UN team coming to Cyprus for Iraq security review

UNITED Nations experts will be in Cyprus next week to meet UN staff from Baghdad to discuss the safety of staff there, following August’s suicide bomb attack on the United Nations HQ that killed 22 people.

The UN appointed the experts to find a solution to the dangers faced by the world body’s international staff in Iraq, to review the situation, and to take measures to keep them safe.

It is not yet known when the UN staff will arrive on the island from Baghdad or how many experts will come here for the security review.

Reuters news agency reported yesterday that international staff had already left the bomb-scarred Baghdad headquarters, and were heading to the airport from where they would fly to Cyprus for the talks.

UN vehicles drove out of the compound early in the morning as a US military helicopter circled overhead. Journalists were prevented from filming the departure.
Major Ingrid Tomakova, the deputy UNFICYP spokesperson, told the Sunday Mail that the UN staff will not be flying out to Cyprus this weekend but at the end of next week.

“The UN staff will be leaving Baghdad for another destination before flying to Cyprus. I cannot confirm what the destination will be or when their exact arrival date in Cyprus will be. They will, however, be leaving Baghdad as soon as possible,” she said.
Major Tomakova added that the team of United Nations experts for the security review will arrive on the island from New York.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.