EXPERTS from the INFORCE Foundation, in agreement with the Committee of Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) to locate Cypriots missing since 1974, have began digging suspected mass graves in the Trachonas area located in north Nicosia.
Digging began in the area yesterday under strict security from the Turkish Cypriot authorities. So far no discoveries have been reported.
The CMP have said that the digging, which is also being overlooked by two INFORCE physicians, is aimed at locating mass graves rather than opening them.
Speaking on the recent digging, the government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides told reporters “the whereabouts and efforts to locate the missing Cypriots is a prime concern for President Tassos Papadopoulos.”
Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, said the digging is being done “for research purposes” and that the authorities will not start opening up graves at this moment.
“For the last 30 years we have had information that there are people buried here,” he said. “We have to establish if this is true or false.”
The CMP is made up of three members – one representative from each side and a third member, who is designated by the UN Secretary-General. The Greek Cypriot representative of CMP, Elias Georgiades, has described the start of the digging as “a small step in the right direction”.
Meanwhile, the Turkish Cypriot member of the CMP, Rustem Tatar, said the site currently being dug is one of three areas stated by Turkey, back in 1998, as a possible location where mass graves could be discovered.
The Chief Executive of INFORCE Professor Margaret Cox refused to comment on the current digging in the north.
Out of the catalogue of the 1587 Missing Greek Cypriots, the eleven that lived in the area of Trachonas were Grigoris Mita, Kleovoulos Panteli, Iacovos Papantoniou, Andreas Paphitis, Christakis Polos, Pavlos Polos, Sotiris Georgiou, Christakis Efseviou, Georgos Kyriakou, Christodoulos Leoni and Giorgos Michael.
Georgiou, Efseviou, Leoni, Michael, Papantoniou, Paphitis and Pavlos Polos were all last seen in Trachonas before their disappearance.
The total number of missing persons was originally 1619 but as a result of the recent identifications up to date, 27 missing persons have been identified, including the 17-year-old American citizen Andreas Kasapis, whose remains were recovered earlier by the American investigation team in the occupied areas of Cyprus, and its scientific identification was done in the USA with DNA analysis.
The International Forensic Centre of Excellence for the Investigation of Genocide (INFORCE) began in 2001 and was started by a group of collective and experienced forensic specialists active in the investigation of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide since the mid 1990s.
CMP was established in 1981, in compliance with relevant UN General Assembly resolutions. The humanitarian mandate of the Committee, which operates under the auspices and with the participation of the United Nations, is to investigate and determine the fate of all the missing persons in Cyprus.
The CMP and the INFORCE Foundation have been working in conjunction with each other on the missing person of Cyprus since October 25, 2004, when the agreement between the two entities was reached.
