Wlosowicz is UN’s new man

FORMER Polish United Nations Representative Zbigniew Wlosowicz will be the new Acting UN Special Representative in Cyprus and Unficyp Chief of Mission when the term of the incumbent James Holger expires on May 31, the Cyprus News Agency said yesterday.

Wlosowicz, 45, took up his post as Poland’s UN envoy in February 1993, and was a member of the Security Council for one year. In the past two years he has served as a special adviser on inter-governmental affairs with the UN Development Programme.

On Friday, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said that UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan had asked his Special Advisor for Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, to remain based at the UN headquarters in New York “in order to give priority to the good offices effort under way”.

De Soto is leading the UN-led proximity talks aimed at reaching a settlement in Cyprus. Two rounds of talks have been held so far while consultations for setting the date for the third round continue.

The third round of talks had been scheduled initially for May 23 in New York but had to be postponed because President Glafcos Clerides underwent surgery earlier this month to remove a polyp from his intestine.

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.