Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) Leonidas Pantelides expressed belief that in 2023 it would be possible to locate large burial sites of missing persons, pointing out that they have relatively good information on 2-3 cases.
“We are constantly doing a little better and I hope that in 2023 we will be more effective in identifying more people,” Pantelides said when asked by CNA about the progress of the CMP work.
He said that in 2022, 63 excavations were carried out by the Committee’s crews compared to 79 in 2021 and 65 in 2020.
He added that they have located remains of 19 persons, compared to 17 in 2021 and 10 in 2020 and underlined that the accuracy rate has improved significantly.
Elaborating on that he said that they have found remains in 9 of the 63 excavations they have done, with an accuracy rate of 14.3%. In 2021 that rate was 5%, and in 2020 it was 4.6 %.
Noting that there is an improvement as regards the information they receive, which affects the degree of accuracy, he said that not only accuracy but also the number of persons identified must also increase and the way to do that is to locate large burial sites.
Pantelides noted that they would like to locate more remains since there are still too many missing people and their families are waiting.
No matter how intensively we work with seven crews the rate at which we locate and return the remains to the families is not satisfactory, he went on to say.
He added that “in 2023 we hope to locate some large graves because we have relatively good information on 2-3 cases maybe more”.
Pantelides expressed hope that, “in 2023 we will also have a significant improvement in the numbers that will reflect the greater accuracy we achieve in locating the sites because we will also attempt some of the big cases that we know are many people in one site’.
He noted that currently teams are working in Kyrenia, Paphos, Gypsu, Karmi, Assia, Dikomo, Myrtou and Agia Erini.
“We hope to proceed with excavations in Strovolos in 2023 and we also have ten military sites in the occupied areas as we do every year. There are important military areas that we have requested to be excavated, but we still have no answer”, he added.
Regarding the problems they face, he said that over time witnesses and families are gone, the sites that are of interest are altered due to residential activity, road constructions, agricultural works and other reasons.
Another problem, he added, is that many times they find only few remains because the graves are not as they were in their original state and explained that “some of the burials were superficial and have been disturbed even with agricultural work and so on”.
He pointed out that the more information they receive, the better they can focus on the right site and urged people to give any information they may have that could help and add to the overall effort.
Concluding, Pantelides said that there is cooperation with the Red Cross, which often sends scientists and other officials from different countries to Cyprus to see how the CMP program works.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.
A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.
According to statistical data published on the CMP website by August 1, 2022 out of 2002 missing persons 1,185 were exhumed and 1,027 were identified. Out of 1510 Greek Cypriot missing persons 735 were identified and 775 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons 292 were identified and 200 are still missing.
Source: Cyprus News Agency