IN THE END, the wiser heads prevailed and the legislature did not declare the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor Alexander Downer persona non grata. Instead a lukewarm resolution censuring Downer for his “lop-sided and damaging statements,” which “diverge from the UN Charter and UN resolutions on Cyprus” was passed. It also called for the “restoration of the Special Advisor’s objectivity and trustworthiness,” while observing that his comments and actions “constitute an undermining of the Republic of Cyprus as a state.”
The resolution, prompted by Downer’s reference in New York to the “Greek Cypriot presidency of the EU,” a slip for which he subsequently apologised, would be sent to Ban Ki-moon. All the fuss the politicians made in the previous week came to nothing. Deputies had elevated Downer to public enemy number one because of his reference to the “Greek Cypriot presidency”, in the aftermath of Greentree, denounced his, supposedly, pro-Turkish stance and planned to declare him persona non grata. The House would also write to Ban to demand his immediate replacement, or so Giorgos Perdikis, the deputy behind the resolution, had hoped.
The self-styled hard-line nationalists have been waging a war against Downer for most of his time in Cyprus, often citing his e-mails – which were stolen by hackers and subsequently published in a book – as proof of his anti-Greek bias. His public comments are also regularly attacked by politicians, who believe this is a sure-fire method of winning public kudos. It has always been like this. Downer is in good company as he joins a long list of UN Secretaries-General and special envoys – de Cuellar, Boutros-Ghali, Annan, Camillion, Feissel, de Soto to mention a few – who have been targets of vicious attacks by the ultra-patriotic Greek Cypriot camp.
These politicians, who label all UN envoys biased and untrustworthy, want negotiations within the UN framework and handled by the UN secretariat. But whenever there are negotiations they attack the UN and its representatives. After all these years of pro-Turkish or anti-Greek bias by the UN, why do they still want the organisation involved in the peace efforts? Instead of attacking de Soto, Annan, or Downer, they should have the honesty to tell people that the UN would never deliver an acceptable settlement and propose other ways of a securing a deal, instead of engaging in this farce every time there are talks.
In a way it would have been no bad thing if the legislature endorsed Perdikis’ call to declare Downer persona non grata and demand his immediate replacement. Ban would have ignored the resolution and the House would have been able to pass another resolution censuring the Secretary-General’s bias and untrustworthiness.
