EFFORTS to resolve the decades-old division of Cyprus received a boost yesterday with the visit of elder statesmen Reverend Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter and former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, who began their two-day tour of the divided island by meeting, not the leaders of the rival Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, but a group of school students.
“We want to tell the people here that nowhere in the world is there an intractable problem. I come from South Africa where some thought its problem could only be solved through violence. It wasn’t, and now South Africa is a democracy,” Tutu told the mixed group of around 30 Turkish and Greek Cypriot students gathered inside the UN-controlled buffer zone dividing the island.
Tutu, Carter and Brahimi are three members of a group calling itself The Elders that was the brainchild of rock musician Peter Gabriel and businessman Richard Branson. It was officially formed by former South African president Nelson Mandel in 2007.
The visit is timely, coming just two days before leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot community, Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat, are due to meet for a third round of peace talks since their start on September 3. So far, negotiations to solve the three-decade division of the island have yielded few, if any, results.
However, the Elders, who will meet Chritofias and Talat today, yesterday appeared hopeful that the two communities would be able to turn their backs on past experiences that have left the island divided and embittered.
“We pray and hope and trust [the two leaders] will be successful,” Carter said. He also sought to give the leaders encouragement by saying, “It is very important for the people living here to know that the rest of the world is pulling for you”.
Brahimi added to Carter and Tutu’s optimism by saying, “We are very excited to see that these two relatively young leaders [Christofias and Talat] have come together to solve this problem. They have a very big responsibility to make it work”.
The youngsters, although perhaps overawed by their flamboyant and distinguished visitors, appeared to have enjoyed their meeting with the Elders.
“It was useful to see that we [Greek and Turkish Cypriots] are all thinking about the future in the same way. We share the same hopes and the same problems,” said 17-year-old Turkish Cypriot Baris Onel
Perhaps summing up best the message the Elders sought to bring to Cyprus, 17-year-old Greek Cypriot Michaella Sava said, “We shouldn’t forget about what happened in the past, but we need to turn a new page in history.”
