RUSTEM Tatar, the Turkish Cypriot member of the tri-partite Committee for Missing Persons (CMP), has said the authorities in the north are ready to open mass graves there, but lack the necessary facilities and infrastructure to do so.
Tatar told the Turkish Cypriot news agency TAK that the CMP would meet next week after a hiatus of four years, and that moves would then be made to resolve the issue of missing persons from both sides.
Greek Cypriots claim over 1,500 persons still missing since 1974 while the Turkish Cypriot side claims some 500 missing, the majority from the period 1964 to 1974. Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash has repeatedly said that the missing persons from both communities are dead.
Through DNA testing, the government has already managed to identify the remains of over 100 people on the list after it launched an exhumation project at two Nicosia cemeteries in the late nineties. It has also located a grave in the south which contains the remains of several Turkish Cypriots killed in 1974. Exhumations there were suspended because not enough Turkish Cypriots had come forward to give blood samples.
UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan wrote to both sides on August 4 urging them to wrap up the missing persons issue on humanitarian grounds. The government has responded positively but it is not known if the Turkish side has replied yet.
Tatar said, however, that the new initiative was being undertaken following the positive replies by both sides to Annan’s letter.
The Turkish side has been digging its heels in for years on the issue because it wants the Greek Cypriot side to separate from the rest the Greek Cypriots, mainly National Guardsmen, killed in the coup that preceded the Turkish invasion.
This number could be as high as 800, according to the Turkish side, which says they should not be listed with the missing civilians, and were not killed by Turkish forces or Turkish Cypriots.
Tatar said it was important to take steps on the missing persons situation by September 28, when the Council of Europe is expected to submit a report on the issue. But he said the biggest problem facing the Turkish Cypriot side was the lack of necessary facilities.
“Who will open the graves? Who will take the samples for the DNA test? This is a problem we have to solve,” he said. “We are going to open the graves in our territory, but there is a need for experts, equipment and institutions.”
He added that if it were possible to use Greek Cypriot facilities, the Turkish side would want a say in the process. He said he had already asked the government for details of those Turkish Cypriots who may already have given samples in the south.
Tatar said that until today the Greek Cypriots had handed over information regarding the location of 22 graves, four of which are in the north. He said 201 people were believed to be buried there. He also said the Turkish Cypriot side had given information relating to the four graves in the north. “Despite this information, the graves have not been opened due to problems between the two sides,” Tatar said.
Elias Georgiades, the Greek Cypriot member of the CMP, told the Cyprus News Agency yesterday that he had no information on the resumption of the Committee’s meetings.
Georgiades said that if the CMP was to resume, with the participation of acting third member Pierre Guberan from the UN, a way would have to be found to avoid the interminable discussions of the past on procedural issues, and endless pretexts for continued postponements.
He said that Guberan was in constant contact with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on the issue and that recently there did appear to be a change of attitude and a more positive spirit emerging from the Turkish side concerning the missing persons, though verbally rather than practically for now.
He said that real progress would only be achieved if all parties worked “with a new spirit of determination and regard for the human rights of all Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and their relatives”.
