Δηλώσεις
του Ειδικού Συμβούλου κ. Eide
και της
Ειδικής Αντιπρόσωπου κας Buttenheim
αφότου
ενημέρωσαν το Συμβούλιο Ασφαλείας ΟΗΕ
Το
Συμβούλιο Ασφαλείας των Ηνωμένων Εθνών, υπό την προεδρία του Μόνιμου
Αντιπροσώπου της
Ουρουγουάης Πρέσβη Elbio Rosselli
, είχε
σήμερα (15/01/2016) το πρωί, κλειστές διαβουλεύσεις, στη διάρκεια των οποίων
ενημερώθηκαν από τον Ειδικό Σύμβουλο του Γενικού Γραμματέα του ΟΗΕ για τη Κύπρο
κ. Espen Barth Eide
και
την Ειδική Αντιπρόσωπο του κα Lisa Buttenheim
για την Ειρηνευτική Δύναμη των Ηνωμένων Εθνών στην Κύπρο ( UNFICYP
), της οποίας η θητεία λήγει στις 31 Ιανουαρίου. Το Συμβούλιο
Ασφαλείας αναμένεται να υιοθετήσει το ψήφισμα για ανανέωση της θητείας της για
άλλους έξι μήνες, στις 28 Ιανουαρίου.
Αμέσως
μετά την ενημέρωση, ο κ. Eide
και η κα Buttenheim
προέβησαν στις πιο κάτω δηλώσεις προς τους δημοσιογράφους και απάντησαν σε
ερωτήσεις τους:
Eide : Good afternoon. The Special Representative Lisa Buttenheim and I
have now met the Security Council of the United Nations, here, in New York. We
had a very good exchange with the Council, based on the two reports that Special
Representative Buttenheim and I have prepared for the Council, and we gave our
verbal presentations based on these reports.
We were emphasizing the progress made in Cyprus and the vision and
courage of the two leaders in this process, but we were also making the point to
the Council that, while much has been achieved, there is also a long way to go.
And we really want the United Nations at its highest level to be aware that a
lot of hard works still remains, that the two leaders need encouragement and
support and we talked about concrete ways where the international community can
be supportive, while we also strongly underlined the importance of letting this
remain a leader-led process. It’s owned by Cypriots, it’s owned by their elected
leaders and they must be the ones to set the pace and set the structure of the
negotiations. At the end of the day, this is the concept that this has been and
genuinely is a leader-led Cypriot process.
This is possible. It is more than possible. We see the contour for a
possible settlement. In some grounds the progress has been quite remarkable
compared to previous rounds but the last part is always the most difficult part.
You may have achieved 90%, but the 10% that is remaining is not the easy one, is
the difficult one. So, I think is important for all of us to recognize that the
weeks and months ahead will be about dealing with some of these essential core
questions that remain unresolved. Unresolved not because they hasn’t been an
attempt to tackle them, but because they are difficult or their starting
positions of both communities are quite different on these questions.
We also talked about the importance of regional support and how all
relevant international players, including the guarantors, have their part of
play and I’m very happy to convey to you that, yet again, the support for the
courageous work being done by the two leaders was unison. Fifteen out of the
fifteen members of the Security Council, all the permanent five members, all the
ten elected members, all of them took the floor and every single one praised the
work that is going on and the general sense was that this is a historic
opportunity that has to be grasped, it has to grasped in such a way that it can
be genuinely owned by the leaders who are in charge of the talks.
We also had discussion on UNFICYP, but maybe Ms. Buttenheim would now
say a little bit about that.
Buttenheim : Yes, good afternoon. I must say that we heard unanimous support for
the work that UNFICYP is doing. We, as you know, have the responsibility in
maintaining calm in the buffer zone, which helps to support the climate of the
talks. I spoke a little about our demining efforts, also some of the
confidence-building measures and areas which we must also say we praised the
leaders for in the informal consultations, such as the establishment of a
Technical Committee on Education, and a Technical Committee on Gender Equality,
which are two new Committees that have been established in the last few months
and so, in general, both Mr Eide and I, as we‘ve said before, work very closely
together. Our missions are not integrated, but we work in a very integrated way.
Thank you.
Eide : Maybe before we open up for questions let me also underline that
there is significant interest in the Council for what the Security Council
should do in the case of a settlement. Because, the United Nations have had the
presence now soon to be 52 years in Cyprus and if, we actually would be seeing,
which we don’t know yet, but if we would be seeing a final solution to the
division of Cyprus, there would be a role of the United Nations and the two
leaders have expressed to us very clearly that they expect the UN to play a
role. That would be a different role and the Security Council, at that time,
would be called upon to define the parameters of a future UN Mission and this
was also something that we spend quite some time in today’s very positive
deliberations with the fifteen members of the Council.
Question : (Al Jazeera) Can I ask, you said that now peace is more
possible, but you said there are sticking points. Could you perhaps outline what
are the difficult last sticking points and on the last point you made about what
might happen if there is a deal, do you expect the number of peacekeepers
required in Cyprus to go up during that phase?
Buttenheim : Maybe on your latter point, we are still in an early process of
thinking ahead and both leaders know that. I should highlight that Mr Ladsous,
the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, visited Cyprus in
October. He did meet with both leaders. Of course, we want their inputs on what
kind of role the UN would play. I can say personally, as you might know, in the
report of the Secretary-General now we are asking for an increase of 28 troops
over our existing 860, which we consider very modest initial increase. But I
would say, yes I do think that UNFICYP today, the way is configured we would
need, probably assuming that the sides want us to be there, we would need an
increase for a while. And then hopeful it would get smaller in the future.
Eide : On your first question, yes indeed, I do think that peace is
possible and that within the parameters of the leader-led talks that we are
supporting, a peace solution, a solution that unifies Cyprus can be found. So
the answer to that is really yes. But, I also want to highlight that I don’t
want to create the impression that it is just around the corner. Because, some
of the essential issues, for both communities, have still to be finally tackled.
Some of them are domestic or pertaining to Cyprus, elements of a territorial
readjustment, for instance, and then of course there are the issues of security
and guarantees, where on top of the exchange that we have on these issues with
the leaders, we are of course also, as we shall be and it’s to our mandate, in
charge with the three guarantors states and all the interested countries and the
Security Council on this security arrangement. And that’s still some way to go,
but as I have said many times and I also said to the Council, there is
willingness in all relevant quarters to look constructively and which role can
be played to make this possible. So, at the end of the day, it is the trust,
will and leadership of the two leaders, but also the degree to which they
command support in the two communities. That is the answer to this. What we can
do is to help, they have to lead.
Question : Now you have the meeting in Davos. What you expect to have from that
meeting and also do you have some timeframe in mind about the final deal of
these negotiations?
Eide : Yes, by the middle of next week the annual meeting of the World
Economic Forum will start in Davos and both leaders will be present, as you
know. What is known from the program, so far, is that they will have a joint
meeting with the Secretary-General of the United Nations, together with me,
where we can discuss with the Secretary-General, actually the first time in that
format, where we are and how we shall organize the time to come. I also hope
that the leaders will have ample opportunity to engage with both public sector,
but also with private sector leaders, because I know that, and I’m frequently
reminded that a number of people in the global private sector, investors, people
in several industries are looking now to a settlement in Cyprus with great
interest and anticipation because they see that a united, federal Cyprus has
peace with itself and its entire neighborhood could be a massive opportunity for
economic growth and they wonder what their role can be so I hope that would be
an opportunity to speak about that. You did not ask, but I can answer the
question you did not ask “Would there be some kind of secret back channels going
on?” and the answer to that is no, and it was never yes and not everything that
is reported in the Press is always correct, but there are no such plans, but a
lot of people would be in the same place and that’s the nature of the
undertaking.
Question : Why so far the three guarantor powers haven’t met together? Have you
invited them to do so or not yet?
Eide : Well, the two leaders, Mr Anastasiades and Mr Akinci, have agreed
from the outset that the substantive negotiations on security and guarantees
would take place at the end of the process, and when as many as possible of the
issues pertaining to Cyprus itself, if not so we’ll see the contours of the
solution. And there is logic to that, because security in our times is not
always only a question of military issues. Security can also be a credibility of
the settlement. It can be the sense that this would last, it will not lead to
deadlocks, it would be appropriate representation of both communities and would
have political system that would not break down at the first bad weather day.
And having said that, I think the ability to think creatively on security and
guarantees would be much higher than it used to be in the past. So, there have
been only conversations about that, not negotiations. And, as you know, I think
I am personally quite frequently in contact with both Athens, Ankara and the
United Kingdom to prepare them and they are more than willing to be prepared, to
put it that way, but the actual process involving them has to be in the format
that the Cypriot leaders want it to be and, of course, a format that the
guarantor powers also can agree to take part and that format has not been
decided yet and I have respect for the logical pace that we need to have in that
question.
Question : The Turkish Cypriot people
are looking for a solution for a long time and they want their isolation to end
and they also voted for ‘yes’ previously. But they are also worried that
pre-1974 period might start on the island again, there is a very positive
environment right now on the negotiations between the two leaders. What if there
might be something to go back to the 1974 era, can you see that it won’t happen
again?
Eide : It’s a very important
question and it’s very true and it is also my sense that this is a question that
many people in the Turkish Cypriot community are asking themselves and us when
we engage and some of the answers relates to the answers of the previous
question, that the solution has to be not only approved, but credible,
implementable, tractable and sustainable. So, it has to be a process that takes
away the imperfections of the system that broke down between the outbreak of
intercommunal strife and what happened in 1974. We have to learn from that
history and a lot of focus in the talks is what we call deadlock preventing
mechanisms, how to make sure that there’s always an ability to take decisions
that are both efficient and representative at the same time. That is perfectly
doable and I think the key to the security in the extended sense, not the
military, not the absence of violence, but the sense that this works for us, for
Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots and others, Maronites and other communities
that we need to remind people of that they are also there. That all communities
feel that this works for them and that the communities can seek security for
themselves in such a way that they are not seeking it into the detriment of the
other side. And that’s the essence. If we get that right, I think it’s possible
to have a solution, if we don’t get that right progress in other chapters will
probably not lead to a final settlement because people also want to be secure
not only today, but in the long future and I’m confident that this is possible,
I’m confident that it’s more possible than for a very long time given the
approach that the two leaders have, but also the approach that I register when I
visit the other relevant international players. They seem all to be in agreement
that this generations old question has to be solved in everybody’s
interest.
Question : I was interested to hear
your comments to the effect that the deal was not around the corner trying to
tempt on expectations. Today AP (Associated Press) had an interview with the
President of Cyprus and he said that he was concerned some of the comments
coming out of the UN diplomats, including ourselves, are overly optimistic, he
was trying to tempt on expectations. I was wondering if officials from Cyprus,
from both sides of the conflict, had expressed that concern personally to you
and if that’s one of the reasons behind your comments today, trying to caution
against too high expectations for an immediate solution?
Eide : I speak to the leaders all
the time and we are very-very frequently in contact and that has to do with
substance and it has to do with the political realities of both sides and it has
to do with communication and we are in close cooperation all of us on these
issues because it’s a shared challenge. But, I want to say, I have never said
that this is just around the corner. What I have said is that I’ve been praising
the leadership, the trust, will, leadership, creativity, ability to think
outside the box and to move out of fixed positions that these two leaders have.
So, what I want to say, and have always wanted to say, is that if these two
leaders cannot reunify Cyprus, I don’t know who can. If Mr Akinci and Mr
Anastasiades do not make it, then I think that is an important message to
Cypriots, particularly those who actually think reunification is a good thing.
This is the best chance and that’s the essence of my message, it’s not that it’s
a done deal and I have sufficient experience from other peace processes, some
that worked and some that didn’t, should know that the final leg is always the
toughest one, because, logically, we will start with a low hanging foot and
then, in the end, you go into the territory where at the beginning of the day
you thought no compromise was possible and you only gradually see that actually
compromise might be possible. Maybe sometimes one side can never accept A and
another side can never accept B, maybe let’s create a new C, that’s different
and this is the part we’re now in and I’m confident that we’re talking with
leaders who want this to happen, but I also want to be honest and I was very
clear on this, that hard work remains and that’s what I think now and what I
thought before.
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16/1/2016
