The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.2004, Síða 15

Vol. 59 #2
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
57
what counts and nobody does a thing with-
out getting extra payment for it. Johan
seemed to have some trouble getting us the
tickets to Cyprus. He was told everything
was fully booked. But, he obviously knew
how things worked around there and after
some quarrel, he got the tickets.
We split after Johan gave us our tick-
ets. We acted as if he had nothing to do
with us. At 16.30 hrs we got in the air, all
on the same plane, and landed at Ercan
Airport in Cyprus in one hour. When we
got out of the plane and looked around
there were soldiers everywhere. We were a
total contrast to the other passengers and
natives, the majority coming originally
from Turkey. We were obviously noticed
and felt very conspicuous. We knew that
we were being watched very closely, which
wasn't so strange because the place swarms
with all kinds of people. Undercover
agents, drug dealers, terrorists and interna-
tional criminals travel a lot through this
area, so all visitors are under close surveil-
lance.
Going through customs and passport
check took a lot of time and patience. At
last we were admitted to the Turkish
Republic of Cyprus. We later heard that
Yasser Arafat's private jet was at the airport
and that he had been in the terminal himself
at the time that we were there. Because of
that, security was even more strict than
usual.
We got through and went looking for a
taxi, and found one soon. We asked the dri-
ver to take us to Famagusta. It took about
an hour to drive to Hotel Panorama, where
we were supposed to meet with Johan and
Philippe. We drove through the country.
Occasionally we passed a village. Things
looked bad there, everything was dirty,
half-collapsed and ruined houses every-
where. Nothing seemed to have been done
to rebuild what had been destroyed in the
Cyprus war between the Turks and
Greeks. We went straight to the hotel, sat
down at a table there and ordered a beer.
We hadn't been sitting there for long when
Johan and Philippe appeared. We were glad
to see them and welcomed them.
They suggested that we would have a
good dinner in the hotel before we would
head for the ferry.
Originally, we planned to go onboard
of the ship pretending to be Philippe's
friends from Iceland visiting Cyprus. Then
we were supposed to sail the ship away
during the night.
They Are Going to Steal the Ferry
While we had dinner, Johan and
Phillipe explained to us that things had got-
ten pretty complicated. We found that
there were a lot of things we didn't know
of. For example, that the court had seques-
trated the ferry, so we would secretly have
to take the ferry during the night. The
Turkish Republic of Cyprus is not recog-
nized as an independent country, so its law
is not valid outside the island. In addition,
we found that the Turks who had bought
the ferry were very shady, smugglers and
lawbreakers. A rumour was going around
saying that the ship had been used to smug-
gle merchandise between Cyprus and
Turkey. Also, most things alluded that the
judge in Famagusta was in complicity with
the Turks.
Philippe also told us that before we got
to Cyprus, they had sent a few men on
board and wanted to start it again them-
selves. At that time the ferry had been
sequestrated in the harbour for 8 months.
He had found out about it earlier and man-
aged to get the oil pumps from both the
main engines of the ferry and hid them.
The Turks suspected that something was in
the air and placed guards on board for con-
stant watch. Two of them had been engi-
neers on the ferry and knew their way
around there well.
We were very surprised by this new
information. We had never thought we
would have to steal the ship, as now
seemed obvious. That was bad news and
we were very disappointed. We discussed
what we should do. We would clearly put
ourselves in great danger taking the ship.
The wise thing to do would be not to get
involved in this any further and leave this
to Johan and Philippe. Still, it seemed clear
to us that Johan was the rightful owner and
it would be justice for him to get the ship