ONE Greek Cypriot was killed and dozens of Greek and Turkish Cypriots were injured in clashes yesterday in the UN controlled buffer zone. The clashes occurred as Greek Cypriot and supporters, on motorcycles attempted to cross into the Turkish held north of the island to protest 22 years of Turkish occupation.
Thousands of Greek Cypriots, carrying the white flag of Cyprus and the blue and white flag of Greece, burst through Cyprus National Guard and UN lines into the buffer zone to confront the Turkish army and Turkish Cypriot counter demonstrators brandishing the red banner of Turkey.
The bikers entered the buffer zone at three sensitive places where there is little ground separating the troops of the two sides. Near Nicosia protesters set brush fires and taunted Turkish troops manning the "Green Line" but there was no violence.
At Akhna, in the British Sovereign Base of Dhekelia, demonstrators faced heavily armed mainland Turkish army commandos who shot into the crowd, wounding a Greek Cypriot youth and two Sovereign Base policemen.
At the village of Dherynia, overlooking the occupied, derelict city of Famagusta at the eastern end of the island, about 1,000 demonstrators faced stone throwing Turkish Cypriots bussed in for the occasion and Turkish troops wielding clubs and staves.
Supt Matthias Cosgrave, who along with two other officers of the Garda Siochana, was involved in the melee at Dherynia, told The Irish Times: "There is little we can do to stop the bikers if they come."
