UN asks Occupy protesters to vacate Ledra Street site

THE UN has asked Cyprus’ own Occupy the Buffer Zone activists protesting against the island’s division to vacate the area marking the divide on Ledra Street between north and south of the island. 

According to reports, the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) yesterday distributed pamphlets among the peace activists at the impromptu encampment set up in the buffer zone in the heart of Nicosia, asking them to leave the area immediately. 

The note reportedly states that the UN does not approve of their activities in the buffer zone and argues that the encampment is a danger to themselves and others, while their presence hinders renovation work on the old buildings in the area. 

The Occupy movement in Nicosia’s buffer zone, like in many other cases around the world, was deemed by UNFICYP a danger to public health, as a result of the garbage allegedly piling up in the area. The administrators of the Green Line dividing the two opposing forces on the island said they even received complaints from others in the area about the smoke from fires started by the protesters and about animals and garbage.  

It is believed the UN, which has left the activists pretty much alone since they set up camp there in the second half of November, decided to call it a day after protesters entered two abandoned buildings in the buffer zone and lit fires there, against UN regulations.  

According to reports, the blue helmets will remove the protesters from the buffer zone on Ledra Street today if they have not already left.  

 

 

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.