Cyprus-Forum.com

by **halil** » Mon Nov 22, 2010 9:59 am

The Sunday Mail’s satirical column, Coffeeshop says you had to laugh seeing the tv footage of the glum-looking mukhtars of the two communities standing either side of Ban Ki-moon, staring into the void, as he read his statement straight after the meeting at UN headquarters.

They looked like two naughty schoolboys being told off in front of the classroom by the benevolent headmaster whose patience was at breaking point, but was giving them one last chance to mend their ways.

He put them on probation until the end of January, but if their behaviour does not improve drastically by then he will expel both them and their problem from the UN for good. They will no longer be allowed to take the piss out of everyone as they have been given more than enough time to cut out the monkey business and get serious.

Will they heed this final warning and take some responsibility as their long-suffering headmaster urged them to do, or will they carry on misbehaving and insisting that the other boy is to blame for messing about in the classroom?

Both looked pretty miserable and dispirited while listening to the public reprimand, but I am certain that they will get over it once they are back in the sun and dust of their separate playgrounds in Kyproulla, where they can be as naughty as they like.

Despite the public bollocking, which must have been preceded by a much worse one at the private meeting, the comrade was in defiant mood. He called newsmen and showed off his talent for Stalinist propaganda, by informing them that he was “very satisfied with the outcome of the meeting”.

None of the scare stories circulating in Cyprus ahead of the meeting proved correct, he triumphantly announced, implying that our great leader had saved us. “There are no time-frames, there are no threats from anywhere and the Secretary-General has no intention whatsoever of applying pressure.”

Apart from forcing the two sides to stop the delaying tactics, stop the blame-game and intensify their contacts, there was indeed no pressure. And there was certainly no time-frame, apart from the end of January deadline for progress. And there were certainly no threats apart from Ban threatening to end his good offices mission if significant progress was not reported by the end of January - which was not a time-frame - when he arranged to meet the two leaders again. Under the circumstances, we should congratulate the comrade for achieving all his objectives at the meeting and adding one he forgot to mention – no change to the procedure, apart from intensifying the meetings and Big Bad Al submitting convergence proposals.

The UN S-G and his team told the leaders that the following:

- the problem can be solved. There are solutions that can satisfy the sensitivities of both sides. What is needed is the political will.

- He is not interested in acting as arbiter or imposing solutions. It is not the UN’s job to threaten to impose a solution that would not be acceptable to the people. It is their responsibility as leaders to prepare and persuade their people.

- The UN has experts who have worked and prepared useful material which they have put at the disposal of the leaders. It is up to them to make full use of it.

- The UN believes that the Cyprus problem cannot be discussed ad infinitum. All the issues have already been discussed extensively. The deadlock cannot be broken by further discussions but by political decisions.

- Time is running out. The two communities are drifting further and further apart from a solution and any drawn out procedure will kill the prospects of agreement. If it is to be solved through negotiations, then it must be solved now. If not then there is no reason to carry on.

-It is up to the leaders to find a way to make full use of the UN to bridge their differences and persuade their communities as to the benefits of a solution.