Cyprus Breaks Promise to Stop Military Excercises

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

CYPRUS BREAKS PROMISE TO STOP MILITARY EXERCISES IN AKAMAS  British
military did not respond to Greenpeace letter asking for a halt of
exercises

Nicosia, Cyprus, 20 March 1998 - The Cypriot government broke its
promise to end British military exercises in the Akamas Peninsula,
while the British Ministry of State for the Armed Forces did not
respond yet to a Greenpeace letter asking for an end of the
training.

The exercises are scheduled to be carried out during the week
starting next Monday, March the 23rd in the Akamas, one of the last
remaining turtle nesting sites in the Eastern Mediterranean.

"We are concerned of the damage that will be done to the natural
habitat of Akamas. The planned army exercises there must be
terminated. No army, British or Cypriot, should bomb and shoot in
an area that must be protected against any sort of distraction,"
said Irene Constantinou, Greenpeace Mediterranean campaigner in
Cyprus.

"The Cyprus authorities have deceived public opinion by not
fulfilling promises they made for remedying the situation in the
Akamas. And the British Minister of State for the Armed Forces, Dr
John Reid, did not respond to a Greenpeace letter asking him to end
the exercises in the Akamas once and for all," she said.

Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, Lord Peter Melchett, wrote on
March 11 to Dr Reid pointing out the threats to the precious
environment and calling on the British Minister to stop the
military exercises. (1)

"It is time that the Cypriot government takes its promises
seriously. Promises to protect the Akamas date back a decade. We
hope that it resolves the situation once and for all, fulfill all
promises for the protection of the Akamas and declare the area a
National Park," Constaninou demanded. (2)

The Loggerhead turtles and the Green turtles nest in the beaches of
Akamas, an area where the flora and fauna is truly impressive. The
endangered Green  turtles depend on the beaches of Akamas for their
survival in the Mediterranean. (3)

Greenpeace supports a 1996 report of the World Bank on Akamas that
asked for the protection of the peninsula. This report was accepted
last year by the Parliamentary Committee for the Environment, but
it still has to go through the Parliament and then by the Council
of Ministers for final acceptance.





NOTES:

1. Melchett wrote to Dr Reid: "The UK acts as President of the
European Union during this period.  You represent a Government
committed to putting the environment at the heart of all of its
policy and serve with a Foreign Secretary who puts human and
environmental rights at the forefront of foreign policy. Greenpeace
calls upon you to take immediate steps to prevent this potential
environmental abuse".

2.  Greenpeace and local groups have been opposing military
exercises in the Akamas since 1992, when activists camped and
demonstrated in the affected area.

(2) The IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature)
lists Loggerhead Turtles as vulnerable and the Green Turtles as
endangered species.  The annual number of Green Turtles nesting
females in the entire Mediterranean could be as low as 225-275. 
Apart from Cyprus, they nest in a very few other states in the
basin.

END

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