Greek Cyprus' Justice Ministry said it would refuse to cooperate with future U.S. human rights reports, saying a State Department assessment issued this month smacked of bias. The boycott would only concern questionnaires from the United States related to the compilation of reports, but it demonstrated the depth of feeling in Greek Cyprus towards the United States. Relations with Washington have cooled markedly in recent years because of a perceived bias in Greek Cyprus that the United States has towards Turkey.
To the anger of Greek Cyprus, the U.S. State Department recently said that trade with Turkish Cypriots, living isolated in the northern part of the island, is legal. Greek Cypriots oppose any direct trade between the Turkish Cypriots and the outside world, saying this would mean de facto recognition of the Turkish Cypriot state.
Turkey is pressing both the United States and the European Union for the lifting of the isolation of Turkish Cypriots.
The Greek Cypriot administration has indicated that it would not accept the United States or Britain acting as mediators in fresh talks over the future of Cyprus, questioning their honesty as mediators.
The State Department's annual human rights report often draws complaints and derision from several states it cites for rights violations, and China issues its own report detailing allegations of violations in the United States.
The same report, released earlier this month, has criticized Turkey for continuing torture and abuse by members of the security forces and said the government continued to limit freedom of expression in some cases. Turkish officials have so far not commented on the report's conclusions.
In the Greek Cypriot case, the U.S. report said police abuse, violations of asylum-seekers' rights, violence against women and people and trafficking were problems; however, the Greek Cypriot Justice Ministry said the authorities' views were totally ignored when compiling the report.
"We will not answer any of their questions (in the future) unless we get clear assurances they will be objective and take into account the facts," said Justice and Public Order Minister Doros Theodorou.
Theodorou said the report made sweeping and unsubstantiated accusations. "It is clear that the State Department report refers to general accusations and in some cases, without any proof whatsoever," he said.
In parts, the rights report was largely drawn from domestic media reports and said the country was both a destination and transit point for persons trafficked for sexual exploitation. Authorities, it said, "were aware of and generally tolerated the situation."
"The impression the report leaves is that its contents were already predetermined. Under such circumstances, I fail to see why we should in future answer the questionnaires sent out by the U.S. Embassy," said Theodorou.
Reports of the trafficking of women have existed for years. Johns Hopkins University in the United States issued an assessment last year saying that the prostitution industry, which relies on trafficking, generated an estimated $85 million per year in Cyprus, an island of less than 1 million people.