Barbed wire in buffer zone held up ‘for technical reasons’

The government on Friday stressed a political decision was taken to remove 14km of barbed wire stretching across the buffer zone, after it was criticised by Disy for ignoring UN reports on the matter.

Deputy government spokesman Yiannis Antoniou said a political decision “had been taken on principle” by the government and it was clear from last summer that the “barbed wire does not serve its purpose.”

The fence was placed at the behest of the previous government’s Interior Minister Nicos Nouris as part of an effort to prevent migrants arriving through the buffer zone.

“The fence is completely useless in achieving its aim to prevent irregular/illegal migrants while also bearing great political cost to Cyprus,” Disy party leader Annita Demetriou said in a letter to President Nikos Christodoulides earlier this week.

She specified Unficyp has raised objections over the matter and urged the government to take action.

Antoniou told the Cyprus Mail that a new stretch of barbed wire had arrived but bearing in mind its ineffectiveness, the government decided not to install it.

“There are technical procedures” required to remove it, some of which include costs, he said.

For the political decision to translate into the practical measures required to remove it, the matter would have to go before Cabinet, which has not yet occurred.