SHOOTINGS.

The vast majority of shooting incidents are accidental and non-lethal (what UNFICYP terms negligent discharges). Even the vast majority of intentional shootings are non-lethal. They are usually intended to scare or harass the other side, often by trying to cause a strike mark on the other side's position.

Lethal shootings are the most serious type of shooting incident and, as the following two incidents show, these carry a high risk of escalation. Within hours after the April 8, 1993 shooting of National Guard private Athanasios Kleovoulou by the Turkish forces (he was in the buffer zone to trade brandy with the Turks), forty Greek Cypriots were demonstrating at the South Ledra Checkpoint. Tensions increased along both cease-fire lines, marked by shouting, stone throwing, and general ill discipline. Additional Greek Cypriot demonstrations occurred. Finally, on April 11, a major gunfight occurred near Dherinia. Approximately 50 small arms rounds were exchanged and a Turkish Cypriot Security Forces position was hit three times.²⁵

Immediately following the June 3, 1996 shooting of National Guard private Stelios Panayi, up to 90 Turkish forces soldiers, armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, assembled on their side of the buffer zone. This was matched by an equivalent National Guard show of strength. The Turkish forces fired warning shots (a total of three) each time the UNFICYP forces tried to recover the dying Panayi from the buffer zone. As with Kleovoulou, this killing by the Turkish forces was tragic, brutal, and unnecessary. To illustrate the possibility for escalation, imagine what would have happened if the Turkish forces had fired on the National Guard instead of UNFICYP as they moved forward to recover Panayi. After such a rapid build-up on both sides, the result could well have been a tragedy of immense proportion.