BASES - WHY DON'T WE CLAIM WHAT IS OWED FROM BRITAIN? - Pafos Live 24/3
Giannaki L. Omirou
Former Speaker of the House of Representatives
The recent attack on the British base of Akrotiri has brought back to the public debate the obligations of the British towards Cyprus, the status of the bases and the need for a new approach by Cyprus to these issues. Let's start with Britain's debts to Cyprus.
In addition to the Treaties of Guarantee and Agreement, as well as the Treaty of Establishment, there is an important independent agreement between Cyprus and the UK, which accompanies the other documents and treaties regulating the status of Cyprus and which provides for the payment of sums of money to the Republic of Cyprus. These amounts fall into two categories:
a) Those expressly specified in the agreement and concern amounts covering mainly the first five years after the proclamation of the Republic of Cyprus and other specially determined amounts for certain purposes. These have been paid for in 1965.
b) Those amounts that should have been paid every five years after 1965 by the British Government after consultations with the Republic of Cyprus. The British Government systematically refuses, despite repeated representations by the Cypriot Governments, to fulfil its obligations in relation to the above amounts.
Britain's refusal to fulfil this explicit legal obligation by paying financial assistance to the Republic of Cyprus every five years for every five years after 1965 constitutes a breach of a contractual obligation for which the Government of Cyprus must now act by all legal means offered.
It is useful to recall that the amount paid for the five-year period 1960-65 amounted to 12 million British pounds. It is therefore evident that the sums owed by the British for the period from 1965 to the present day amount to many hundreds of millions of pounds.
Annex R (Appendix R) and specifically in sub-paragraph (c) of the Treaty establishing the Republic of Cyprus, entitled "Financial Assistance to the Republic of Cyprus" are two letters, which have been incorporated into the Treaty. The first is written by the last British governor of the island, Sir Hugh Foot, and is addressed to President Makarios and Vice-President Kuciuk and the second is the reply of the two to Foot. Subparagraph (c) is found in the letter of the British official. It states verbatim:
"Within the period of six months preceding 31st March, 1965, and before the end of each subsequent five-year period, the Government of the United Kingdom shall, in consultation with the Government of the Republic, review the provisions of sub-paragraph (a) of this paragraph and, taking into account all factors, including the financial claims of the Republic of Cyprus, will determine the amount of financial assistance that will be provided to this Government in the next five-year period."
Sub-paragraph (a) stipulates that in the first five-year period Britain would grant "in the form of a grant the sum of £12 million. (£4 million for 1961, £3 million for 1962, £2 million for 1963, £1.5 million for 1965). This money for the first five-year period was paid. Since then, Britain has not given any more money.
The Republic of Cyprus, according to a note prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in response to relevant questions from the Parliamentary Committees on Foreign Affairs and Legal Affairs, considers that "from the literal interpretation" of sub-paragraph (c) "it follows that the financial obligations of the United Kingdom are assumed (taken for granted).
The Government holds the opinions of the Legal Service on the issue of the legal possibility of claiming the above amounts. The time has come for the Government to make use of these opinions, which are absolutely positive as to the validity and justification of the claim by the British for the payment of these amounts to the Republic of Cyprus. It is possible to show such tolerance and passivity in the face of Britain's outrageous refusal to pay amounts due to Cyprus by virtue of their explicit contractual obligation.
There is also the issue of the so-called sovereignty of the British Bases. The Bases are not sovereign and not only for obvious and self-evident political reasons. The British themselves, through official documents, essentially admit that there is no question of sovereignty, despite the fact that they are not expected to publicly declare such a thing.
It is stated in these documents: "The British Bases, according to the Treaty of Establishment, remain British territory and for reasons of international situations they will be like "colonies", although internally the Republic of Cyprus will implement many of its Governmental responsibilities. For the same reasons, the responsible Department in White Hall will not be the Colony Office but the Ministry of Aviation."
From this vague and confusingly structured wording, it follows that not even the English themselves consider the Bases to be sovereign. Otherwise, they would designate the Ministry of the Interior or part of it as responsible. In another relevant British document on the "legal status of the Bases", the British appear uncertain about their international name.
It is obvious from all this that, apart from the clear position of the UN, from the point of view of International Law, the British have tremendous difficulty in establishing a legally sound view of the sovereignty of the Bases.
The British Government should get the message that it cannot behave with the arbitrariness of power towards a place it had a duty to protect. Nor that it can apply outdated perceptions and rusty mentalities.
In addition to the above, the issue of the abolition of the anachronistic guarantees of 1960 and of course the termination of the presence of the British military bases, which, according to repeated decisions of the UN General Assembly, but also of the International Court of Justice in The Hague in the "Mauritius" case, constitute a remnant of the colonization of a former colonial power in a former colony and are therefore illegal, remains open.
