CYPRUS’ willingness to see Unficyp leave the island rather than compromise on an offending provision in the force’s renewal mandate is no idle threat, senior government sources said yesterday.
The government said it would not give its consent to the renewal of the six-monthly mandate for the 1,200-strong force if the Turkish Cypriot side’s approval is recorded in a contentious addendum due to come before the Security Council tomorrow. A vote scheduled for Monday has already been postponed.
However unlikely such a threat may seem, sources told the Cyprus Mail yesterday the government was prepared to allow the force to leave the island after 36 years and with the Cyprus problem still unresolved.
A senior government source said that if pushed on the issue, Cyprus would not give its approval. "The time has come when we have to stop somewhere," the source said.
The government is objecting to the inclusion of a provision that would require both sides to approve the presence of the force.
Unficyp came to the island on a six-monthly mandate after the intercommunal troubles of 1964, at the invitation of the Republic of Cyprus, not the warring communities.
But last December for the first time, the UN included an addendum to the force’s renewal, which appeared to bow to the Turkish Cypriot side’s demand to give its own consent to the presence of Unficyp, along with the Cyprus Republic, Britain, Greece and Turkey.
The Greek Cypriot side saw the move as pandering to the Turkish Cypriot side’s demand for recognition, but the UN insisted the addendum did not change its position on Cyprus.
Earlier yesterday, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou told the Reuters news agency that the Greek Cypriot side intended to take a firm stance. "That would mean that by Thursday night they (Unficyp) have to start packing," he said.
Papapetrou told the Cyprus Mail he was hopeful that such a crisis could be averted, and that a text to which the government could give its seal of approval would be issued by the UN.
"The message is clear," he said. "The text as provided is not acceptable."
Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides criticised the UN for its "clumsy" handling of the issue and for opening "Pandora’s Box" last December.
"Surely our position will be not to give our consent for the renewal of Unficyp if we are not satisfied with the wording of the addendum," he said.
"We are objecting in order to show the (UN) Secretariat that it cannot derogate from a certain framework because if it does that, then it will want to do the same thing during proximity talks for a Cyprus settlement."
The third round of proximity talks is due to start in Geneva on July 5.
"We believe that for a practice established and followed on this issue for 36 years, there is no need for it to be challenged three weeks before the talks," Papapetrou said.
The government spokesman also confirmed yesterday that the UN had issued two corrections to the Secretary-general’s recent report on Unficyp’s operations in Cyprus.
One correction deletes the reference to the participation of ‘Greek troops’ in the National Guard’s exercises in May.
The other notes that there was a reduction in buffer-zone air violations on the part of the Greek Cypriot side. The report had originally given the impression that there was an increase in such violations by both sides.
