Villagers in Cyprus confront UK soldiers over tree clearing

Villagers in Cyprus on Thursday confronted British soldiers based on the east Mediterranean island over the cutting down of trees at a firing range, complaining that they were encroaching on the community’s prized wooded area.

British bases spokesman Kristian Gray said Thursday’s standoff, which saw local residents from a village inside a British base encircling about 200 soldiers and blocking their trucks from leaving the area for several hours, ended peacefully.

Gray said the overnight military operation was meant to improve visibility and safety inside the firing range, situated along the island’s southeastern coastline.

Xylophagou community leader Tasos Anglogallos said hundreds of villagers converged on the site before dawn after discovering what was happening. Anglogallos said villagers were angry that soldiers had cleared more than an acre of eucalyptus and other vegetation near the community’s only and much prized forested area.

"It’s our only green space and the community values it greatly," Anglogallos told the AP.

Activists also complain that British authorities cleared the woods because the acacia trees in the area are used by locals to illegally trap songbirds served at restaurants as a delicacy. According to activists, hundreds of thousands of the birds are trapped inside one of two military bases that Britain retained after Cyprus gained independence from British colonial rule in 1960. [AP]