ATTORNEY-general Alecos Markides yesterday proposed an independent probe into Turkish Cypriot press reports that a group of gypsies who crossed from the north into the government-held areas earlier this week was abused by Cyprus police before being dumped back near the buffer zone.
The UN is also looking into the disturbing reports.
Turkish Cypriot papers claimed yesterday that 26 gypsies from the occupied Famagusta district had crossed into the free areas in search for work, but were instead beaten up by police.
The official Turkish Cypriot news agency TAK on Wednesday quoted ‘police’ in the north as saying that the group, which included women and children, had crossed over on Monday.
A statement by Turkish Cypriot ‘police’ said that seven men and a 12-year-old boy had been “heavily beaten and tortured”.
Markides yesterday said he would be proposing to the Cabinet that one or more independent investigators be appointed to look into possible criminal offenses relating to the reported abuse. Markides also sent fax messages to all local dailies requesting Greek translations of the relevant Turkish Cypriot press reports.
UNFICYP spokesman Charles Gaulkin told the Cyprus Mail that the UN was looking into the reports. But he added that so far no formal complaint had been made to the UN about their treatment.
TAK claimed two of the men needed hospital treatment on their return.
All the newspapers in the north yesterday splashed out on the allegations, claiming women had been dragged along the ground by masked police officers and forced to sing.
Starting out from the occupied village of Makrasyka near Famagusta, the papers said the gypsies had journeyed south in the hope of a better life. But they were allegedly met by police, loaded into a land rover and driven to a police station. After a telephone call, they were allegedly driven to another police station, then taken to a field.
There, the papers said, they were “beaten and tortured”, before being deposited the following night at the buffer zone near occupied Kato Kopia in the Morphou area.
Police yesterday refused to comment on the allegations.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
