The graves of 36 missing Greek Cypriots found in 2015 were discovered thanks to information given by a 95-year-old Turkish Cypriot woman just months before she died, it emerged this week.
Cyprus News Agency reported on Wednesday that it concerned 36 Greek Cypriots found in two mass graves in Trahonas, in north Nicosia.
The revelation was made by Paul-Henri Arni, a member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), who said that older people must be convinced or even pushed to reveal any information they had.
He stressed that no one would be prosecuted.
“The CMP located the remains of 36 individuals in 2015 thanks to an elderly woman witness who was 95 years old,” Arni said.
She died a few months after the CMP found the bodies.
“Many people who knew firsthand of the whereabouts of the grave sites that remain unknown have already died,” Arni said.
“Witnesses who are still alive are very old. We don’t have time to convince them to speak to the CMP for the good of all the families still seeking their loved ones 55 and 44 years after their traces were lost.”
Out of 2002 people declared missing by both sides, the CMP has so far located the remains of around 900.
Arni urged politicians to exert their influence on people to convince them to come forward, knowing they will not be prosecuted.
“They must also understand that families from both communities need this important information so that the suffering stops,” he said.
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