Greek Cypriot representative to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) Nestoras Nestoros has appealed to both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots to come forward with information that would allow the CMP to locate burial sites of those still missing in Cyprus.
Speaking to CNA, he said the CMP needs more information from every Cypriot. “This is the harsh reality”, he remarked.
During the past two years, the number of missing persons whose remains have been identified has increased due to the fact that no there are two teams of experts who carry out DNA tests to identify exhumed remains. The number of anthropologists working on the CMP project of identification has also increased, cases pending in 2012 were transferred to 2013 and two more geneticists have been employed, he said, adding that all this has helped increase the number of identifications.
If this rate of identification continues, the CMP will have a problem in two years, he noted. “The number of remains we have compared to the remains we find in exhumations is very small. If we don`t find more remains, what will we identify in the end?”, he asked.
The most serious problem facing the CMP right now is that all investigation work to locate missing persons should take place at the exact sites where remains have been buried. “People have information but are reluctant to talk”, he added.
He recalled that in 1991, the Attorney General had ruled that any one who has information can come forward and will not be prosecuted.
“We know the sites where people have vanished but not their burial sites”, he said, adding that “we need more information from every Cypriot, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots. This is the harsh reality”, he added.
Nestoros referred to remarks made last week by Commissioner for Humanitarian Affairs, Photis Photiou that the Turkish side must accept the opening of all the so-called military zones to the exhumation teams, as well as release military records on those who are still missing,
Excavations are being carried out at Tersefanou village in Larnaca district and at Episkopi in the Paphos district to locate Turkish Cypriots missing but have not yielded any result so far. Excavations at Pervolia village in the Larnaca district have failed to produce any result in the recent past.
In Cyprus’ northern Turkish occupied areas, excavations to locate remains of missing Greek Cypriots are underway at Lapithos, Palekythro, Agirta, Epicho, Mia Milia, Gaidoura and Sinda villages.
As a result of the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island, 1,619 Greek Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield. Many of those missing were last seen alive in the hands of the Turkish military.
A further 41 more cases of Greek Cypriot missing persons have been added. These cases concern the period between 1963-1964, when inter-communal fighting broke out. The number of Turkish Cypriot missing since 1974 and 1963/64 stood at 503.
A total of 1073 remains have been exhumed by the CMP, 491 of which have been identified with the DNA method (366 Greek Cypriots and 125 Turkish Cypriots), according to the latest information.