Security Council endorses reorganization plan for UN mission in Cyprus

The Security Council today endorsed Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s recommendation to reduce by one third the size of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and extended the mission’s mandate through mid-June 2005.

By a unanimously adopted resolution, the Council accepted Mr. Annan’s proposal – made last month in a report on a review of the mission’s operations – to cut the military component of UNFICYP to 860, down from the current 1,224.

The Secretary-General had also suggested that the current deployment of 45 UN civilian police – who live within the community and perform a wide-range of local services – be increased to the mandated ceiling of 69.

The Council today also urged the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkish forces “to rescind without delay” all remaining restrictions on UNFICYP, and called on them to restore in Strovilia – a small hamlet inhabited by Greek Cypriots – the military status quo that existed there prior to 30 June 2000.

The mission’s mandate, which was to have expired on 15 December, now will run through 15 June 2005.

UNFICYP Chief of Mission Zbigniew Wlosowicz said the reduction in troop numbers was made for “salient and valid reasons,” particularly since the last eight years or so has seen an overall improvement in the security climate marked by a drop in significant incidents.

“It has been 12 years since this mission last underwent review so all of this is timely and appropriate,” he said in an interview with the UN News Centre. “Downsizing isn’t simply an exercise in reducing numbers and getting rid of things. Sometimes you have to invest in order to divest.”