Handover of missing persons files set for Friday

Jean Christou

REPRESENTATIVES of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides are expected to exchange information on missing persons from both communities on Friday.

Unficyp spokesman Waldemar Rokoszewski said yesterday the meeting will take place at the buffer-zone home of UN Permanent representative Gustave Feissel.

It was there that the agreement to exchange information was first made on July 31 last year, between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

Only three people will attend Friday’s meeting: Feissel, Greek Cypriot Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Takis Christopoulos, and Turkish Cypriot representative Rustem Tatar.

The Turkish Cypriot side is expected to hand over information on 400 of the 1,619 Greek Cypriots missing since 1974.

Christopoulos will in turn give Tatar information on some 200 Turkish Cypriots of the 803 Turkish Cypriots missing since the intercommunal troubles broke out in 1963.

Rokoszewski said he had no details of what format the meeting would take.

Nicos Theodosiou, president of the Committee for the Relatives of the Missing, said yesterday the information being exchanged is expected to include maps indicating the location of possible mass graves.

Theodosiou said the information which will be received will be evaluated by government experts. “It’s not our job to do this but we will be involved,” he said.

He said it is unlikely the families of the 400 on whom information will be given will be informed at this stage.

“This can’t be done until a positive identification is made,” Theodosiou said.

A DNA bank has already been set up at the bi-communal Institute of Neurology and Genetics in Nicosia, and samples have been taken from relatives.

The identification process is expected to take a very long time.

But Theodosiou said for now “we are waiting to see what they give us”. He said Friday’s exchange would probably be “ceremonial”, not “substantial”.

The meeting is just the first phase and the two sides are expected to continue working on the issue of the missing and gathering more information.

In his December report on Unficyp’s mandate, UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan said the agreement on the missing represented a significant breakthrough which “if faithfully implemented should have a positive effect on the remaining work with regard to missing persons”.

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