Cyprus News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-05-23

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] Meeting of Cypriot, Greek and Turkish businessmen

[02] Cyprus Stock Exchange

[03] CoE rapporteur says, conditions of enclaved improved

[04] Cyprus to hold international conference on cancer

[05] Protestors' camping to prevent exercises

[06] Enclaved teacher reported critically ill

[07] AIDS trial continues for the second day

1600:CYPPRESS:01

[01] Meeting of Cypriot, Greek and Turkish businessmen

The aim of the three-day meeting, which starts on Sunday, is to create a better communication between the business people of the three countries.

The forum will examine issues which concern the Balkans and Eastern Europe.

The former Minister will give a speech on Monday on the role of business people in building stability in the region.

Speaking before his departure, Michaelides said he suggested the realisation of the forum to a top leading Turkish businessman, during a similar meeting in Salonica, two months ago.

Michaelides emphasised the need to organise similar forums to help efforts towards a better climate.

The Cypriot delegation returns to Cyprus on Wednesday, via Athens.

CNA TA/EC/MCH/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1620:CYPPRESS:02

[02] Cyprus Stock Exchange

CSE All Share Index                    75.71 (-0.07)

Highest: 82.46 (2/1/97)
Lowest : 73.90 (30/1/97)

Sectural Indices

Banks                                  84.36 (-0.51)
Approved Investment Companies          62.97 (-0.85)
Insurance Companies                    58.71 (+0.53)
Industrial Companies                   80.86 (+0.77)
Tourist Industries                     61.19 (+0.59)
Commercial Companies                   51.26 (+1.73)
Other Companies                        55.02 (+0.57)

Trading Volume                         CYP 840016.960

CNA MCH/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1650:CYPPRESS:03

[03] CoE rapporteur says, conditions of enclaved improved

However, he has noted that freedom of movement continues to be one of the main problems and said he will recommend visits of people living in the free part of Cyprus to their relatives living in the occupied areas.

In statements to the press today, after visiting Greek Cypriots enclaved in the Karpass peninsula, in the eastern tip of Cyprus, Barsony said "there are still a lot of problems in the freedom of movement".

Barsony, who is going to prepare a report on the situation of the enclaved for the CoE Political Affairs Committee, said "the most important proposal will be how we can improve the services regarding freedom of movement".

He noted his proposal will see to the needs of both the enclaved and their relatives, because "one of the biggest problem is how the relatives from the south and those outside the island can go there."

The Hungarian MP pointed out that when Greek Cypriots living abroad visit the island they cannot spend a night with their enclaved relatives.

However, he said "the housing conditions, the hospitals and the medical service (for the enclaved) are probably on a bit better level than the average" in the rest of the Turkish occupied areas and said the locals told him this is not one of their major problems.

The Hungarian MP noted that the communication of the enclaved with the free areas of the Republic has improved after telephone lines were installed and said locals now have fishing opportunities.

Apart from his visit to the enclaved, Barsony, also met Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, as well as party leaders.

Some 20 thousand Greek Cypriots had remained in the northern part of the island after the 1974 Turkish invasion and occupation, but their numbers gradually dwindled down to some 500 people, due to unbearable and oppressive living conditions as well as restrictions in their movement.

CNA MA/MCH/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1720:CYPPRESS:04

[04] Cyprus to hold international conference on cancer

The conference, organised, under the auspices of the International Union Against Cancer, the European Association for Palliative Care, the European School of Oncology and the European Society for Medical Oncology, will be held in the southern port town of Limassol between May 28-31.

"Pain is paid particular attention to internationally, since the patients' good quality of life constitutes the main concern of therapists," Pancyprian Association President, Anna Achilleoudi, told a press conference today.

"For these reasons, the specialisation of doctors, nurses, psychiatrists and all other therapists on the care and control of pain is considered a necessity", she added.

Achilleoudi pointed to pain as the most serious symptom faced by cancer patients "which causes a great deal of suffering to patients, but also their families who feel powerless in helping their loved ones".

"Unfortunately, pain is not always dealt with correctly and as a result, the patients' quality of life and that of their families suffers greatly," she added.

Apart from lectures given and workshops held at the conference, issues concerning the alleviation and control of pain in all stages of the disease, the use of various analgesic medicines and psychological methods of dealing with pain will also be discussed.

The conference will be officially opened by Health Minister, Christos Solomis. CNA, AZK/MH/MCH/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1850:CYPPRESS:05

[05] Protestors' camping to prevent exercises

In a press conference today, representatives of the Ecologists - Environmentalists Movement announced they are planning to camp at the site on Sunday, where the British army plans to carry out its exercises the following day, in an effort to obstruct them.

George Perdikis, a representative of the Movement said members will camp at the entrance of Akamas, at Agios Georgios, Pegia to confront the British soldiers on Monday morning.

He said the demonstration, organised together with the Federation of Environmental and Ecological organisations, is part of what he described as "dynamic events", aimed at stopping the British from exercising in the area, unique for its flora and fauna.

Perdikis said that during a meeting with Foreign Minister, Ioannis Kasoulides, he asked the minister to raise the issue of the British army halting its exercises in Akamas, during a meeting he is expected to have in London with his British counterpart.

The Movement has send protest letters to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of the House of Commons.

At the same time, a representative from the Movement is heading to Brussels to present the issue before the European Parliament.

Environmental organisations repeated their appeal to the government to declare Akamas a National Park.

Meanwhile, the Greenpeace Mediterranean Office, in a press release issued today, expresses its protest against the military exercises scheduled on Monday by the British Army in the Akamas peninsula, one of the last remaining turtle nesting sites in eastern Mediterranean.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature lists loggerhead Turtles as vulnerable and the Green turtles as endangered species.

Dr. Mario Damato, from the Greenpeace Mediterranean office said the organisation is "concerned because of the damage that will be done to the flora and fauna of Akamas" and called for the termination of the exercises.

"No army, British or Cypriot, should bomb and shoot in an area that must be protected against any sort of distraction", he said. Furthermore, he called on the Cyprus government to take a "clear decision and ban military exercises in Akamas once and for all".

Britain, which has retained two sovereign military bases on the island, carries out troop training in specific locations, under the 1960 Treaty of Establishment of the Republic of Cyprus.

CNA EC/MCH/1996

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1910:CYPPRESS:06

[06] Enclaved teacher reported critically ill

The Turkish occupation regime has blackmailed Foka that if she seeks treatment in the government-controlled areas of the Republic it will not allow her to return, unless she issues an "illegal" identity card.

Foka has been refusing to issue a so-called "identity card" because it would constitute recognition of the pseudostate set up in the Turkish occupied areas, recognised only by Turkey.

"Fokas' denial of the pseudostate is the same as the UN's refusal to recognise it," the Spokesman said, adding that the teacher "is being punished for her loyalty to UN resolutions."

UN resolution 541 of 1983 considers the pseudostate as "legally invalid and calls for its withdrawal" and calls upon all states "not to recognise any Cypriot state other than the Republic of Cyprus".

Foka told the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation Friday that she suffers from vertico and cannot walk.

Speaking to CNA Fokas' relatives said that yesterday the occupation regime sent an ambulance and doctor to take her to hospital, but she refused as she was worried they would have taken her away from her village, in the Karpass peninsula in the island's western tip, to occupied Nicosia.

Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Takis Christopoulos, told CNA he knows of Fokas' illness through a letter she had sent him and after speaking to her relatives.

He said he is trying to contact the United Nations Force in Cyprus over the issue, as they are the only ones who can actually investigate into the matter.

According to CNA sources, the UN was expected to visit Foka today and there was a possibility she would be brought to the government-controlled areas as she is critically ill.

Earlier today, on his return from the Turkish occupied areas where he visited the enclaved, Council of Europe rapporteur on Cyprus, Hungarian MP Andras Barsoni, supported there was "some misunderstanding" over her condition.

He admitted, however, that he did not see Foka himself, but was told she is not facing health problems by the Turkish Cypriot village doctor as well as Greek Cypriots.

About 500 Greek Cypriots and Maronites remain in the part of the Republic occupied by Turkey since its 1974 invasion of the island, mostly elderly, living under oppressive restrictions.

There are only three teachers in the Turkish-occupied areas providing for the elementary education of 34 children. Greek and Maronite Cypriots come to the government-controlled part of the Republic for their secondary education.

CNA KN/MA/MCH/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1935:CYPPRESS:07

[07] AIDS trial continues for the second day

Jeannete Pink, 45, also told the Larnaca District Court that she did not know much about AIDS before contracting the disease and that her lover, fisherman Pavlos Georgiou, 40, had not told her his wife had died of this disease.

During her cross-examination by Georgiou's lawyer today, Pink said she thought AIDS "related to homosexuals and drug users" and did not consider condoms as necessary in lovemaking.

The British divorcee and mother of two, who came to the island to testify, met the Cypriot fisherman while on holiday in Cyprus in 1994. Georgiou is denying the charges.

The fisherman's lawyer, Tasos Economou, told the court that Pink had at least one other affair during four holidays in Cyprus, from 1991 to 1992.

This is the first such case to be tried in Cyprus. If found guilty Georgiou faces a maximum sentence of two years in jail and a fine of about two thousand Cyprus pounds (about four thousand US dollars).

The trial will continue tomorrow.

CNA TA/MA/MCH/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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