British soldiers cut down ‘illegal’ trees

By Andy Georgiades

BRITISH military personnel resumed their removal of “hundreds” of illegally planted trees within the Sovereign Base Area (SBA) near the village of Xylaphagou yesterday.

The area near Pyla is a live-firing range used by British forces.

“Some of the trees have been there for a very long time, but news ones are still being planted,” the Deputy Chief Public Relations Officer, Captain Jon Brown, told the Cyprus Mail.

Bases authorities say the illegally planted acacia trees are used to trap birds, contrary to laws of the Republic of Cyprus and the Sovereign Base Areas.

They say the trees, which grow rapidly and obscure visibility, pose a hazard to soldiers who train in the area using weapons with live ammunition. Surface irrigation piping and boreholes from the illegal planting also pose dangers.

A written statement from SBA said: “The trees have been planted with no regard for the environment but simply for financial gain through the illegal practice of trapping birds with mist-nets.”

Trees will be cut down and burned. Irrigation equipment will be left for the owners to claim.

The Pyla training grounds cover 560 hectares on the Dhekeleia Sovereign Base Area. One-third is used for agricultural cultivation, but the majority lies within the firing area and is not licensed for cultivation.

Captain Brown said that protests against the uprooting of the trees had taken place in the past, but reported “no new incidents” so far.

Last month, Hambis Himonas, an anti-British activist, was jailed for two months by a Bases court for reckless driving and assaulting a police officer.

He objected to British soldiers cutting down trees within the same firing range.

Himonas was released last week after serving half his term.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.