Examination of Witnesses (Questions 114-119)
16 NOVEMBER 2004
MR DENIS
MACSHANE
MP AND MR
DOMINICK CHILCOTT
Q114 Chairman: Mr MacShane, may I welcome
you to the Committee for our inquiry in relation to the way forward
on Cyprus. I welcome with you Mr Dominick Chilcott who is the
Director for Europe of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Minister,
as you know, five members of the Committee have but recently returned
from Cyprus. The leader then was Mr Maples and I shall be calling
on Mr Maples very shortly but, just really to give a platform
of introduction, we know that there was a long, long process leading
to the Annan Plan and the two referendums in April. We had the
Proximity Talks, the face-to-face negotiations and consultations.
Would you agree with those who say that the referendums marked
the best possibility of uniting the islands since the 1974 Turkish
invasion?
Mr MacShane: Yes.
Q115 Chairman: What about those who argue
that, in the past, it had been the Turkish Cypriots with Mr Denktash
in the dock of world opinion the main obstacle to progress but,
as the former well-known High Commissioner in London Michael Attalides
stated and I quote, "The Cyprus Government and the Greek
Cypriots have lost the moral high ground and the capital of goodwill
accumulated with the international community from repeatedly being
the side that has shown political will for solving the Cyprus
problem." How do you respond to Mr Attalides's statement?
Mr MacShane: Firstly, I do not,
as a serving Government Minister, like on the whole to comment
about fellow European Union governments and I am very nervous
when I hear the adjective "moral" in any question to
do with politics.
Q116 Chairman: Let us call it the high
ground.
Mr MacShane: All I would note
is that, for many years under Annan one, two, and three and previous
attempts by secretary-generals to find a comprehensive settlement
to the question of Cyprus, there was a widespread perception that
Mr Denktash senior was not making every possible effort to contribute
to finding a solution but, in April, we saw that 85%[2]of
all Greek Cypriots who voted voted against Annan five including
all the young members of the community. We are all elected politicians,
we count votes as very precious things and, if 85%2 of the population
say "no", I think we have to listen to that voice and
it is with deep regret that I record that fact. I am not sure
that getting into playing games prior to that vote really is helpful.
What we are trying to do as a British Government is move the story
forward.
Q117 Chairman: You will have heard, having
read the evidence, that certainly one of our witnesses claims
that that decisive vote by the Greek Cypriot community was the
result of a failure to prepare that community for the inevitable
compromises. How do you respond to that?
Mr MacShane: There have been since
the beginning of the 1980s numerous proposals on the table. Annan
five was the most comprehensive. It did emerge in its final form
after the discussions involved Greek and Turkish Cypriots and
the Guarantor Powers in Switzerland. It was rejected but I think
it is hard to say that all the Greek Cypriot voters suddenly woke
up to the issues and the arguments just in the few weeks of April.
Many of them, to my experience, in Cyprus itself and amongst different
Greek Cypriot communities outside of Cyprus, have been thinking
and worrying about this problem for a long time.
Q118 Chairman: Does that mean you expected
the result?
Mr MacShane: I was very disappointed
by the result. I do think, if you look at what was in it—the
return of property to Greek Cypriots, the evacuation down to just
a token 650 soldiers from Turkish troops, a united island exercising
its authority as a member of the European Union—there was
a lot that, certainly in my experience in considering the Cyprus
problems and visiting there for nearly 30 years, was very, very
positive. It is difficult to think of a better deal that could
have been agreed by all the different parties involved and then
put to the vote of the people.
Q119 Chairman: Do you expect an Annan
six shortly?
Mr MacShane: An Annan five-and-a-half/Annan
six, no. I think the Secretary-General has made it very clear
that he has had it. He has spent a great deal of his time capital
in small parts of the world vital to the people of Cyprus North
and South; he has thrown at it the best that international diplomacy
and the good offices of the UN has been able to provide and he
has been spurned by political leadership and the votes of the
people. Were I his advisers, I would say, "no".
2 Note by witness-later corrected to 76% Back
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