Property For Rent In Cyprus
US Department Of State Post Report
All U.S. installations are located in Nicosia. The Post and Its AdministrationLast Updated: 1/6/2004 9:52 AM The first U.S. official representative sent to Cyprus was Marino De Mattei, appointed as consular agent on October 27, 1832. The post was abolished and closed twice, from 1876 to 1919 and again from 1930 to 1948. It was reopened as a Consulate on April 12, 1948, and elevated to Consulate General in 1958, and upgraded to an Embassy in 1960 when Cyprus ga ... [Read More]
Moldova
With foreign assistance, several NGOs worked to combat trafficking through information campaigns, repatriation assistance, temporary housing and medical care for victims, and job training. The NGO Save the Children worked with trafficking victims, particularly repatriated girls. Local NGOs operated public school programs to educate young women about the dangers of prostitution. In November, a number of NGOs and international organizations sponsored a conference on combating sex trafficking that drew participants from the National Committee on Anti-Trafficking, the Supreme Court, anti-trafficking prosecutors, police, and regional anti-trafficking committees. In May, the Center for Prevention of Trafficking in Women launched a legal assistance project to represent victims in civil and criminal cases, and the local branch of the NGO La Strada established a toll-free nationwide hotline. During the year, the IOM office in Chisinau began to receive funds from a foreign source which it used f ... [Read More]
2004 Country Report on Human Rights Practices in Belarus
The Government arbitrarily detained representatives of independent media (see Section 2.a.). On October 17, police arrested Russian journalist Pavel Sheremet on allegations of starting a fight in which Sheremet received serious injuries. Credible reports indicated that Sheremet was the victim of the assault, not its perpetrator, and that his detention was related to his journalistic work. Charges against Sheremet were later dropped. Police on multiple occasions during the year detained journalists for Russia's REN TV who were covering protests. Unidentified plainclothes officials working for the security services also regularly apprehended and detained individuals engaged in anti government demonstrations and who distributed opposition materials. Several plainclothes officers apprehended youth group leader Dmitryy Dashkevich as he shouted, "Shame!" during an address by President Lukashenko announcing a referendum that would eliminate term limits on the presidency and thus permit him to ... [Read More]
Moldova
b. Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and AssociationThe Constitution provides for freedom of assembly, and the Government generally respected this right in practice. Mayors' offices issue permits for demonstrations and may consult the national government if a demonstration is likely to be extremely large; permits were issued routinely and without bias. From January 9 to April 29, the opposition PPCD organized unauthorized protests against certain policies of the Communist authorities, such as measures to make Russian a second official language, extension of the teaching of Russian language in schools, and changing the history curriculum in schools from the current "History of the Romanians" course to a "History of Moldova" course. Protesters, who called for the resignation of the Communist party leadership, numbered at various times between several hundred and an estimated 30,000 supporters, though the opposition-contro ... [Read More]
2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices in Moldova
In July, Transnistrian authorities closed four Latin script schools that were registered with the Moldovan Ministry of Education and attempted to close two more. Police forcibly closed the Latin-script schools in Ribnita and Tiraspol, removing all furniture and school materials and sealing the premises. They also closed two schools in Dubasari and Corjova; students from these schools were transferred to Latin-script schools in villages under the control of the Moldovan authorities. Police were impeded from closing a Latin-script school and orphanage in Bender by parents, teachers and children who guarded the facilities throughout August and September. Authorities claimed the institutions violated Transnistrian law, which requires the schools to register locally and to use the Cyrillic alphabet for instruction. In September, the OSCE helped negotiate a formula to allow the Latin-script schools in Bender, Dubasari, and Corjova to register, although authorities continued to impose logisti ... [Read More]
Europe and Central Asia
AlbaniaI. Summary Drug trafficking is a significant problem in Albania, which is a major transit country for heroin from Afghanistan and Turkey destined for markets throughout Europe. Organized crime groups use Albania as a transit point for drug and other types of smuggling due to the country’s strategic location, weak police and judicial systems, and porous borders. The most common illegal drugs are heroin, marijuana, and to a lesser extent, cocaine. Heroin is typically transported through the "Balkans Route" of Turkey-Bulgaria-Macedonia-Albania, and on to Italy, Greece and the Netherlands. Cocaine is smuggled from South America, via the United States, Italy, Spain, Greece or the Netherlands, and ... [Read More]
Ukraine
The Government's human rights record was poor in some areas; however, the Government continued to respect the rights of its citizens in other areas. In previous years, police and military committed extrajudicial killings; however, there were no reports of such incidents during the year. A prominent journalist disappeared in September. In November a decapitated body believed to be his was found. Later that month, a prominent political opponent accused the President of complicity in the disappearance. Those charges have not been proved or disproved. The Government asserted that it is investigating the journalist's disappearance and conducting tests to determine the identity of the corpse; however, the case remains unsolved at year's end, and the authorities' poor handling of the investigation proved a source of great concern. Police and prison officials regularly tortured and beat detainees and prisoners, sometimes resulting in death. The beating of conscripts in the army by fellow soldi ... [Read More]
Belarus
On February 24, the Ministry of Information ordered the opposition newspaper Vcherny Stolin to suspend its printing activities for 3 months for alleged "flagrant violations" of the law, inciting social intolerance, and publishing classified material about a police investigation into corruption in the local government without permission. The Ministry also cited the newspaper's failure to properly report that the newspaper was switching the focus of its reporting from economic issues to political issues. On March 8, following Vcherny Stolin's suspension, Alexander Ignatyuk, editor-in-chief of Vcherny Stolin, launched another newspaper, Provintsialka, which continued to provide critical reporting of local officials. A local official successfully sued the newspaper over a report accusing the official of accepting a bribe and was awarded approximately $990 (2 million rubles). On April 18, the Ministry of Information suspended Provintsialka for 3 months on the grounds that Provi ... [Read More]
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