The Icelandic Canadian - 01.12.1971, Blaðsíða 20

IB
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
WINTER 1971
March, appeals were made to the UN.
The Secretary-General again appealed
for troops to form the required force.
Canada was the first to agree to pro-
vide troops, and only days later, on
March 14th, the first Canadian Con-
tingent landed in Nicosia. Denmark,
Sweden, Finland, Ireland and Bri-
tain quickly sent contingents. Within
weeks the United Nations Force in
Cyprus was established throughout the
island in areas of confrontation, the
troops in pale blue berets doing their
best to carry out their mandate to
prevent a recurrence of the fighting
and to contribute to the restoration
of normal conditions.
The Canadian Contingent, initially
numbered some 1000 men, was com-
posed of an infantry battalion, and
armoured reconnaissance squadron,
headquarters and logistics personnel.
At the outset the Canadians were made
responsible for the area of the capital
itself, but soon afterwards UNFICYP
recognized that the greatest danger
lay in the area of the largest Turk-
Cypriot enclave, to the Northwest of
Nicosia, and the Canadians, being the
only professional soldiers in the Force,
were considered best equipped to
oversee this airea.
The Greek and Turk groups on the
island had developed a deep hatred
and mistrust for each other, and so the
task of keeping the peace was never
really a simple job. Essentially it came
down to one thing: a single UN soldier
invariably carried with his very pres-
ence the whole weight of the “good
offices” of the United Nations, and
as such was an inviolate individual.
His presence between belligerents was
sufficient to stop them shooting at
each other, for neither side dared risk
the censure of the whole world by kill-
ing or wounding a member of the
UN force. To this day it has been a
very rare occasion when UN soldiers
have been threatened or molested.
The existence of a UN outpost was
often reason enough for neither side
to instigate violence. It was often a
means whereby Greek or Turk could
“save face”, so important in this part
of the world, and not feel obligated to
respond to some real or imagined in-
sult from the other side. Constant
vigilance has always been required by
the UN so that at the first sign of
trouble the UN could be on the spot
to mediate a dispute before it became
a battle. In the Canadian’s district
scores of observation posts were
manned by the infantry unit in the
most critical areas, and there were al-
ways men on stand-by waiting to be
rushed to any potential trouble spot.
The armoured recce squadron in their
Ferret scout cars did a more mobile
job—patrolling the whole of the dis-
trict that was not under surveillance
by the infantry. Theirs was largely
the job of showing the UN flag regul-
arly throughout the area, keeping
watch over the many entrenched pos-
itions as well as giving comfort and
some feeling of security to the isolated
Turk villages in the predominantly
Greek area.
But UNFICYP has not been uni-
versally successful. Two very serious
confrontations have taken place since
its creation, and on neither occasion
was the UN by itself able to bring an
end to the fighting. A major battle at
Kokkina, on the Northwest coast, in
August 1964, raged for a week before
the Greek Cypriot National Guard
abandoned their attack in the threat
of a Turkish invasion. In November
1967 the Greek Cypriots attacked two
Turk villages in the south of the is-
land. Here at Kophinou the UN, with
a force on the outskirts of the village
equally as large as the attacking forces,