Reading the report to the Security Council in the “UN NEWS services” of the under secretary Sir Kieran Prendergast on his recent pulse-taking tour of the region, an outsider to the Cyprus Problem will get the impression that on the divided Island of Cyprus, the Greek-Cypriots and the Turkish-Cypriots want a settlement but they cannot establish common grounds, due to the fact that their leaders cannot provide the needed courage, vision, confidence and political will. In other words the fault for NO solution lays mainly on the Cypriot leaders.

In my opinion, including the 66% of the total Cypriots that voted on the referendum, feel the plan that was put forward for the settlement in April 24, of 2004 was NOT fully in accordance with the Security Council resolutions. “The Annan plan number five” that was accepted finally by Turkey and Britain, satisfies the needs mainly of the guarantors of the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee and not the needs and visions of the citizens of Cyprus, it reminded the majority of the voters, the terrible acts committed against the Cypriots, by the two guarantor powers, of July and August of 1974, acts that were the cause of the tragedy and the present division of the Republic of Cyprus. Acts that the Security Council and the Gen. Assembly of the UN has condemned them in adopted resolutions.

My comment on this 60Th General Assembly anniversary of the UN is, is it possible Sir Prendergast and members of the SC that in a list of reasons and responsibilities of why after more than 30 or even 40 years the UN cannot find a settlement to the reunification of the Republic, is not the Cypriot leaders inability to lead but something that the security Council overlooks or wants to overlook? Cyprus as a Country has been undivided and remained as an entity for over 2000 years. In the opinion and of many of us insiders, the leaders of the Cypriots belong on the bottom of such a list with the lowest responsibilities. We strongly feel that on the top of this list must be the inability of the Security Council to enforce its adopted resolutions on Cyprus, by using sanctions or other means that the Council has used in other UN similar cases, such as in East Timor, in Kuwait, in Lebanon and in South Africa.

In conclusion, Sir Kieran Prendergast is right about his statement that “outsiders can help” in fact they are the only ones that can help the Cypriots to a settlement of a truly reunited Democratic State for all its legal citizens. Especially the permanent members of the Security Council, can help by assisting the UN in placing sanctions, so that adopted resolutions on Cyprus can be enforced. They can help, by demanding from the directly concerned countries, that Cyprus as a full member of the UN and EU does no longer need guarantor powers. And above all, as legal citizens of the Republic of Cyprus, Cypriots are all European Citizens, and the EU has the duty, and the responsibility that the human rights of all its citizens are not violated.

Finally I know and I confirm that the Cypriots G/C and T/C are all freedom loving, religious, family oriented, hard workers and proud of their Ethnic backgrounds and customs.

Harry Theofanus
Human Rights Advocate
And former President of the CFA
Palm Harbor Florida