By Jean Christou
RELATIVES of missing persons fear the issue is approaching a dead end, their representatives said yesterday.
After a meeting with President Clerides, Nicos Theodosiou, chairman of the Relatives of the Missing Committee, said the issue was going nowhere.
Theodosiou was referring to the latest setback in which exhumation experts due on the island to help identify remains postponed their visit indefinitely.
Theodosiou said it had now been decided to look for a new set of experts to move the process along.
He expressed disappointment on behalf of the relatives that since the landmark agreement 1997 between Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, little had been done to get to the root of the long-running humanitarian problem.
In July 1997, Clerides and Denktash agreed to co-operate to put an end to the missing problem.
The Greek Cypriot side counts 1,619 missing while the Turkish Cypriots say 803 are unaccounted for.
Files were exchanged six months later identifying the whereabouts of a number of mass graves on each side, but the Turkish side pulled out of the process after Cyprus problem talks broke down and all contacts were cut between the two sides.
The Greek Cypriot side decided to go ahead with exhumations in the government controlled areas, and was planning to bring in the exhumation experts to identify remains.
“We are in a hurry to investigate the issue,” Theodosiou said. “The relatives demand no more delays, so we decided to look for another group and hope that within the year the group will be ready.”
He said it appeared the missing issue was approaching a “serious dead end”.
Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides and Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Takis Christopoulos were also at the meeting, but made no statements.
The experts who were to visit the island were also to assist in exhuming the remains of unknown Greek Cypriot soldiers killed during the coup and invasion, and who are buried at a Nicosia cemetery.
In August, two women tried to dig up the grave of an unknown soldier, believing their husbands were buried at the cemetery.
Theodosiou yesterday pleaded with the relatives not to think of having the bodies exhumed independently.
“It would be a big mistake for any relative to go and exhume on his own because this will not have any positive result. A group of experts will do the job properly and are the only ones capable of reaching a proper scientific conclusion,” he said.
