U.N. SPECIAL Representative Michael Moller could be reposted by the end of the year, reports suggested yesterday.
Citing New York sources, the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) said that UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon was considering replacing Moller, who is considered by Ankara to be biased in favour of the Greek Cypriot side.
The Dane official was posted to the island in March 2006 by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at a time when the UN held serious reservations about the prospects of reunification talks moving forward.
Ankara has been unhappy with Moller’s appointment from the outset. At his first meeting with Ban, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is said to have reminded the UN chief that he did not “keep his promise” with regard to Moller’s replacement.
In September, both the governments of Greece and Cyprus called on Ban to retain Moller in Cyprus.
According to CNA, Ban and UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Lynn Pascoe have drafted a short list of replacements.
The same reports said all three candidates were women, in line with UN efforts to promote more women to high posts within the international organisation. The new appointment to Cyprus is slated to occur before Christmas.
CNA added, however, that the UN Secretary-General was not in a rush to name a new special representative to Cyprus, as he ultimately intended Ibrahim Gambari for the job.
Gambari is currently UN special envoy to Burma.
Gambari was the man who brokered the July 8 (2006) agreement between the two communities in Cyprus. The agreement calls for technical committees to tackle everyday concerns, such as crime and the environment, and working groups to handle substantive issues like territorial and power-sharing arrangements.
The deadlock in the process became apparent following a meeting between President Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat this September.
According to CNA’s sources, Gambari’s appointment as Special Representative to Cyprus was expected to minimise Greek Cypriot objections to Moller’s departure.
Papadopoulos yesterday confirmed rumours that Moller’s replacement was a possibility.
“This information has been doing the rounds for the last five to six months,” the President said.
He added: “Naturally, we’d have no say in this. It is up to the United Nations, to whom we would like to stress that because one of the two sides – in this case the Turkish side – is dissatisfied … it is not the individual that matters, but rather it is the principle of removing someone simply because one of the sides does not want him as an interlocutor.
“We hope he [Moller] will not be replaced,” said Papadopoulos.
The President said he knew that at least three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council had made representations to Ban so that Moller would remain in his position.
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