collapse - if the rain continues and the forecast says it will, then we will have a real problem," he said.

A section of the wall at the bastion opposite Paphos Gate collapsed earlier this month after heavy rain. The bastion marks the edge of the boundary between the UN buffer zone and the occupied north, and the Turkish Cypriots had previously refused permission for the wall to be tampered with. An agreement to repair the wall jointly was reached but the Turkish side withdrew suddenly last Monday, leaving the work unfinished.

UNFICYP officials met representatives of both sides to discuss the issue on Tuesday and established that the Turkish side was contesting where the ceasefire line began and ended. New meetings were held throughout the week but an UNFICYP spokesman said there was still no agreement.

"We are still negotiating," the spokesman said. "We really would like both sides to agree, but these things take time."

Under the initial plan, it was agreed the Greek Cypriot side would repair the bottom half of the wall and the Turkish Cypriots would repair the top. UNOPS would pay for the cost of the renovation.

"I don't know what is the issue is with the Turks," Hadjisavvas said. "Some years ago they did some military work there undercover pretending it was a playground, so probably they don't want us to climb on the wall to do anything."

Hadjisavvas said the work could be completed without the co-operation of the Turkish side if the UN offered protection to the antiquities workmen, since the face of the wall is actually within the buffer zone.

But the UNFICYP spokesman said the issue wasn't so simple since the main question now is: "where exactly is the buffer zone?"

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[02] Selling below cost 'is not illegal'

SELLING below cost price is not illegal as long as the seller does not dominate the market, according to unanimous decision reached by the Competition and Consumer Protection Committee, Politisreported yesterday.

The committee examined complaints submitted by various companies and organisations, that supermarkets were selling everyday appliances on special offer and below cost price. However it decided that as long as the supermarkets did not monopolise the market, the practice could not be deemed illegal, the report said.

Minister of Commerce Nicos Rolandis told the Cyprus Mailthat a "gentlemen's agreement between supermarket owners as soon as December 31" will end the practice of selling goods below cost price. He said that even the European Union discourages this practice, as it is deemed "unfair competition".

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[03] Tourism 'better than expected'

THE HOTELIERS' Association said yesterday the holiday season appeared to be progressing better than expected in the wake of the slump in global tourism.

Association Director-general Zacharias Ioannides said it was too early to give any statistics, but that quite a number of foreigners and Cypriots seemed to be taking advantage of a host of special offers and Christmas programmes at the island's hotels.

"We can say confidently that Cyprus is among the most popular Mediterranean destinations for Christmas vacations for Europeans," he said. "The season is developing and is not as disappointing as expected, especially for Christmas."

In the New Year, the island's tourism chiefs will have a clearer picture of how the 2002 summer season will develop in the wake of the terrorist attacks in the US on September 11. Since then monthly tourism arrivals figures show an average ten per cent drop over the same period last year.

British tour operators, the biggest suppliers of tourists to Cyprus, have already cut capacity for next summer after many Britons stopped travelling.

The government has tried to counter the problem by approving more than £20 million to implement various measures to improve the situation. The money includes an additional advertising budget and a subsidy that will allow them to cancel landing fees at the island's two airports, and passenger taxes for April and May next year.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[04] Insurance costs to rise

THE COST of insurance will rise next month as insurance companies in Cyprus say they too have been affected in the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

In the New Year local insurance companies will raise their policy prices, and every new insurance contract will contain a clause excluding claims caused by terrorist activities or any damage caused directly or indirectly from such acts.

The largest increase in insurance will be in the general insurance sector, such as motor, workplace and home insurance.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[05] We'll meat again

FIFTY thousand pigs, 850 cows, 35,000 goats and sheep and 440 tonnes of turkey will be consumed here over the holiday season, according to one newspaper report yesterday.

"The quality of meat on the market is of the highest standard," Politisquoted Minister of Agriculture Costas Themistocleous as saying after he visited the Ayios Antonis market, the Kopis meat factory and Strovolos Municipality's local market.

He also said that the standard of fruit and vegetables was superb.

"Prices in the meat market are the same as last year, except for pork, which has increased slightly," Themistocleous said. Fresh vegetables are also marginally more expensive because of an increase in costs, he said, and because recent bad weather had affected crops.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[06] Trees planted in riverbed protest

ANGRY Nicosia residents staged a vigil yesterday in protest against Interior Ministry plans to set up a temporary car park for the government printing office along the riverbank.

They said the vigil was an attempt to stop the government from going ahead with its plans to build the car park on the riverbank behind Byron Street, just below the old water tower, rather "than just complaining about it".

More than 70 people turned up, including residents, ecologists and concerned citizens. They all pitched in to plant 26 eucalyptus trees "to replace the ones already removed by the forestry department".

The forestry department has cut down three trees completely, and another 26 have been cut back radically in an attempt to clear the area.

Green Party deputy George Perdikis attended the protest and condemned the plans to destroy "what little unspoiled greenery is left on the island". He said he was already lobbying to see that the plans were stopped.

A number of residents and concerned citizens expressed their disgust at what the government was trying to do, and fully supported the demonstration.

"They'll have to break through our fence and plough through our saplings if they want to get out our park," said Bernadette Horton Savvides, one of the active residents in the protest.

She said that if you want something done, you just have to do it: "Just talking about it isn't good enough. What they are doing here is a crime."

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

[07] College-to-university proposals 'unimaginative'

INTERCOLLEGE is the only college that has accepted most of an ad hoc committee's proposals on when to grant private tertiary institutions university status, even though the proposals were " conservative and unimaginative" , Executive Dean Nicos Persianis said yesterday.

The committee drafted a number of suggestions advising the government on university accreditation, which will be officially presented to the Cabinet sometime next week and discussed in the New Year, Permanent Secretary of the Education Ministry Petros Kareklas said.

These criteria include everything from educational facilities, the building itself and staff qualifications -- as well as the suggestion that colleges must be non-profit organisations before being eligible.

Persianis said that although Intercollege did not agree with all the provisions made by the committee, it was willing to make allowances so the process of university accreditation could proceed.

" The other colleges have rejected them completely, and I do not blame them because the criteria were conservative and unimaginative, simply copying regulation from the University of Cyprus,"he said.

He added that the only present state-funded university, the University of Cyprus, did not have to face competition or worry about its finances and prospects the way private independently funded colleges had to, since it was subsidised.

" However, although the suggestions are extremely conservative, constraining and limiting, without allowing enough flexibility, we prefer this than nothing,"Persianis said, as they had been waiting two years for proposals to be drawn up.

He said Intercollege had sent the Cabinet a list of proposals it thought should be reconsidered. For instance, Persianis called the suggestion to elect an Executive Chancellor from within the academic staff " silly" , since " a good academic does not necessarily possess good administration skills" . Instead he suggested that academics and administrative staff meet to elect the best possible person for the job -- including international candidates.

Once all the criteria have been publicised, he said they would bring them out into the open and discuss them publicly.

He said Intercollege was willing to become a non-profit organisation if that is what it takes to become accredited.

" Besides, there are eight shareholders in Intercollege and we never seem to reap profits, since we are always putting the money back into the institution to make it better,"Persianis said.

" We have, however, suggested a scheme that proposes a fund is set up so that shareholders can get their invested money back over a period of years, while the institution moves from being profit making to non-profit making."

The Education Ministry has not yet taken an official stand on the matter either way, said Kareklas.

" The official report has not yet been handed over and besides the Council of Ministers will have the final say some time in the New Year,"he said.

He added, however, that it was in the colleges' best interest to move forward and come to some sort of agreement, as this would then grant them university accreditation.

Copyright Cyprus Mail 2001

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