CYPRUS: U.N. Chief Asks for Peacekeepers' Extension

• by IPS Correspondents (united nations)
• Thursday, December 15, 1994
• Inter Press Service

UNITED NATIONS, Dic 15 (IPS) - U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Thursday asked that U.N. peacekeepers remain in Cyprus despite the near-collapse of that nation's already sluggish peace process.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Boutros-Ghali wrote that the U.N. Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) "remains indispensable to achieving the objectives set by the Security Council."

He argued that the force has managed to prevent any significant hostilities between the Greek Cypriots who control the nation's south and the rebel Turkish Cypriots who have held the northern third of the Mediterranean island since 1974.

Boutros-Ghali urged that UNFICYP be extended until the end of June 1995.

But the continuation of U.N. efforts in Cyprus took a severe blow this year after the warring parties repeatedly failed to agree to measures to place the nation's long-closed international airport and part of the town of Famagusta under U.N. administration.

Blamed most often on the objections of the Turkish Cypriots, who would have had to retreat from the Famagusta suburb of Varosha, the collapse of the talks has encouraged some Security Council members to discuss withdrawing UNFICYP for good.

Russia, in particular, has once before vetoed an extension of the peacekeepers after objecting to the cost of the mission, which the Greek-led Cypriot government has increasingly borne. The United States has also looked at Cyprus as one of several missions that may need 'sunset clauses' to prevent the United Nations from providing a permanent buffer force.

UNFICYP has been stationed in Cyprus since 1964, when ethnic tensions among the island's Greek and Turkish communities first erupted into full-scale fighting.

Since Turkey invaded a decade later, the 1,200-soldier force, which will cost about 11.5 million dollars in U.N. funds through next June, has become accepted as a constant buffer dividing the island.

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