Cyprus evacuates nationals from Yugoslavia

THE CYPRIOT Embassy in Belgrade yesterday began evacuating 57 Cypriots from Yugoslavia following a Tuesday night order for Nato military intervention against the Serbs.

Nato Secretary-general Javier Solona gave the command for Nato to step in after US envoy Richard Holbrooke failed to persuade Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to accept a peace plan for its Albanian-majority province of Kosovo.

Cyprus ambassador to Yugoslavia Andreas Skaparis said yesterday his embassy had catalogued 57 Cypriots as being present in Yugoslavia, adding that the evacuation would take “two to three days”.

Skaparis said that 15 of the 57 Cypriots were students, most of whom were resident in the northern town of Novi Sad near the Hungarian border.

“We have been taking this action for days now,” he said. “Originally the arrangement was to tell them that the situation was getting worse and to help those who wanted to leave.”

Skaparis said that, despite these warnings, most had decided to stay on, but that the new instructions from Nicosia were to evacuate all Cypriots. He added that their efforts were being helped by the Greek Embassy in Belgrade, which was also in the process of evacuating its nationals.

Skaparis said that the operation was expected to be completed by the end of the week and that “The embassy staff and I will be staying until all the rest have left.”

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