The case of the nine British soldiers accused of starting a fight in a Aiya Napa club has once again thrust the question of British troops in Cyprus into the limelight.
The nine soldiers, who were serving with the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers at Dhekelia, were acquitted on all charges after the judge ruled there was insufficient evidence to link the men to the incident, and that the process of identification of the suspects at the local police station was not fair.
The simple truth is that the nine young soldiers should not have been in Aiya Napa at all on 2 February, 2008. The armed forces have banned all military personnel from the centre of the all-hours party town after a string of incidents.
While the soldiers have already been punished through the army’s own internal disciplinary processes, discipline on this so-called ’sunshine posting’ does still remain a concern. Speaking on BBCtv, the spokesman for the British forces in Cyprus, Nick Ulverts, admitted that the disciplinary record of troops on the island was only “relatively good”, and promised that less incidents should happen in the future. “There are checks and balances in place, … and they are there for a good reason”, he added.
The relationship between the local Cypriots and military personnel stationed on the two British bases at Akrotiri and Dhekelia is a delicate balance. The two bases cover more than 100 square miles of land, and employ over 3500 service personnel and civilians. The spending power of these personnel and their families contribute large amounts of money to the Cypriot economy. (Not every business in Aiya Napa welcomed the ban on generous-spending service customers. )
However, Cyprus businesses may need to make the most of this source of income before it disappears. Whilst the British Ministry of Defense are keen to keep their “foothold at (this) strategic point in the Mediterranean”, the situation in a non-divided future for Cyprus would be very different. President Dimitris Christofias has declared that there would be no place for foreign military forces in a unified Cyprus, which can only be bad news for beer sales….
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