UNITED NATIONS KEEPING PEACE SINCE 1963
By Bob Van Leer

  (LIMASSOL, Cyprus, May 28, 1996) - Cyprus is one of a number of intractable international problems. The United Nations (UN) has stationed a peacekeeping force on Cyprus since 1963 and is no closer to a permanent solution now than it was then. In a sense the UN has some success to show, the Greek and Turk communities on Cyprus are separated and not shooting at one another. But the fundamental issues between the two communities appear no closer to solution than in 1963.

  The Turk army made the last significant move in 1974, occupying the northern third of the island. Turks live in the north part of the island, and Greeks in the south.  They are separated by a "green line" policed by the UN that keeps the two sides apart.  About 1500 UN troops patrol the "green line" that divides the island and runs through Nicosia, the capital. The island is only six miles off the south coast of Turkey in the extreme eastern Mediterranean Sea. In spite of that, 78% of the 737,000 population is Greek and 18% Turkish (4% other nationalities). The Turks now control 37% of the land area of the island. The land area of Cyprus is 9250 square kilometers, about seven-tenths the size of Connecticut.

  Visiting the island, the tensions are not immediately apparent. Our ship, the Eugenio Costa, docked at the southern port of Limassol. The climate is mild and the Greek part of the island appears to be prosperous. But on the limestone pillars of the bank building at the center of town are sprayed graffiti "enosis" or union with Greece. This movement is what started the problem and the supporters are powerful. Our cab driver said the graffiti is old but no one will remove it because it would be dangerous to do so. We passed a mosque, still standing, but abandoned and overgrown with weeds. Our Greek cab driver wanted to point out that Greeks left the Turkish mosques untouched, but he is convinced (although he has not been there since partition) that Greek churches in north Cyprus have been destroyed.

  We drove east out of Limassol to have lunch at a seaside restaurant in the town with the almost unpronounceable name of Zyyi. The fish was fresh and good. On the way to Zyyi we passed an area with a sign calling it the "Missing Person's Forest". The Greeks say 1619 persons have been missing since the Turk invasion, and a tree is planted in this forest for each of them. Cyprus has never had a history of independence. The island was conquered by the Ottoman Turks in 1571.

  The island came under British influence in 1878 and became a crown colony in 1925 after Turkey sided with Germany in World War I. In 1960 Britain gave the island independence under a power-sharing plan between Greeks and Turks. This lasted three years when violent clashes began between Greeks and Turks. The military government of Greece engineered a coup and tried to overthrow the Cyprus government and unite the island with Greece. This is when the Turk army moved in and there has been an uneasy stability since. Since Cyprus is a former British colony, I can get the news from our TV set in English, the first time since we left home. I've been keeping up (barely) with an eight page fax edition of the New York Times printed on the ship daily. Tonight we sail for Rhodes, a large Greek island 268 nautical miles west.