Cyprus amnesty disregarded

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33520, 29 April 1974, Page 13

Cyprus amnesty disregarded

(N.Z, Press Association—Copyright)

NICOSIA, April 28.

Cyprus is bracing herself against the likelihood of a fresh confrontation between the Government and the extreme Right-wing Eoka “B” underground, movement, another amnesty offer to the group having been largely ignored.

President Makarios de-! dared on Thursday 7 thatEoka ‘B’ was an illegal organisation, and gave 70 of its members wanted by the police until noon yesterday to return to their homes as free men. According to an official Government announcement last night, only seven took advantage of the amnesty offer and came out of hiding. This is the second time in three months that Eoka ‘B’ 'has spurned an amnesty [offer from Archbishop [Makarios: the first was made last January, immediately after the death of the

•!Eoka founder and leader, t| General George Grivas, ■ whose followers had waged a violent terrorist campaign i aimed at the overthrow of President Makarios and the : unilateral proclamation of Enosis (Union with Greece). I Responding to the Arch- : bishop’s first amnesty offer, the new, and still uniden- ' tified, Eoka ‘B’ leader proclaimed a truce, but his men remained underground. 1 The truce held until earlier this month, when there ’ were a series of minor clashes oetween supporters of Grivas and those of the President. Last week, how- ' ever, Eoka ‘B’ staged two large-scale raids by large groups of armed and masked men on two villages, where they beat up followers of the Archbishop. It was these raids, regarded as an open display of force, that prompted Presi- [ dent Makarios to declare Eoka illegal. The mysterious new Eoka ‘B’ leader, who is generally , believed to be an extreme Right-wing major or colonel ■of the Greek Army, has so (far refrained from any com[ment on the President’s lat,[est amnesty, or on his decision to crush the underground.