| |
| |
You are here: Frontpage > Issues > 2446 >
PeaceNews #2446: Enough is enough!<br>Demonstrating for peace in Cyprus
|
|
Cynthia Cockburn has been spending time
in Cyprus working with a women's
bi-communal project...
Enough is enough!
Demonstrating for peace in Cyprus
Cynthia Cockburn
A small group of Cypriot women, calling
themselves "Hands Across the Divide",
has started actively campaigning for
peace in Cyprus. They have to communicate
by email, because face to face meetings
between people living in north and
south Cyprus are so difficult to achieve.
Since 1974, the island of Cyprus has been
divided by a barbed-wire fence, which runs
from coast to coast and through the heart of
the principal city of Nicosia. This UN partition
line was set up during a period of ethnic violence,
compounded by meddling on the part
of other nations with an interest in the region.
Ever since, the Turkish Cypriot population of
the north of the country has lived in complete
separation from the mainly Greek
Cypriot population of the south. There's only
one checkpoint in the "Green Line", and a
Cypriot can't cross it without permission.
Recently, such permissions are rarely given.
Women organising
Hands Across the Divide was formed in
March 2001, and one of its immediate aims
was to press for more freedom of contact
and communication right away between the
two parts of Cyprus, and for early progress
towards a solution to "the Cyprus problem".
As a group they want the right to organise
freely together. At a personal level they want
to be able to visit friends as and when they
like, roam in every part of the island, and in
general stop living under intimidation from a
continual threat of renewed violence. Turkish
Cypriots are also very fed up with the isola-tion
and poverty of northern Cyprus.
A ray of sunshine?
Decisions are going to be taken very soon
about the pace and terms of Cyprus's
accession to the European Union. This has
concentrated the minds of some politicians -
Cypriot, and Turkish in particular, but also
the US, Britain and EU member states have
had to refocus on their responsibilities. And
the result is: "peace talks"
In early December, Glavkos Clerides and
Rauf Denktash, respectively the leaders of
the two parts of Cyprus, startled Cypriots by
announcing that they would meet, for the
first time in four years. First, in December, the
two veteran politicians non-committally
entertained each other to dinner. Now, from
16 January, serious sustained peace negotiations
have begun. While war breaks out or
continues in a lot of other places in the
world, in this corner of the Eastern Mediterranean
there's a ray of sunshine.
Pressing for action
The women of Hands Across the Divide have
been quick to seize the moment. They are
determined not to let the government of the
south of Cyprus take Greek Cypriots into the
EU without getting a constitutional agreement
first that will bring Turkish Cypriots into
"Europe" simultaneously. They wrote a letter
for UN officials to deliver to the two men during
their first meeting.
Turkish Cypriot women have been out on
the streets from the start of the process. Drivers
in the early morning rush hour traffic
have been faced with placards reading:
"Enough! Agree - Solve it - Sign up - And Into
the European Union!".
Dinner date...
When Clerides crossed to the northern part
of the island to have dinner with Denktash,
women in the northern part with candles flew
white doves and white balloons and carried
a placard in Turkish and Greek saying,
"Peace: Let's go for a shared country!"
When Denktash crossed to the southern
part for dinner with Clerides, this time
women from the southern part did the same,
carried the same placard and flew doves,
expressing their desire for peace. Women
from the north were at the check-point at the
same time in the north, lighting candles and
singing Cypriot songs in Turkish and Greek.
When Denktash and Clerides met on 16 January
the women carried even tougher messages:
"Sign or resign" and "Reunite the
island or we will do it!".
Involving civil society
In the north the activity of Hands Across the
Divide is framed within an alliance of
women's organisations called the Women's
Civic Initiative for Peace who in turn act in
concert with a much larger alliance of progressive
groups called "The 41 Organisations".
In the south the women of Hands
Across the Divide are on the streets alongside
other bi-communal groups in what
hopefully will become a wide mobilisation of
civil society organisations.
Women in peace negotiations
Hands Across the Divide want women to be
enabled to make an input to negotiations
about a future Cyprus - scarcely a controversial
demand since a landmark UN Security
Council Resolution of Oct 2000 called for the
inclusion of women and a gender perspective
in all peace-making processes and
peace-keeping operations. This is the very
first public political intervention by a bi-communal
women's group in Cyprus. More
action is planned. We'll keep you informed.
Cynthia Cockburn is carrying out a research
project on women's perspectives on the conflict
situation and current peace process in
Cyprus that involves her supporting and
spending time with the "Hands Across the
Divide" bi-communal women's group during
2001 and 2002.
Hands Across the Divide welcome correspondence to
handsacrossthedivide-owner@yahoogroups.com
|
|
|
|
