Cyprus News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-05-31

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

CONTENTS

[01] Talks planned for July 9, says UN spokesman

[02] Cypriot doctor a nominee for European award

[03] Denktash regime refuses youths attend bicommunal festival

[04] Foreign Minister returns from Brussels

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[01] Talks planned for July 9, says UN spokesman

UN Secretary-General spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said "July 9 is a ballpark estimate" not an "official date", he noted, "until invitations are sent out and accepted by the parties."

"We expect the first round to be in the New York area," Eckhard added.

Sources close to the deliberations said the uncertainty over the exact date was due more to the logistics involved in organising the July meetings than anything else.

The logistics are somewhat more complicated than usual because of the number of observer-participants involved, as well as the increased interest and direct involvement in the Cyprus problem in recent months by the US, the European Union (EU) and European countries individually, and the seeming proliferation of special envoys with a "Cyprus portfolio".

The key players in the Cyprus problem, including Greece, Turkey and Great Britain (the three guarantor powers) as well as the EU and the US will "need to be present in the wings" for consultations, UN Under Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Sir Kieran Prendergast, had declared earlier.

CNA JD/AP/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1230:CYPPRESS:02

[02] Cypriot doctor a nominee for European award

This European award is presented by the European Union of Women (EUW) for the past seven years to female personalities. Each year five women are awarded, two involved with business, two in arts and one in humanitarian issues. This organisation is not related with the European Union (EU).

The EUW was established in 1957 and has more than 20 women's organisations as members from several European countries, but not from Cyprus. The awards are presented at a special dinner in London, where a lot of foreign personalities and representatives from EU embassies are gathered.

Paediatric surgeon and urologist Eleni Theocharous, 45, has been nominated for this European award by the local non-governmental "Action Group for Patients Human Rights".

Between 1982 and 1997, Dr. Theocharous has taken part in more than 22 humanitarian missions, mostly in European countries, voluntary offering her services while on unpaid leave.

She has mainly offered her services to hospitals in areas of conflict, under very difficult and strenuous conditions, where even basic facilities were not available, like having to operate on children using a candlelight and without an anaesthetic.

Examples of her mission include operating in war zones on more than 700 children over 13 missions to Bosnia, Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, between 1993 and 1997.

Dr. Throcharous has also operated on war victims in Kurdistan, Lebanon, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, while most recently she took part in two missions to Albania.

She also joined a Canadian-Cypriot mission to Haiti, where she operated on dozens of people, mainly children victims of AIDS. She is now helping in the reconstruction and operation of a children's hospital in Nagorno- Karabakh.

The Cypriot doctor has also headed campaigns calling on the people of Cyprus to raise money or goods for people where she voluntary offered her services.

Since 1992 she is the Director of the Paediatric Surgery Clinic, at the Nicosia Makarios Hospital. She is married to Dr. Louis Kariolou and has a daughter named Julia-Christina.

CNA AP/KN/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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[03] Denktash regime refuses youths attend bicommunal festival

The annual bicommunal cultural festival was organised last night at the Armenian school in the capital Nicosia by the Cyprus UN Association and was entitled "Peaceful co-existence".

The illegal regime refused 37 Turkish Cypriot youths to participate in this bicommunal festival and perform folk dances.

Greek Cypriot, Armenian, Maronite and Latin youths performed folk and pop music and dances at the festival, sending a message of peace to the other side of the divide.

Present at the festival was the Commander of UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) Argentine Major-General, Ernesto Evergisto de Vergara.

Meanwhile, another bicommunal project did go ahead last night at the UN- controlled Ledra Palace hotel.

More than 200 Greek and Turkish Cypriot architects gathered together to present a book on Cyprus architecture.

The book, "Twelve Traditional Cyprus Houses" was the culmination of five-year's work by a team of architects from the two sides under the auspices of UNHCR.

CNA AP/KN/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1430:CYPPRESS:04

[04] Foreign Minister returns from Brussels

This was stated yesterday by Foreign Minister, Ioannis Kasoulides, on his return from Brussels where he had talks with EU officials on the protracted Cyprus problem and the island's course for EU accession.

Kasoulides said "all canditate countries should consider one another as partners and not as competitors, in our course for accession to the EU."

He said Cyprus and Greece will support canditate countries' bid to join the EU and noted Cyprus will benefit from establishing new relations with some of these countries.

Kasoulides had a meeting in Brussels with Deputy Foreign Minister of Greece, Yiannos Kranidiotis, with whom he discussed the upcoming direct talks between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, early July near New York, as well as Cyprus' course for EU accession.

"We discussed several issues of Cyprus' accession course, among which the establishment of new relations with the rest canditate countries and took some decisions, that we'll immediately implement," he added.

Kranidiotis also briefed Kasoulides on his meeting with the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, earlier this week.

The Foreign Minister also said he expects to return "wiser" after a meeting with US Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, scheduled for June 6, in Washington.

CNA AP/KN/1997

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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