By Jean Christou
THE CHARRED remains of an elderly enclaved man were found in his car late on Tuesday, just one kilometre from the occupied village of Rizokarpasso.
The family of the victim — 69-year-old farmer Stelios Charpas — claims he was murdered by Turkish settlers. He had been reported missing on Tuesday morning.
Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said yesterday the government would ask the UN to clear up what happened and to “ensure that justice is done”.
“The murder of Stelios Charpas is particularly shocking news,” Cassoulides said.
“The government has an obligation to convey internationally that it considers the occupation authorities responsible for the safety of the enclaved. If the safety of any citizen is a given fact, then the safety of the enclaved should be considered a double obligation and double responsibility.”
Cassoulides said measures were being taken to have the post mortem in the government-controlled areas.
“Action has been taken through the Humanitarian Affairs Office for the transfer of the body,” he said.
According to Turkish Cypriot press reports, Charpas was found dead in his Renault in a wooded area outside Rizokarpasso at around 5pm on Tuesday.
The UN, which is conducting an investigation, said the body had been discovered by Turkish Cypriot ‘police’.
Spokeswoman Sarah Russell said Unficyp was not in a position to state whether or not murder was suspected. “We don’t have those powers.”
“We were told the body was found by Turkish Cypriot police inside a burnt out vehicle late last night (Tuesday),” she said. “The UN has been working through the night.”
She said a team from Unficyp’s civilian police was working on the case.
The autopsy will be carried out today in occupied Famagusta, with the attendance of an Unficyp official.
Humanitarian Affairs Officer Takis Christopoulos told the Cyprus Mailhe had information that Charpas had received a phone call late on Monday night and had gone out.
His wife Yiannoula reported him missing on Tuesday, Christopoulos said. The couple have seven grown-up children, six of whom live in the free areas.
He said the Greek Cypriot side had asked for one of its own pathologists to cross to the north to join the investigation but had been refused permission by the Turks.
“The body is burnt to such a degree that it cannot be identified, but it was his (Charpas’) car,” Christopoulos said.
The dead man’s wife Yiannoula told CyBC radio in a phone interview from the north that her husband had on Monday received a phone call from someone named Mehmet and said he would be meeting him at around 11pm.
She said he had gone to the local coffeeshop, and believes he was abducted from there and killed, his body placed in the car which was burned to hide the truth. She also said her husband had taken money out of the bank earlier in the day.
Nicos Falas, the former president of the Karpasia Co-ordinating Committee for the Enclaved, claimed the killers were two well-known Turkish settlers.
He said Charpas was the 27th enclaved Greek Cypriot to have been murdered in the occupied areas since 1974. Some 500 Greek Cypriots, mostly elderly, live in the peninsula.
Falas visited President Clerides yesterday morning along with Sotiris Charpas, a son of the victim.
After the meeting, Charpas told journalists his family was still in a state of shock.
“Now we will try as a family to go to Rizokarpasso while we wait for it to be cleared up why they murdered him,” he said.
Cassoulides said yesterday he didn’t believe this latest incident would prompt a mass exodus of the enclaved. “Our enclaved have been through a lot of trouble and oppression for the past 25 years,” he said.
