began conducting excavations in July, Nestoras Nestoros the Greek Cypriot Member of the CMP told the Cyprus News Agency on Wednesday.
Nestoros said that the small burial sites have been located in an area where the CMP is planning excavations at three different points, adding that the excavations are now at the first point.
“The excavation in Morphou began on July 21 and three points will be excavated at the specific area. We are already at the first point where small burial sites have been found,” he said, explaining that these are not mass graves.
He added that nine skeletons have been found until now.
“These are makeshift graves which suggests that these are people we have been searching for” he said. The first findings, he added, show that eight of the skeletons belong to middle-aged persons and one to a young person.
According to Nestoros the witnesses that gave the CMP information about the burial site did not know the identity of the persons that were buried there.
He also said that the CMP continues the effort to find more witnesses.
He said that the excavations will go on for some time as there are two more points to be excavated.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. As a result of the invasion, hundreds of Greek Cypriots were listed as missing, most of whom soldiers or reservists, who were captured in the battlefield. Turkish Cypriots are also listed as missing.
The CMP was established in the early 1980s, upon agreement between the leaders of the island`s two communities, with a view to exhuming, identifying and returning the remains of missing persons to their relatives.
CNA/KD/GV/2016