UNFICYP

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The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) was established in 1964 to prevent a recurrence of fighting between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots and to contribute to the maintenance and restoration of law and order and a return to normal conditions.[1] After the 1974 Greek coup-d'etat and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, the UN Security Council extended and expanded the mission to prevent that Cyprus dispute turning into war.

Contents

Background

In 1995, UNFICYP found that Turkish Cypriots living in the southern part of the island were not subject to a restrictive regime and under the law enjoyed the same rights as other citizens. At the same time, in several respects, it was found that Turkish Cypriots were often the victims of capricious discrimination and harassment and thus did not enjoy a fully normal life. With regard to Greek Cypriots and Maronites living in the northern part of the island, the review confirmed that those communities were the objects of very severe restrictions imposed by the Turkish Cypriot authorities, which curtailed the exercise of many basic freedoms and had the effect of ensuring that, inexorably with the passage of time, those communities would cease to exist in the northern part of the island.

On 5 December 2006, the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan recommended a further six-month extension in the mandate of the UN mission that has been deployed on the island for over four decades. Mr. Annan said that while the situation remained “calm and stable with no major violations of the ceasefire lines,” he regretted the continued stalemate in the political process and the “missed opportunities” over the past 10 years.

The annual cost for maintaining UNFICYP is estimated at $51,900,000. This includes the voluntary contribution by the Government of Cyprus of one third of the cost of the force and the annual amount of $6,500,000 contributed by the Government of Greece. Turkey does not directly contribute to the force’s budget [2].

Deployments

As of July 31, 2008, the total strength (military personnel and civilian police) of UNFICYP was 930. The 861 military personnel are from Argentina (the Argentine contingent includes soldiers from the Argentine Army, Argentine Marine Corps, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Chile ), Austria, Canada, Hungary, Slovakia (includes soldiers from Croatia and the United Kingdom [3] There are 69 civilian police provided by Argentina, Australia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, El Salvador, India, Italy, Ireland and Netherlands. In addition UNFICYP had 143 civilian staff, 35 of whom were internationally recruited and 108 locally recruited.

Sector One

Starts at Kokkina Village and covers approximately 90 kilometres to Mammari, west of Nicosia . Since October 16, 1993, it has been the responsibility of the Argenine Contingent with 212 soldiers. [4]

Sector Two

Starts at Mammari, west of Nicosia and covers 30 kilometres to Kaimakli, east of Nicosia. Since 1993, and has been the responsibility of the British contingent with 183 Soldiers. [5]

Sector Four

Starting at Kaimakli, east of Nicosia and covers 65 Kilometres to the village of Dhernia, on the east coast of Cyprus and has been the responsibility of the Slovakian and Hungarian contingent with 202 Soldiers [6]

Other Units

Force Military Police Unit (FMPU) is 1 of only 2 multi-national sub units within UNFICYP, the other being the Mobile Force Reserve, MFR. The FMPU is commanded by a major of the UK Royal Military Police, with 7 other members of the RMP as part of the 23 strong unit. Other contributing nationalities are Argentina, Hungary and Slovakia. [7]

Mobile Force Reserve (MFR) is the high readiness elite reserve able to react to any incident anywhere on the island. Formed from the Permanent Force Reserve in 1997, its comprised of soldiers from each of the contributing contingents. Equipped with TACTICA APCs which are armed with the GPMG. The MFR is rigidly trained in public order and major incident reaction techniques. In addition the MFR is also trained for air mobile operations using Bell 212 helicopters to rapidly insert into trouble areas.

The UN Flight have three helicopters, and since 1994 has been provided by 28 soldiers from the Argentine Air Force. [8]. They use the Hughes 500 and Bell 212 Helicopters and in 2003 logged 10,000 flight hours without any accident. [9]. During the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict the Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora was brought in and out Lebanon by one of their helicopters [10]

Commanders of UN Forces (UNFICYP)

Start Date End Date Name Country
March 6, 1964 June 1964 P.S. Gyani India
July 8, 1964 December 1965 Kodandera Subayya Thimayya India
December 1965 May 1966 Alexander James Wilson (acting) United Kingdom
May 1966 December 1969 Ilmari Armas-Eino Martola Finland
December 1969 December 1976 Dewan Prem Chand India
December 1976 March 1981 J.J. Quinn Ireland
March 1981 April 1988 Gunther G. Greindl Austria
April 1988 April 1992 Clive Milner Canada
April 1992 August 1, 1994 Michael F. Minehane Ireland
August 1, 1994 February 28, 1997 Ahti Toimi Paavali Vartiainen Finland
February 28, 1997 December 15, 1999 Evergisto Arturo de Vergara Argentina
December 16, 1999 December 15, 2001 Victory Rana Nepal
January 7, 2002 December 2003 Jin Ha Hwang South Korea
January 7, 2004 January 12, 2006 Herbert Figoli Uruguay
February 15, 2006 present Rafael José Barni Argentina

Fatalities

As of August 31 2008, UNFICYP has suffered 178 fatalities: [11]

  • Accidents: 96
  • Illnesses: 43
  • Malicious Acts: 15
  • Other: 24

References

  1. ^ "UN Security Council Resolution 186: The Cyprus Question" (PDF). United Nations (4 Mar 1964). Retrieved on 2007-01-29.
  2. ^ www.unficyp.org - Facts & Figures
  3. ^ "Cyprus - UNFICYP - Facts and Figures". UN (31st July 2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
  4. ^ "Sector One". UN (30 April 2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
  5. ^ "Sector Two". UN (30 April 2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
  6. ^ "Sector Four". UN (30th April 2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
  7. ^ "Other Key Units". UN (30th April 2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.
  8. ^ FAA site:United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)
  9. ^ Helis.com Database
  10. ^ www.unficyp.org - Photo Release
  11. ^ "UN Peacekeeping Fatalities by Mission and Incident Type". UN (31st August 2008). Retrieved on 2008-10-05.

See also

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Peacekeeping_Force_in_Cyprus"

This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.