Footballers keen to join Serbs

A Cyprus football club got a big response to an appeal for volunteers to join Serb forces in Yugoslavia

A Cyprus football club got a big response to an appeal for volunteers to join Serb forces in Yugoslavia. Mr Kikis Constantinou, president of the Anorthosis club, said pledges of humanitarian aid had also been made.

The club membership is largely drawn from Greek-Cypriot refugees from Famagusta, the port occupied by Turkey in 1974.

All Greek Cypriot males serve 28 months in the armed forces, so volunteers would have military training.

A maverick member of parliament from the centrist Democratic Party, Dr Marios Matsakis, said he supported the idea. "I will be the first one to join." But he opposes recruitment unless practical assistance can be offered.

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As he is trained as a forensic pathologist, he would "tend the wounded in the battlefield." He made three visits to Bosnia.

The Cyprus Greek Orthodox Church is holding an island-wide fund-raising campaign on April 4th.

Archbishop Chrystomos expressed the feeling of most Greek Cypriots when he said the crisis was caused by the "Muslim element" in Yugoslavia.

Michael Jansen

Michael Jansen

Michael Jansen contributes news from and analysis of the Middle East to The Irish Times