UN Adviser To Brief Security Council On Cyprus Settlement Plan Friday
With the final plan to reunify Cyprus before its entry into the European Union on 1 May now in the hands of the Greek
and Turkish Cypriot voters for approval, Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Adviser is scheduled to brief the
Security Council tomorrow on the latest developments.
"The deed is done," Special Adviser Alvaro de Soto told the press last night in Bürgenstock, Switzerland, where the
final negotiations on Mr. Annan's settlement plan were held.
Mr. de Soto said he believed that the plan had been considerably improved in recent days, and that it would allow the
separate constituent states to run their own affairs in safety and in dignity.
"It is now in the hands of the people but, of course, the leaders have an important responsibility to explain to the
people the plan and the conditions in which they have to take the decisions and the options, if any," he said.
Just before last night's midnight deadline Mr. Annan presented his final blueprint for resolving the decades-long
problem to the Greek and Turkish Cypriot delegations, as well as the Prime Ministers of Greece and Turkey, and officials
from the United Kingdom and the European Union.
The 9,000-page text containing the basic settlement plan - which calls for a federal government composed of two
constituent states - as well as legal formulas and other annexes, will now be voted on by the Greek and Turkish Cypriots
in separate, simultaneous referenda on 24 April.
Mr. de Soto told reporters that he will travel to New York to brief the Security Council Friday "in order to prepare
them for a concrete proposal that will be presented on behalf of the leaders by the Secretary-General for a considerable
transformation of the United Nations peacekeeping operation, which will become an operation of a different type."
The UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus was set up in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek and Turkish
Cypriots and since 1974 has been supervising ceasefire lines, maintaining a buffer zone and undertaking humanitarian
activities.