And so it goes....

The attempt to reunify Cyprus in advance of its entry in the European Union has failed, reports Saturday's International Herald Tribune.

Acceptance of the plan, devised by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, required that it be approved in separate referendums in the Greek and Turkish areas of the island. The Turkish community, based on early returns, voted in favor of the plan by a margin of better than 2-1. But the Greek islanders rejected it by an even greater margin of more than 3-1. Turnout in both areas approached 90%.

How this developed and how it turned out show the importance of power politics over justice. The island has been divided for just under 30 years, since Turkey used a short-lived, Greek-backed coup to invade and occupy the northern third of the nation. It declared the area an independent republic, a position to date accepted by no other nation on the planet.

In January, it looked for a time like Turkey was tired of the issue and was prepared to withdraw. From that, the latest round of negotiations for unification were born.

But what came out of Annan's hands was a plan that essentially legitimized the Turkish invasion and occupation:

The plan envisages a federation of two politically equal states, one for the 643,000 Greek Cypriots and one for the 180,000 Turks and Turkish Cypriots in the north, under a weak central government.

Not surprisingly, Turkey and Turkish Cypriots were all for the plan while Greek Cypriots were outraged and Greece was ambivalent.

By the time of the voting, the EU, the UN, and the US were all pressuring Greek Cypriots to vote "yes," telling them this would be their last chance and even hinting at diplomatic isolation for the island if the Greek community didn't vote the way the big powers wanted. Clearly, the concern with getting this albatross from around Turkey's neck and being done with this pesky annoyance outweighed the idea of justice.

The rejection of the plan, which had to be approved by both communities, means that only Greek Cypriots will enjoy the benefits when Cyprus joins the European Union on May 1.

The European Commission said it "deeply regrets that the Greek Cypriot community" rejected the plan.

"A unique opportunity to bring about a solution to the long-lasting Cyprus issue has been missed," the commission said in a statement in Brussels.

The commission, the EU's administration, said it wanted to "warmly congratulate Turkish Cypriots for their "yes" vote." It added it would look at ways to promote their development

and talked of finding means to "ease the isolation of Turkish Cypriots."

Might does not make right, but it can make justice for the weak in the face of an indifferent world irrelevant.