Cyprus News Agency: News in English (AM), 98-04-24

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

CONTENTS

[01] Leaders in Canada react to nuclear reactors sale to Turkey

[02] President Clerides leaves for Athens

[03] Cypriot FM meets Israeli official

[04] British Euro-MP raises Akamas issue at EU-Cyprus meeting

[05] Finance Minister visits Stock Exchange

[06] Clerides appears hopeful

1010:CYPPRESS:01

[01] Leaders in Canada react to nuclear reactors sale to Turkey

Toronto, Apr 24 (CNA) -- Leaders of the Greek and Cypriot diaspora in Canada got the chance this week to voice their concerns over Canada's bid to sell nuclear reactors to Turkey in a face-to-face meeting with the country's Natural Resources Minister.

"The minister was reminded of the hundreds of thousands of Canadians of Greek origin who have concerns about the situation and that in the long run, this government may lose their votes", Toronto Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis told CNA.

Karygiannis, along with fellow Liberal MPs John Cannis and Eleni Bakopanos, led the delegation in the hour-long meeting with Ralph Goodale on Wednesday.

The delegation, which met the minister in Ottawa, included Hellenic Canadian Congress President Nicos Panos, Congress Vice President Sotiris Antypas, Congress Executive members George Pitsikoulis and Antonis Rodolakis, and PSEKA Canada President Constantinos Sophocleous.

In what was described by a government source as an "honest discussion", the delegation presented Goodale with a memorandum addressed to Prime Minister Jean Chretien calling on the Canadian government to pull the plug on its sales bid.

"On behalf of all Canadians of Greek origin and all Canadians who are proud of our international reputation, we urge the Liberal government to cancel its bid to sell nuclear reactors to Turkey", the memo said.

Turkey is presently considering bids from Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, (AECL), Nuclear Power International (NPI) which is owned jointly by Siemens of Germany and Framatome of France and the American-Japanese consortium of Westinghouse and Mitsubishi.

AECL has put in a bid for two reactors and the Canadian government has already agreed to provide Can. $1.5 billion in financing for the Can. $3.5 billion project.

The contract is expected to be finalised by the Turkish government sometime early next year.

Although the delegation stressed the potentially dire consequences construction of a nuclear reactor could pose to the region's environment, discussion focused on the fear that Turkey may eventually attempt to manufacture nuclear weapons from the reactors' waste plutonium.

"I told the minister, the bottom line is would you sign that this won't happen, would you guarantee my parents' safety ten, fifteen years down the line? He couldn't", Karygiannis said.

Sophocleous said the minister told the delegation that the Canadian government has examined the issue and then he can confirm that Turkey has been a party to all the treaties and conventions pertaining to the non- proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Especially treaties that place absolute responsibility on the purchaser if they went ahead with the manufacturing of nuclear weapons.

"He also acknowledged that, at the end of the day, no guarantees could be given", Sophocleous said.

Cannis pointed out to Goodale that Turkey has a miserable track record as far as complying to international resolutions is concerned.

"The concern here that I have as John Cannis is Turkey's history of non- compliance with various resolutions passed by the United Nations. So if they haven't complied with other resolutions and agreements in the past, I want assurances that they are prepared to comply", he told CNA.

Government sources told CNA neither the Canadian government nor Minister Goodale would comment on the meeting, but did note that the dialogue "is ongoing".

The memo noted further that seismological data released by Earthquake Forecasts Inc. indicate that there is a probability of 50 per cent that an earthquake of magnitude 7 Richter or higher will occur within 100 kms of the proposed reactor site within the next 40 years.

Sophocleous said the minister told the delegation that his data was completely contrary to this and added that he would revisit the issue.

The Turkish government has selected Akkuyu Bay as the future reactor site. Akkuyu is situated on the Turkey's south coast. Cyprus lies just 80 kms off Turkey's south coast.

Karygiannis said other countries have concerns of their own about the issue. He said the Syrian government is "very upset" with the reactor sales.

According to Karygiannis, Goodale maintained in the meeting that Canada "has the safest reactor in the world".

That doesn't sit well with Dave Martin, of the Nuclear Awareness Programme, an organisation opposed to nuclear energy. Martin said that there is no evidence to justify the claim that CANDU (CANada Deuterium Uranium) reactors are safer than any other reactor.

"In fact, there is a lost of evidence that CANDU reactors have experienced more problems than other reactor designs. The thing that's most relevant is the irrefutable fact that CANDU reactors have the worst performance of any reactor design in the world", Martin said.

Ontario Hydro, Canada's largest utility, had to shut down several nuclear reactors it was operating in the province for repairs and to bring them up to safe operation, but experts believe that some will never be re- started.

"The reason why they're being shut down is because they're too dangerous to operate and we've seen this time and again over the last few years at CANDU reactors in Ontario," Martin said.

Proponents of the sale of CANDU reactors to Turkey say the sale will help create jobs in Canada and boost the country's economy.

"This is smoke and mirrors," Martin said. "There is no economic benefit to Canada and the reason is that Canadian taxpayers have historically subsidised the creation of the CANDU reactors. If after 45 years of continuous subsidies it is still not making a profit, it never will".

The delegation also raised to Goodale's attention Turkey's internal economic and political instability, which might prove detrimental to the proper maintenance of the facility or leave it vulnerable to attack by Kurdish rebels, who are engaged in a long-standing struggle for a separate homeland within Turkey.

"I think that's a very legitimate concern. Political and economic stability is a very serious question when you're talking about loaning one- and-a-half billion dollars from the Canadian treasure," Martin said.

Martin also raised the spectre of Turkey defaulting on the Can. $1.5 billion loan, given the country's instability.

"Turkey has been described as a high risk economic environment", he said. "I thing the economic risk is a very serious one and I think the political situation in Turkey is a part of that risk..." Also present at the meeting between the Greek and Cypriot leaders and the Natural Resources Minister were Parliamentary Assistance to the Foreign Minister Ted McWhinney and House Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bill Graham. CNA/MH/GP/1998

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1150:CYPPRESS:02

[02] President Clerides leaves for Athens

President Clerides left this morning for Athens where later today he will attend the funeral of former Greek President Constantinos Karamanlis and this evening discuss latest developments in the Cyprus question with Greek Premier Costas Simitis.

Speaking on departure, President Clerides said he would exchange views with Simitis on "recent developments, if I can use the word 'developments' in Cyprus," he remarked.

Explaining his remark, the President said what he meant was that "there is still no indication of a positive response on behalf of the Turkish side."

"On the contrary, all (Turkish) statements leave no room that they (Turks) will respond positively to anything related to a Cyprus settlement, " he said.

President Clerides reiterated that the US had not put forward a proposal for a four-party meeting on Cyprus, to be attended by the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, Greece and Turkey.

He said neither Richard Holbrooke, the US President's Emissary on Cyprus, nor Tom Miller, the US State Department Special Cyprus Coordinator, had proposed such a four-party meeting to Nicosia.

Miller is currently in the Greek capital, after visiting Nicosia and Ankara earlier this week, for talks on Cyprus.

President Clerides will return to Cyprus on Sunday. CNA MAN/KN/AP/GP/1998

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1200:CYPPRESS:03

[03] Cypriot FM meets Israeli official

No statements were made after the meeting at the Foreign Ministry in Nicosia.

The meeting was also attended by Cyprus Foreign Ministry Permanent Secretary Alecos Shambos, Israeli Ambassador Semi Tzur and other officials from the two sides.

After the meeting with Kasoulides, Shambos and Bentsur held official talks.

Bilateral issues and regional developments of mutual interest were at the centre of the Cyprus-Israeli talks.

Cyprus had made representations to the Israeli authorities about recent flights by Israeli military aircraft within the Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR) without permission. Israel apologised for the incident.

Ambassador Bentsur will give a press conference this afternoon. He leaves on Saturday.

CNA KK/GP/1998

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1440:CYPPRESS:04

[04] British Euro-MP raises Akamas issue at EU-Cyprus meeting

The British Labour Euro-MP referred to the issue during yesterday's session of the two-day meeting here of the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Cypriot deputy Demetris Eliades, who chairs the House Committee on the Environment, noted that troops from the British Bases in Cyprus were just finishing two days of live-firing exercise on the Akamas peninsula.

David Madden, who was asked by Green to reply after taking off his EU presidency hat and put on his British High Commission hat, assured that the governments of Britain and Cyprus were in constant cooperation for an alternative site for exercises.

He said he would have a meeting this morning with Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides to "have a further discussion on this issue because we both consider it to be very important."

Pauline Green told CNA she had been raising the issue for years to previous British governments, but she only received a positive reply by the present government, after she had written to the British Defence Secretary of State George Robertson.

Raising the issue, Green asked Madden to explain "exactly what the present British government's position is with regard to the Akamas military manoeuvres", since the previous ones "kept telling me they had never received any complaints from Cyprus about the manoeuvres."

She said "quite understandably" the issue is raising "some considerable controversy" in Cyprus and said Akamas is "a very important area of national pride that is being destroyed by manoeuvres and the use of live ammunition."

"I do hope very much that we are going to see some constructive changes in that relationship," she said.

"That is certainly the view of the British government," the High Commissioner replied, noting "we are eagerly looking for an alternative so that we do not need to make use of our Treaty right for live-firing on the Akamas."

Under the 1960 Treaty of Establishment, which granted Cyprus its independence from British colonial rule, Britain retained two military Bases on the island and the right for military exercises on the Akamas for 70 days a year.

The British High Commissioner said they were "not military manoeuvres but exercises of a small scale" and pointed out the right for 70 days per year has not been used for many years, and that last year it was used for 10 or 11 days.

"British troops are aware of the need to protect the environment and not to do unnecessary damage," Madden said and noted: "I think in some ways the level of environmental damage has been exaggerated."

The British are especially very conscious and sympathetic to the environmental arguments about possible risks to the Akamas, he said.

"Therefore we have made it clear to the Cyprus government that if they could come up with an alternative place for exercises to be carried out in the Republic we would welcome that," he added.

They looked at two or three possibilities but unfortunately so far they did not come up "with a lasting alternative", he explained so that was the reason why the two-day live-firing exercise, which was completed yesterday, was being carried out.

"Our efforts will continue and I am pretty optimistic that we will be able to come up with an alternative," Madden said and noted that efforts are going on both at an experts level and a political level.

The British Euro-MP explained to CNA she raised the issue of the British army's use of the Akamas because she kept raising it for several years to the British government, but the response of the previous Conservative government was that they had never received any complaint from Cyprus about the use of the Akamas.

"I knew that the new British government would have a quite different view to the old one," Green said.

"In November, I received a request from Yiannakis Omerou, then MP, (now Defence Minister) sending on to me the motion that was passed by Cypriot MPs and asking if the Socialist Group could lend its way to try and get these manoeuvres stopped," she said.

On behalf of the Socialist Group she wrote a letter to the British Defence Minister on the issue and had a reply on December 17 from Under- Secretary of State for Defence John Spellar containing the British views on the issue.

She said the "important thing" for her now is that she had a "positive response" from the British government which was again clarified by the British High Commissioner.

"We have the assurance from David Madden, we've got the evidence from the letter from the British Defence Department and I hope that it's going to end soon," Green told CNA.

She said it is clear there is a serious attempt to deal with the issue, noting that the British government "now recognises there is a problem, recognises the public anxiety, recognises the discontent it's causing here in Cyprus among Cypriots to their own natural environment."

"I think it should be dealt with as fast as possible," Green said, noting that environmental concerns are an important priority for the British government whether that be in Britain or anywhere else in the world.

"We've got one global environment to hand on to our children, they've made it clear it's one of their priorities and I'm sure they are trying to do it with haste," she concluded.

CNA DP/AP/GP/1998

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1450:CYPPRESS:05

[05] Finance Minister visits Stock Exchange

Christodoulou was addressing stockbrokers, investors and the CSE's Chairman and Director at the floor of the Stock Exchange during a brief visit there.

He said his visit reflects "his own and the government's interest in Cyprus' stockmarket".

The average daily volume of transactions twelve months ago was only 500 thousand Cyprus pounds, while in the last three months it reached two million pounds, Christodoulou pointed out (one Cyprus pound is equal to 1,9 US dollars).

The stocks' price index has increased by 12 points in the same period, he added, and described this performance as "impressive".

Christodoulou attributed this performance to investors' and brokers' belief that the CSE is founded on a "healthy basis", the good work by the CSE's Board, and the high level of cooperation among the parties involved in the CSE activities.

Investors' and brokers' confidence in the island's economy and the government measures such as tax cuts, which have been already publicised, are also responsible for the CSE's good performance, he added.

The Finance Minister revealed that in the coming weeks he will arrange a joint meeting with the CSE's Board, the brokers and the Securities Commission to discuss new measures necessary to upgrade Cyprus' Stock Exchange.

On his part, Dinos Papadopoulos, CSE Chairman said the cooperation between the CSE and the Ministry of Finance is positive, and he described the government's backing as substantial.

Papadopoulos noted the CSE's high performance reflects that of the island's economy.

CNA GG/GP/1998

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

1500:CYPPRESS:06

[06] Clerides appears hopeful

The President told Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation (CyBC) in Athens, where he went on a private visit today, that US State Department Special Coordinator for Cyprus, Tom Miller, briefed him on his contacts in the Greek and Turkish capitals.

The two men met at Athens airport as one (Clerides) was arriving and the other (Miller) leaving.

Asked if Miller is bringing something different and more optimistic, the Cypriot President was quoted as saying by CyBC that "a lot more than I would have expected."

Invited to assess what Miller has conveyed to him, the President is said to have told CyBC that what he heard was good enough to revoke his earlier statements on departure from Cyprus that one cannot talk about developments because the Turkish Cypriot position continues to be intransigent.

President Clerides said earlier today that "there is no indication as yet of a positive response on the part of the Turkish side" to help efforts to resume the intercommunal dialogue.

CNA AA/MM/GP/1998

ENDS, CYPRUS NEWS AGENCY

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