Erhurman says Christodoulides rejected UN proposal to expand mine clearance

Nicosia, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman said on Wednesday that President Nikos Christodoulides rejected a proposal by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to expand landmine clearance across the island.

Erhurman said the proposal, made during Guterres’ visit to Cyprus last week, envisaged starting clearance work in the buffer zone before continuing in other areas.

Proposal and previous agreements

“We agreed to clear the mines, the Greek Cypriot side rejected it,” Erhurman told journalist Nazar Eriskin.

He said Christodoulides cited security reasons in rejecting the proposal. Erhurman also referred to previous UN Security Council resolutions which set a mine-free Cyprus as a goal.

Agreements on demining areas where mines had been laid were reached at enlarged meetings on the Cyprus problem in Geneva and New York last year.

Remaining hazardous areas

The United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus, Unficyp, estimates that 47 hazardous areas across Cyprus may be contaminated with mines or other explosive remnants of war. The areas cover about 1.7 million square metres.

Unficyp spokesman Aleem Siddique previously said that minefields near civilian areas are clearly marked by the UN, while the largest remaining minefields are in or near military installations or the buffer zone on both sides of the island.

He said the risk posed by the mines remains present.

Mammari mine clearance

Siddique cited Mammari, west of Nicosia and partly within the buffer zone, as an example. A team of 29 Cambodian deminers was brought in during 2015 to assist with clearing mines around the village because of the danger to local farmers.

He said rainwater could wash mines outside marked areas because the land is on a slope, while farmers could occasionally enter hazardous ground. In one incident, a tractor struck a landmine, although the driver was not injured.