Still a way to go in effort to rid Cyprus of landmines

Given that it is a commonly held belief that the issue of landmines is one which has been more or less left firmly in the past in Cyprus, the inclusion of “new demining efforts” in the list of agreements reached at last month’s enlarged meeting on the Cyprus problem in Geneva raised a few eyebrows.

Few details were offered at the time, especially given the fact that most people were more interested in the prospect of four new crossing points, the appointment of a new United Nations envoy to the island.

Also on the list was the proposed buffer zone solar power park, the promised bicommunal technical committee on youth and the push to restore cemeteries of both communities which were either deliberately desecrated or simply left to the elements.

However, when President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar met on Wednesday, it was demining which saw significant breakthroughs, with the pair agreeing that their respective negotiators, Menelaos Menelaou and Gunes Onar, would discuss the matter and “exchange information on a proportional number of suspected hazardous areas”.

The UN peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp) estimates that there are a total of 47 such hazardous areas in Cyprus which “may be contaminated with mines or other explosive remnants of war”, amounting to around 1.7 million square metres of land.

Unficyp spokesman Aleem Siddique was keen to offer reassurances on the matter while speaking to the Cyprus Mail, saying that landmines near civilian areas are “clearly demarcated by the UN”.

Additionally, he said, the largest remaining minefields are in or near either military installations or the buffer zone on either side of the island.

One such example offered by Siddique was the village of Mammari, which lies to the west of Nicosia and lies partially in the buffer zone.

Siddique said a team of 29 Cambodian deminers had been brought in to help clear mines around Mammari in 2015, given the present danger posed by the mines to local farmers.

“When it rained, the water would wash the mines out of the demarcated area, given that the area is on a slope. Farmers would also occasionally stray in, and on one occasion, a tractor hit a landmine, though thankfully he was not harmed,” he said.

In addition to their work in Mammari, the Cambodian deminers were also tasked with clearing minefields south of Lefka. This work in turn opened the way for the Apliki crossing point to be opened in 2018, restoring direct access between Lefka and Kalopanayiotis.

The UN’s mine action service (Unmas) formally became an “integral component” of Unficyp in 2016, allowing for the direct coordination and passing on of expertise. In addition, Unmas provides assistance to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) to facilitate safe access to areas in which it conducts activities.

Last year, government sources had said the Greek Cypriot side considered that demining in the buffer zone had been completed on its part, and that the only minefields of which they are aware are located inside the Republic.

Those minefields, they said, “are an integral element of our defence organisation”.

“They are in areas where it is not dangerous, and where it is necessary for them to continue to exist. When we agreed on demining, the agreement was that not all minefields would be removed. The agreement was that minefields inside the buffer zone would be removed,” the sources said.

They added that the remaining mines in the Republic are anti-tank mines and have been left in place “so someone cannot just pass through”.

However, all the anti-personnel mines have now been removed.

“We have destroyed all of them, both those that were in minefields and those that were in storage, because it is our obligation under the Ottawa Convention on the elimination of anti-personnel mines.”

For this reason, they said, “if there are any left, they belong to the Turkish military, which has them either in minefields or in storage.”

Mines were laid in Cyprus during 1963, 1964, and 1974, with Unficyp having been eager to stress in the past that “landmines are not rendered inactive” and that they can in fact become more dangerous over time.

Away from the matter of landmines, while details remain scant, both of the bicommunal technical committee on cultural heritage’s co-chairmen Ali Tuncay and Sotos Ktoris had expressed their pleasure at being tasked with restoring cemeteries after March’s enlarged meeting.

Tuncay had earlier told the Cyprus Mail that the committee is “honoured that the leaders have trusted us and given this important task” to it, while Ktoris said the restoration of cemeteries “is one of the most deeply symbolic and morally compelling actions for a place which seeks reconciliation”.

Ktoris described it as “an act of respect for the memory of the dead and for human dignity”.

However, he said, at present, “the current state of most cemeteries throughout Cyprus, both Christian and Muslim, is disappointing, in some cases shameful.

“Abandonment, decay, vandalism, silence. This image offends us all. It fuels feelings of bitterness, reinforces suspicion between the two communities, and undermines the effort to build mutual trust.”

The outline of the planned bicommunal technical committee on youth seems also to have been agreed upon, though at the other end of the scale, progress seems to be hard to come by on the matter of new crossing points and the planned new solar farm in the buffer zone.

Turkish Cypriot diplomatic sources had told the Cyprus Mail on Friday that the Greek Cypriot side “insisted that the energy generated from solar panels be connected directly to the Greek Cypriot grid and then transferred from there to the Turkish Cypriot side”.

“The Greek Cypriot side believes that it should decide when and how much energy should be transferred” to the Turkish Cypriots,” the sources added.

If neither side backs down over where the electricity generated will go, the dream of a solar farm in the buffer zone may be over before it had even begun.