| Submit your comments on this article |
| Middle East |
| Cyprus still stuck with vacationing thugs |
| 2002-05-18 |
| The fate of 13 exiled Palestinian gunnies and crooks being temporarily hosted by Cyprus will not be known until next week at the earliest. Michalis Papapetrou said the men, expelled from Israel after the 38-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, will not leave the island before Tuesday. "We expect a final agreement next Tuesday when the EU foreign ministers will meet," Papapetrou told AFP. Didja hear the one about the guy whose granddad died, and he was going through the old man's suits? In the pocket of one of the suits he found a dry cleaner's ticket, dated 1931. He noticed that there was still a dry cleaner's at the address on the ticket, so just as a goof he stopped by and presented it, telling the guy behind the counter he wanted to pick up his suit. The EU has deferred a decision several times, with members of the 15-nation bloc unable to see eye-to-eye on the arrangements and legal status of the militants. It failed again Friday to reach an agreement. It seems the divisive issue of status has been settled but disagreement continues over distribution of the 13 among six EU member states that have agreed to take them in. "The main difficulty over status has been resolved, and there are some other details left; it seems that we are heading for a final decision on Tuesday," said the spokesman. The cleaner looked at it, turned it over, looked at it again. Then he told the guy the bad news: "It'll be ready Tuesay." However, it is not the first time Cyprus has been assured of a "swift decision" on the issue since the 13 were airlifted to the east Mediterranean island on May 10. Their stay was expected to be for only a few days, and the government had wanted them gone before the week was out. That's because it's not very important. They're not in the church, they're comfortable now, so what's the rush? |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |