Government unhappy at human rights reports

By a Staff Reporter

THE government yesterday expressed displeasure at two separate human rights reports prepared by the US State Department and the United Nations.

Government Spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides said the US report was “inaccurate” while its UN counterpart was “deficient”.

“The government expresses its displeasure at the fact that the American State Department report is not accurate and does not reflect the historical facts, omitting any reference to Turkey and the occupying regime as the culprits of mass human rights violations; there is no mention of the settlers, or the refugees or Turkey’s policy of ethnic cleansing in Cyprus, ” Chrysostomides said.

He suggested the report reflected a misleading quest for balance and that there was an attempt to equate the treatment of the Greek Cypriot enclaved in the north with the treatment of Turkish Cypriots in the free areas.

The State Department’s report for Turkey has no reference to its responsibility for human rights violations in Cyprus, the spokesman added.

Chrysostomides said there were some positive references, but the attempt to equate the legal government with the Turkish Cypriot “administration” created a “serious feeling of disappointment”.

Commenting on the UN report, the spokesman suggested that in his effort to keep it balanced, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan had prepared a report that was anything but historically objective.

“The report is lacking, there is no reference to the continuous violation of human rights due to the invasion and continuing occupation,” Chrysostomides said.

He added: “Their contents are indeed disappointing because in their effort to maintain a favourable climate for continuing the talks for the solution of the Cyprus problem, they create false impressions and I think they include elements which are also misleading.”

He noted, however, that such reports had become routine without any political or historical importance.