塞浦路斯：救助条款痛苦但必要的

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　　In a televised speech to his country Monday night,  Anastasiades said, "Our choices were not easy."

　　He said that at banks on the Mediterranean² island, capital restrictions³ will be imposed to prevent depositors from making massive cash withdrawals⁴. But he said the restrictions would be "very temporary."

　　Most of those banks were due to reopen Tuesday, but now all will remain closed until Thursday. Banks in Cyprus have been closed for more than a week during the crisis and the size of withdrawals by customers at automated⁵ teller⁶ machines has been limited.

　　In securing the rescue package, Cyprus avoided bankruptcy⁷ and an exit from the euro currency union. But the impact of the deal is drawing widely different interpretations⁸.

　　Wealthy Russian investors⁹ have parked vast sums in Cypriot banks. But Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Monday that Cyprus, by agreeing to impose a tax of about 30 percent on big, uninsured accounts with more than $130,000, is "continuing, I think, to plunder¹⁰ the loot" of his countrymen.

　　German Chancellor¹¹ Angela Merkel, Europe's chief advocate for forcing debt-ridden countries to resolve their financial woes¹², described the Cyprus rescue plan as fair.

　　"I am very pleased that a solution was found last night and that we have been able to avoid an insolvency," said Merkel. "I believe that a fair burden distribution was achieved. On the one hand, banks have to take responsibility for themselves which is what we have always said. We do not want taxpayers¹³ to save banks. Banks must save themselves. This is what will happen in the case of Cyprus.''

　　The bailout terms were reached in last-minute negotiations¹⁴ in Brussels, just ahead of a deadline set by the European Central Bank. The central bank has said it would cut off emergency funding to Cypriot banks if no deal was reached. With the bailout secure, the bank said it would continue the emergency assistance.

　　Cypriot officials warned of tough times ahead for the country, whose economy accounts for just two-tenths of one percent of the eurozone's economic fortunes. Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris predicted the Cypriot economy would recover. But he said the nation will be paying for the past mistakes of its bankers and the government, who together turned the island into a tax haven¹⁵ for offshore¹⁶ investors, with limited regulation.

　　"I don't think there is any denying that the Cyprus people will have to go through some tough times and will suffer the consequences of a protracted¹⁷ period where wrong decisions were made, primarily at the banking¹⁸ level, but also the fiscal¹⁹ excesses that we had to adjust over a relatively²⁰ short period of time," said Sarris.

　　Greek Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostomos II said there "will be a lot of difficulties, some will lose their jobs, the poverty will increase."

　　To secure the $13 billion bailout from their European neighbors, the central bank and International Monetary²¹ Fund, Cyprus had to raise $7.5 billion. As part of the deal, it agreed to close the island's second largest bank, Laiki, and enforce heavy losses on wealthy bank depositors. The island last week rejected an earlier plan sanctioned by the lenders that also would have taxed the insured accounts of small investors.

　　If no deal had been reached, Cyprus would have defaulted, and likely been forced to leave the eurozone.

　　Cyprus becomes the fifth eurozone country where billions of dollars in bailouts have been needed to ward²² off bankruptcy, following Greece, Portugal, Ireland and Spain.

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