British military helps get its citizens out

PARLIAMENTARY Undersecretary of State at Britain’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office Lord David Triesman arrived in Cyprus yesterday to thank the Cypriot government for its assistance in the Lebanese evacuation and the excellent handling of the situation.

Carrying a personal thank you letter from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Lord Triesman was received by President Tassos Papadopoulos and was also scheduled to meet Foreign Minister George Lillikas.

British High Commission spokesman George Stylianou said that Lord Triesman was also to visit various sites where people from Britain have been deployed to provide assistance to the evacuees, namely the British Bases and places where the rapid redeployment groups are stationed.

He is expected to visit Limassol Port today, where the Royal Navy HMS Bulwark, a commando assault ship, will dock with some 2,000 people of various nationalities, manly British, aboard.

Stylianou said that so far, Britain has brought over more than 1,000 people who have fled from Lebanon, aboard HMS Gloucester and HMS York.

The Gloucester has so far made two trips to Beirut, bringing to Cyprus 180 people on its first trip and about 550 on its second, while HMS York has brought 350 people.
Furthermore, two British helicopters have carried some 80 people to safety.

Apart from the British citizens, the ships and helicopters have transported people of numerous different nationalities, including over 150 Australians and many Canadians.
Most of the evacuees have already left Cyprus on chartered flights.

Stylianou said that several chartered flights have been scheduled from the British Bases in Akrotiri.

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.