Kythrea outrage over UN bungle

KYTHREA refugees were outraged yesterday when a UN soldier refused to allow them the usual few metres into the buffer zone to hand in their annual anti- occupation petition.

Sources told the Cyprus Mail that what had happened was as a result of a bungle by the UN.

“Instructions in relation to these protestors did not filter down,” the source said.

When the refugees got to the Mia Milia checkpoint to hand in their petition, the UN soldier on duty met their representatives at the edge of the buffer zone.

In previous years, they had been allowed inside to hand the petition, destined for the UN Secretary-general, to a senior Unficyp officer.

However, according to the protestors, the soldier on duty refused to let them into the buffer zone and handed them the phone number of Unficyp spokesman Waldemar Rokoszewski.

Outraged protesters then decided not to hand the petition in after all.

Rokoszewski confirmed what had happened: “I believe the fact of the receipt of the petition directed to the Secretary-general of the UN remains more important than the exact place where is was handed over, despite the symbolism.”

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.