“The Turkish side has to cooperate, displaying the necessary good will and sincerity, to help establish the fate of Greek Cypriot missing, in the way the Greek Cypriot side is doing with regard to Turkish Cypriot missing persons,” Commissioner for the Environment Ioanna Panayiotou has said.
Speaking at the funeral of Klitos Zeniou, until recently listed as missing, whose remains have been located and identified through DNA, she said Turkey must assist such efforts without political or other expediences.
“We insist that every single case of persons missing in Cyprus must be investigated and we hope to vindicate their sacrifice through the reunification of our homeland, the withdrawal of Turkish occupation troops and settlers and safeguarding human rights and fundamental freedoms,” she said.
She noted that the success rate of excavations is diminishing because the information made available to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) is insufficient, pointing out that Ankara must allow access to what it describes as military sites for excavations.
Panayiotou recognised the progress achieved so far in these efforts, but stressed that the process of exhumation and identification must be expedited as time is of utmost importance.
The CMP, established in 1981 in compliance with relevant UN General Assembly resolutions, is a tripartite inter-communal investigatory committee, comprising a representative of the Greek Cypriot community, a representative of the Turkish Cypriot community, and a Third Member nominated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and appointed by the UN Secretary General.
In July 2007, the CMP began returning the first remains of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot individuals to their families.
According to the latest data posted on the CMP website, 74 identifications of remains were conducted in 2014, up to July 31st, of which 66 belonged to Greek Cypriots and 8 to Turkish Cypriots. Last year there were 140 identifications of 88 Greek Cypriots and 52 Turkish Cypriots. Moreover, 53 individuals were exhumed in the current year, while in 2013 the total number was 67.
The percentage of excavation sites where remains were found stands at 11% for 2014.
From 2006 to 2014, a total of 1,093 were exhumed, from which 918 cases have undergone anthropological analysis and 551 were identified.
Donations to CMP in 2014 exceeded 4 million US dollars, with 3,571,360 coming from the EU, 272,899 from Kuwait, 118,834 from the family of the late President Glafcos Clerides and 45,000 from Switzerland.
(source: CNA)
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