Mass evacuation to Cyprus gathers speed

Larnaca (Cyprus), July 22: Ships and aircraft toiled through the night into today whisking more shell-shocked fugitives from the fighting in Lebanon to safety in Cyprus in a mass evacuation now exceeding 25,000 people.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Georgios Lillikas, inspecting a French-chartered boat in Larnaca port that had just brought in 1,200 people, said he expected many more evacuees to arrive on the tiny holiday island, straining its limited resources.

''We expect the number to triple in the coming days. There are more than 60,000 to 70,000 to be evacuated through Cyprus,'' he said as he toured the Iera Petra with Catherine Colonna, France's minister for European affairs.

Colonna praised Cyprus's handling of the crisis.

''Things are moving as smoothly as possible... I think the situation here is really under control,'' Colonna said.

Asked about Cyprus's appeal for help from its European Union partners in moving evacuees home, she said: ''I hope the answer is swift and positive ... This is an enormous burden on Cyprus.'' Conditions on the boat were cramped, with people lying on sheets on the floor. Long queues had formed outside the toilets.

Officials said the French humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres planned to send 60 tonnes of emergency aid through Cyprus to Lebanon.

France sent 20 tonnes of water, along with food and medicines, yesterday to Beirut and planned to dispatch a water purifying plant today.

The amphibious transport USS Trenton, the biggest ship so far involved in the evacuation, docked earlier today at the Cypriot port of Limassol with some 1,800 people.

Nearly 200 non-essential United Nations staff and their families walked ashore from a boat chartered by the world body.

Australians Rescued

British and Australian servicemen also stepped up efforts to rescue their nationals.

''In the next couple of days we are really going to start moving a lot of people through here,'' Australia's High Commissioner in Cyprus, Garth Hunt, said in Larnaca.

''As far as we are concerned, nobody should have to fend for themselves,'' he said after welcoming ashore nearly 350 Australians from a Maltese catamaran contracted by Canberra.

The British government, in an announcement carried by the BBC, said today would be the last scheduled British maritime evacuation of UK passport-holders from Beirut.

It urged those wanting to leave to gather at a conference hall in the Lebanese capital between 8 am and 4 pm local time.

Hundreds of evacuees have also been arriving in the Turkish port of Mersin to the north of Cyprus.

''We are working at a capacity of about 1,000 people a day,'' Canadian ambassador to Ankara Yves Brodeur told Reuters.

Evacuees coming ashore described scenes of mayhem back in Lebanon, where many had been holidaying or visiting family when the Israeli rockets began falling 11 days ago.

''I thought we had gone back 25 years to 1982,'' said Lebanese Italian Saleh el-Saleh, 35, referring to a previous conflict between Israel and Arab militants that wrecked Lebanon.

''After I see all these people leaving I don't feel good. I hope I am not right, but I think we are going into a long war,'' said the Milan-based hotel worker.

''It was a beautiful country, a European country in the West Asia until 10 days ago.''

Reuters

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