WATCHING the juvenile glee with which mainstream Greek Cypriot hacks and spin doctors greeted Sir Kieran Prendergast’s briefing on the Secretary-general’s good offices mission to Cyprus before the UN Security Council this week one would have thought that he had announced the re-unification of Cyprus.
Yes, Sir Kieran did state certain verities that please opponents of Annan Plan V that was massively rejected in last year’s referendum. For example, that the arbitration process agreed to by the parties prior to the referendum is over. Well of course it is, as Sir Kieran said, in more than 40 years of UN involvement in Cyprus, arbitration was an exceptional process. It was agreed to by the parties in order to meet the objective of having a plan to present to the two communities in the hope that a re-united Cyprus would have joined the EU a year ago last May.
Yes, the Under Secretary-general made it clear that any settlement must take into account the massive rejection of Annan Plan V by the Greek Cypriots and that there is no indication of a change in Greek Cypriot public opinion in that respect. What Annan Plan phobes may have overlooked, however, is that Sir Kieran immediately added that any revisions made to the Plan to satisfy the Greek Cypriots could not be at the expense of sacrificing the support of the Turkish Cypriots.
While some Greek Cypriots may count it as a vindication of sorts that the Secretary-general is not ruling out another negotiating process in the future, and he has indicated that he will continue consultations with the sides to see if progress can be made, the bottom line is that he has re-stated his position that due to the chasm between the positions of the two sides and the woeful lack of mutual confidence it would not be advisable to re-engage the parties in intensive negotiations at this time. There will not be another high profile initiative by the Secretary-general until he sees clear evidence that the parties have the political will to bridge their differences and are committed to making the difficult compromises that are necessary to reach an agreement.
In other words, 40 years since U Thant sent Galo Plaza to the island to mediate between the parties we have for all practical purposes not moved an inch in bridging our inter-communal differences. Still no real political will for compromise; just the same old worn out rhetoric.
With Turkey’s European aspirations looking more dubious by the day, I would say that the Secretary-general’s assessment after the referendum that a historic opportunity to reach a fair and balanced settlement was missed is looking more and more as if it was right on the money with each passing day.
I rather doubt that such a lost opportunity bothers our President and deputy leader of the Akritas Plan, who teary-eyed asked for and got his resounding ‘no’ in the referendum, but it should give pause to his fellow-travelers in the AKEL party who it seems have still not found the way to cement the ‘yes’.
