Antenna News in English 190996

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From: Antenna Radio <http://www.antenna.gr> - email: antenna@compulink.gr

News in English, of 19/09/1996

TITLES

• Politicians keep on their pre-election campaigning a few days before the elections.
• The US State Department spokesman talks to Antenna exclusively.
• And, a Princess comes to Greece for a short vacation.

SIMITIS

Prime minister Kostas Simitis was in Larissa, central Greece, Tuesday night, where he accused New Democracy for supporting its pre-election tactics on misleading the greek people, in both economy and foreign policy issues.

Simitis explained Pasok's programme on the financial and social development of the region. "Pasok will win the elections", he said addressing to his party's supporters. "There won't be any cooperation governments. Small parties can't play a certain role in the government", he added. "It will be one party or the other. So, whoever wants a progressive and democratic Greece, should vote for Pasok".

On Wednesday, the premier visited the cities of Volos, Almyros and Lamia.

EVERT

"We're coming with the message of a peaceful revolution", Evert said in his speech. "A message for the modernisation of the country in the way of thinking, and especially with actions. Because the greek people need action, not words. They're fed up with big words and huge visions. We're ready to offer them real action", Evert added.

The city of Serres, in northern Greece, was Miltiades Evert's next stop in his pre-election tour all over Greece on Wednesday.

SMALL PARTIES

In the southern city of Kalamata, Political Spring leader Antonis Samaras explained his party's national and economy policy positions Wednesday, while he accused Pasok's government for not giving the greek people "a clear national guideline", in his speech at an Athens suburb Tuesday night.

Communist party Aleka Papariga held her party's last pre-election big rally in Athens Tuesday. She stressed that whichever big party wins the elections, it will implement a series of anti- popular measures afterwards. "Greece CAN be developed", she said. "The greek people CAN lay on its powers, but they can also count on their relations with other countries all over the world".

Left Coalition leader Nikos Konstantopoulos toured in Athens suburbs Wednesday morning. From the island of Mytilini, where he went Tuesday, Konstantopoulos emphasized on the need to bring his party back to the parliament, as it didn't manage to get a satisfactory number of votes, after the last elections in 1993.

In a press conference he gave Wednesday, Democratic movement leader Dimitris Tsovolas said the political stage in the country will change after the elections, and excluded the formation of a self-dependant government.

STATE DEPARTMENT

In the exclusive interview he gave to Antenna's correspondent Athanassios Ellis, the US State Department spokesman Clint Davis called his country's relations with the Simitis government "excellent", but avoided to make any reference of preference for Pasok or New Democracy as Greece's new government, after the elections on September 22nd.

"As a very general matter, a general principle, the US has relationships with governments, not with people. We certainly don't want to interfere in the electoral process in Greece and foreshadow how we might structure our relationship with a conservative government or with the government of Mr. Simitis. Whatever result comes from the greek elections, you can be sure that the US will do everything in its power to get along as well as we can with the new greek government, whichever party comes to power. Again, our interests in Greece are so broad and so deep that they transcend really governments which come and go. But we do want to work with whichever government is in power in Greece and I'm very confident that that will be succesful again".

Davis also referred to the recent Imia crisis, saying that Washington was pleased with the situation's handlings from both sides, Greece and Turkey, as they avoided a dangerous conflict.

"We were interested in calming the situation ensuring it will not blow up in something bigger, because it involved two good friends and allies of the US, Greece and Turkey, and we were very pleased that the crisis did not expand or become any larger, and certainly there was a great deal of maturity and good judgement displayed....prove ultimately not to be very useful".

CYPRUS

Little Anastasia, who will be named after her father, considered a heroe after his outrageous murder, will have the new Greek government,once formed after the elections, as her godparent.

On Tuesday, Christos Iakovou, councellor of New Democracy leader Miltiades Evert, went to Cyprus to hand in a cheque of thirty million drachmas to Cyprus president Glavcos Clerides to be given to the families of the two Cypriots, Tassos Isaak and Solomos Solomou, who were murdered by the Turks in the island's neutral zone last month. New Democracy saved this money after its leader Miltiades Evert announced the cancellation of his last pre-election big rally in Athens. On Monday, Evert said he will give an open press conference instead, on Thursday afternoon, willing to give Greek voters the chance to watch a real dialogue between him and the journalists.

Christos Iakovou brought a special, personal message to both families, Isaak and Solomou's, sent by Miltiades Evert.

PONTIANS

Representatives of Greek communities from Georgia, Russia, Armenia, Ajerbaitjan as well as from Australia and the US, made a plea to the international public opinion for recognising the 1919 genocide against the Pontian Greeks. The Turks slaughtered 350 thousand ethnic Greeks living near the Black Sea.

In the city of Vatoum, in Georgia, Greeks never forgotten their roots. Children are taught greek at schools as the first official foreign language, while orthodox churches are open beside the muslim mosques, the jewish sunagogues and the catholic temples.

Maria Veneti, university professor in Thessaloniki, explains that today, the Greek population in the former Soviet Union reaches 500 thousand people. All those Greeks never stopped thinking of Greece, and have kept their national identity, in their efforts to bring hellenism back to what it was sixty years ago in the region.

LADY D

The princess' office said it was a private holiday, "and we are not giving any details".

Sources said earlier Wednesday that the princess might head off to a Greek island, and most probably to Mykonos.

But, there were also specific reports that Diana came to Greece to attend the funeral of a young man, whom she met during one of her visits to a London hospital. 28-year-old Yiannis Kalyviotis suffered from cystic fibrosis, and despite his severe health problems, he managed to finish his Law studies in Athens. When he went to London for futher medical treatment, his case moved the British public opinion, and Diana took a special interest in his problem.

Kalyviotis died in a London hospital over the weekend. His funeral took place at the mining town of Limni, on the island of Evia, northeast of Athens.

Diana plans to be in Washington next Tuesday at a dinner for the Nina Hyde Cancer Research Appeal, in Washington. That will be her first public appearance outside Britain, since her divorce from Prince Charles.

© ANT1-Radio 1996

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