MICHAEL Moller, the UN Secretary-general’s Special Representative in Cyprus will be leaving his post at the end of the month, UNFICYP confirmed yesterday.
UNFICYP spokesman Jose Luis Diaz, responding to reports over the past few days that Moller would be replaced, said the Danish diplomat would be leaving at the end of the month.
“His contract is up,” Diaz said, adding that Moller’s last major task in Cyprus would be to facilitate the setting up of the first expected meeting between President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat as leaders of the two communities.
On February 22, the UN Secretary-general’s spokeswoman Michele Montas had told her press briefing that there was no change in leadership at the UN Mission in Cyprus. Asked whether Moller was being replaced, Montas said: “At this point, Moller is still in charge of the UN Mission in Cyprus.”
Diaz did not want to comment yesterday on speculation that it was the Turkish side that did not want Moller involved in Cyprus talks due to its long-standing perception that Moller was biased towards the Greek Cypriot position.
Moller. who took up his UNFICYP position in January 2006, found himself under fire from Ankara only two months later.
After days of speculation. a report from Ankara said a request by Moller to visit the Turkish capital had been turned down because the Turkish government believed he was biased in favour of the Greek Cypriots.
An official, who asked not to be identified, said then Secretary-general Kofi Annan’s Special Representative appeared to support the Greek Cypriots’ view that the EU should play a bigger role in efforts to resolve the Cyprus issue.
“We feel uneasy about Moller because he has created doubts about his impartiality,” a Turkish official told Reuters at the time, adding that Moller’s request to visit Turkey had been turned down.
A day later, the Turkish Cypriot side said it shared Ankara’s concerns about talking to Moller.
“The Turkish government’s refusal to let the Danish diplomat go to Ankara was based on sound reasons,” Turkish Cypriot ‘Prime Minister’ Ferdi Sabit Soyer was quoted as saying. “We as the TRNC, are also distant to Moller now.”
Unconfirmed reports touted Swiss diplomat Heidi Tagliavini as a possible replacement for Moller.
Tagliavini served as the Secretary-general’s Special Representative for Georgia and head of the United Nations Observer Mission in the country.
She is described as a “seasoned diplomat”, having been Deputy Head of the United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia from 1998-1999, Personal Representative of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Chairperson-in-Office for the Caucasus in 2000 and 2001 and was a member of the first OSCE Assistance Group to Chechnya in 1995.
UNFICYP spokesman Diaz said he did not know who would be replacing Moller. “There is no decision on that yet,” he said.
