BUERGENSTOCK - U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday that negotiation process officially ended on Cyprus, stating that simultaneous referenda would be held on both sides in Cyprus on April 24.
Annan said he had listened to the sides and had a forty-eight busy hours, stressing that he had necessary changes on the plan and gave the final shape to the plan.
Annan said, ''I have written the sides a letter, outlining the procedure from here, in order for separate referenda to be held on both sides in Cyprus on April 24, 2004, and I hope for a reunited Cyprus to accede to the European Union on May 1, 2004.''
Annan said, ''we have arrived at this point following talks on the island, and now, during this last week, a concentrated effort in Buergenstock.''
Annan said, ''the six weeks of negotiations and consultation which conclude tonight were conducted within an unavoidably tight schedule,'' stressing that the leaders from now on would evaluate the plan and that Cypriot peoples would take the final decision.
U.N Secretary General said, ''I believe that we have succeeded. But the time has come for you, the leaders, and for voters in both communities, to asses what is before them as an overall package in the run-up to the referenda.''
''As people of Cyprus, north and south, debate and consider their future over the next three and a half weeks, they will be looking to you, their leaders, for guidance,'' he noted.
Annan said, ''you have undertaken the responsibility of organizing referenda. You have a responsibility to inform the people about the plan on which they will be asked to say yes or no, so that each voter can make up his or her mind.''
Annan said, ''if the settlement is approved in the referenda next month, Cyprus would reunify, in time to accede to the European Union. After only a short interval, freedom of movement would prevail, without border-lie checkpoints.''
''A new state of affairs would emerge, far better designed than the one of 1960 to manage relations between the two communities,'' Annan said, noting that, ''as a result, the plan now before you is very different from the proposal that has been in front of you for the past year. The process of negotiation is not a football match. It is not a question of keeping score of goals and own goals, of winners and losers.''
Annan said, ''this plan is inevitably a compromise. It does not satisfy everyone's demands. But I believe it meets the core interests , and addresses the key concers, of people on both sides.''
(AY) 01.04.2004