NO ONE said it would be easy but UN Special Envoy Alexander Downer might just wish someone had told him it would be this hard after spending the last few days rejecting a convoy of explosive “comments” attributed to him by the media.
The Australian diplomat has been fighting off accusation after accusation the last few days, coming from all angles and on all subjects, forcing him to deny each allegation one by one before the cameras.
Working and speaking about the Cyprus problem requires a good degree of dexterity and diplomatic reserve, but one can do little about what is not said, and according to Downer, the media has focused most of its attention on just that.
The hottest potato was a report in the Turkish press and picked up by the Greek Cypriot media that the UN has prepared a 50-page settlement blueprint, completely contradicting the “solution by Cypriots for Cypriots” mantra of the past few months.
Another allegation was that Downer had said Turkey’s “guarantee” and troops would remain on the island post-solution. Reports also surfaced that Downer was putting pressure on political leaders to solve the Cyprus problem, forcing President Demetris Christofias to say he would investigate the matter and have a few words if this was the case.
The latest comment attributed to the former foreign minister was that he finds certain Greek Cypriot media, namely papers Phileleftheros and Simerini and TV channels Antenna and Sigma, “disgusting”.
Then perhaps on a lighter note there was the report that he had applied for a top international job as head of the APEC secretariat for 2010. Despite Downer insisting he didn’t really have his heart in it, this was actually true.
The series of allegations bandied about the media stirred up quite a fuss among government coalition partners DIKO and EDEK, as well as Evroko and the Greens.
DIKO’s Fotis Fotiou said “all that’s happening in the last few weeks is certainly reminiscent of the pre-referendum period in 2004” while EDEK’s Yiannakis Omirou warned against another UN-made plan with timeframes and concessions, saying “reheated food is a recipe for failure”.
AKEL’s chief Andros Kyprianou categorically rejected the notion that the UN had prepared a blue print while DISY’s Nicos Anastassiades didn’t’ take the reports too seriously.
“I have the impression that the effort to demonise UN representatives from time to time is not most beneficial to Cyprus,” said the DISY leader.
As for the man himself, he had this to say: “Well, I have been a politician for many years and I am used to people putting words into my mouth. But you can take it from me that I don’t have any model that I think should be imposed on Cyprus. I am not promoting any particular model privately or publicly.”
Regarding the level of disgust he possessed for the media in Cyprus, Downer replied: “You just take it as it comes – I am not too sensitive to anything in the media. I think on the whole media does a good job here, they put forward different points of view and debate, and that’s the role of the media. I have no problems with them.”
A source close to the UN described some of the allegations floating about as “absurd”.
“It’s a malicious attempt to discredit him and hurt the process. He wouldn’t use those terms and not in public. He may have said certain parts of the press give voice to very extreme opinion but he didn’t put it in those terms.”
“In fact, what he has said is that often the press takes something and reports on it without even calling first to see if it’s true. Ironically, that’s exactly what they did regarding the claim that the UN has prepared a 50-page blueprint,” said the source. One thing that Downer has expressed is the view that “the local media can be very assertive and sometimes aggressive when airing their views on the Cyprus problem”, added the source.
As for the allegation that he finds TV channels Sigma and Antenna “disgusting”, Downer says he can’t even watch the channels because he doesn’t speak Greek.
