Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 98-06-24

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Wednesday, June 24, 1998

Letter gets positive reception

YESTERDAY'S papers provided several interpretations of the significance of President Clerides's letter to the UN secretary-general.

In his letter, Clerides suggested adopting measures intended to defuse tension as a first step towards demilitarising Cyprus.

Phileleftheros said the long-term goal of Clerides's initiative was demilitarisation, but in the medium term Nicosia wanted a reduction in the number of occupation troops and a freeze on National Guard arms purchases. The response by other countries and the UN secretary-general to Clerides's proposal had been positive, the paper said.

The government aimed to initiate a procedure geared towards demilitarisation. Reliable sources informed the paper that the government was willing to enter a dialogue with the Turkish side even if the latter did not publicly commit itself to demilitarisation.

Alithia said Clerides's letter had been described as a "positive step" by the political leadership, which had been informed about the contents of the letter by the president. The letter had also been circulated as an official document at the UN.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides has ordered the diplomatic service to promote the demilitarisation proposal so as to make it the main theme of future peace initiatives for Cyprus, the paper said.

Machi said the government was prepared to resume the military dialogue. It was ready to discuss issues that could be implemented immediately, such as that of the landmines.

It noted that the dialogue had stalled because the National Guard had rejected a proposal for the unmanning of ceasefire line guardposts.

Haravghi was less impressed with Clerides's letter, which it described as an attempt to cover up the "theatre" played out by the government over the last five years.

It said the letter was effectively an acceptance of UN resolution 789, as it adopted several of its provisions, which Clerides had vehemently opposed for five years. It also cited the divergent interpretations made by party leaders as proof of the government's confusion on the issue.

Simerini accused the US of setting up "diplomatic traps" at the UN Security Council. It said the US did not want the Security Council to issue a resolution outlining the mandate of the UN secretary-general's peace mission for Cyprus.

Washington's objective was to downgrade the legal and political mandate of the UN chief and to avoid reference to a bicommunal dialogue as the Turkish side wanted talks to be between two states.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1998

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