An Irishwoman's Diary

Tomorrow afternoon in McKee Barracks, Dublin, the former Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Gerald O'Sullivan, DSM, will be honoured for humanitarian services during the dark days following the Turkish occupation of the north of the island in July-August, 1974. Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou will decorate him as Grand Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Cyprus.

The then Lieut Col O'Sullivan was ordered to deploy to Cyprus as chief humanitarian officer of the UN Force In Cyprus (UNFICYP) after Turkey invaded on July 20th in response to a coup staged by the Greek junta in Athens against President Makarios.

The first ceasefire was agreed on July 23rd once the Turkish army had established a beachhead on the coast and connected it to the Turkish Cypriot enclave in Nicosia. While Turkish forces consolidated their positions, UNFICYP attempted to stabilise the ceasefire, provided logistical support to the effort to aid a torrent of refugees, transported supplies, looked after abandoned farm animals, and helped restore water and electricity.

O'Sullivan arrived at UNFICYP headquarters at Nicosia International Airport on August 13th, as a light breeze rustled the leaves on the eucalyptus trees flanking the road and the bludgeoning heat of the day began to wane. It had been a long, tiring journey, beginning with a flight from Britain to the British air force base at Akrotiri and a hot drive across a countryside burnt brown by the unrelenting sun. The Turkish army began its second offensive early the next morning. While fighting raged, he was assigned to the Ops Centre to report on developments to New York.

Humanitarian work had to wait until the Turks accepted the second ceasefire on August 16th. Although the situation remained unsettled, O'Sullivan set out the next morning with his deputy and the chief medical officer to find out what needed to be done and how UNFICYP could help. The streets of the capital were deserted, shops were shut, and houses shuttered. The ICRC had moved its headquarters from the Hilton Hotel, crowded with refugees and foreign correspondents, to the more modest Cleopatra. During that meeting soldiers forged a close relationship with relief workers in the campaign to deal with the emergency.

More than 225,000 Cypriots, 36 per cent of the island's population, had either been displaced or were in need. Some were stranded in villages behind the Turkish lines, others were in refugee camps or sheltering in the British sovereign bases.

More than 163,000 Greek Cypriots had been driven from the north by invading Turkish forces and 28,000 Turkish Cypriots had fled villages in the south. Twenty thousand Greek Cypriots remained in the Karpass Peninsula which, along with the coastal Kyrenia district and most of the central Masaoria plain, had fallen under Turkish occupation. Greek Cypriots had counted for 80 per cent of the inhabitants of the captured area - 35 per cent of the country's territory, which contained 70 per cent of its productive capacity and 60 per cent of its natural resources. Both the immediate needs of the people and their long-term requirements had to be met. President Makarios insisted that Cypriots must not become eternal refugees.

While the UN High Commission for Refugees and local agencies dealt with the destitute homeless, O'Sullivan focused on the enclaved, the missing and the villagers trapped in isolated pockets. As a UN officer he could travel extensively through the unstable north.

Wherever he went he took notes on the situation of communities, families and individuals and delivered detailed assessments to the ICRC and the Greek Cypriot organisations.

He reported twice a week on the needs of the thousands of Greek Cypriots enclaved in the Karpass, determining what was needed by babes in arms as well as the elderly. He decided whether or not to take ailing persons to Nicosia, where they became refugees. Greek Cypriots elsewhere were being rounded up, the men held prisoner on the island or sent to Turkey, the women put on buses and driven to the ICRC in Nicosia. The hundreds held in the fashionable Dome Hotel in Kyrenia had reasonable accommodation but needed food and medicine.

Elderly villagers huddled together in schools and church halls were desperate. O'Sullivan was particularly distressed by old folks in a school at the village of Voni where sanitation arrangements were dire. If one had fallen ill, the entire group would have been in danger. Attention to cleanliness meant mortality rates for the very young and very old did not rise during this time of acute distress.

The humanitarian offensive, waged largely by amateurs, gathered pace day by day in spite of rumours of a new Turkish offensive in September. Supplies which had flown into Akrotiri began to arrive on ships. Tents were provided for the refugees, supplies delivered to the enclaved and isolated, prisoners repatriated, and some of the missing found.

By the time Lieut Col O'Sullivan left Cyprus in 1976, the republic was on its way to recovery. He had contributed to what was called the "miracle in half an island" by helping to mount the most efficient and effective rescue and rehabilitation operation ever undertaken anywhere.