Greek Cypriots storm buffer zone

2003-04-29 14:08

Nicosia - About 200 Greek Cypriots displaced by the 1974 Turkish invasion stormed through a UN checkpoint at the edge of the buffer zone with the Turkish Cypriot north on Tuesday in a bid to return to their homes, Greek Cypriot officials and media said.

The Greek Cypriot nationalists overwhelmed the small UN force manning the checkpoint east of the government-held town of Kato Pyrgos in a bid to reach their former homes in the Turkish-held village of Limnitis on the island's north coast, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou confirmed.

Pictures from the scene carried by the privately run Mega TV channel showed a line of UN peacekeepers desperating forming a human chain in a bid to stop the demonstrators reaching Turkish army positions on the far side of the buffer zone.

The area east of Limnitis up to the buffer zone has long been closed off to outsiders by the Turkish army, which maintains some 35 000 troops in the north of the island.

The demonstration was the first since Turkish Cypriot authorities eased restrictions on the entry of Greek Cypriots last Wednesday at three crossings through the buffer zone, one in the capital and two from a British base in the southeast of the island.

- AFX