By Athena Karsera and Elias Hazou

The British Bases and UN's British Contingent in Cyprus will today remember the fallen of the past century's two world wars in the first such commemoration of the new millennium. Major Niall Greenwood of UNFICYP told the Sunday Mail: "There will be a ceremony at Wayne's Keep cemetery near the former Nicosia Grammar School in the buffer zone. It is a very solemn affair and there will not be shots fired or anything like that." "We will be having a band from the Sovereign Bases to honour all the fallen members of the Commonwealth, and the traditional religious service." Up to 300 people are expected to attend, including foreign diplomats and government dignitaries. Episkopi Base will hold its service of remembrance at the Curium Amphitheatre. British expatriates and holiday-makers have been invited to attend and should be seated by 10.40am. In the event of rain, the ceremony will take place at St John's School theatre at the Base. A British Bases spokesman said yesterday there would also be closed ceremonies at the Dhekelia and Akrotiri Bases, with former servicemen and members of the Cyprus regiment in World War II taking part. There will be two minutes' silence at exactly 11am during all of the ceremonies. The Cyprus Veterans' Association of World War II on Friday staged an event outside the PASYDY building at the Monument of the Fallen to commemorate Remembrance Day, or Poppy Day, as it is also known. The event was marked by a minute's silence in honour of the dead, and was attended by the Archbishop, the Speaker of the House and party representatives. The association also organised a Poppy Day fund-raiser. Some 70 million people lost their lives in the devastation and battles of the two world wars. The origins of Poppy Day date back to World War I, when a Canadian colonel serving on the western front composed a poem, using as his inspiration the sight of poppies on French fields. Mona Michael, an American woman working in a canteen during the war, later read the poem, which gave her the idea of wearing a red poppy to commemorate the dead.