UNFICYP begins demining at Ledra Street in Cyprus

The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) is expected to begin demining work at

, to enable the opening of the crossing point as agreed to last Friday by President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

UNFICYP spokesperson Jose Luis Diaz told the Cyprus News Agency that “we expect to start very soon with the demining team to go in and make sure there are no unexploded ammunitions”. He also pointed out that the demining work “would be very short, a matter of one or two days”. 

Asked to comment on press reports that members of UNFICYP were prohibited to move into Ledra Street on Monday by Turkish army forces to start preparing the reopening, the UN Secretary General’s Spokesperson in New York Michele Montas replied: “No, not yet.  We have asked and we have also read the press reports and we’ll try to get more for you later.  At this point we don’t have anything additional.  And we cannot confirm either”.

She later said she could not confirm those press reports.  But she did say that there had been some technical questions that needed to be worked out regarding Nicosia’s

crossing.  Those issues had now been resolved and an UNFICYP-supported demining team was set to go in to ensure that the area of the future crossing was free of explosives.