Karavas bodies to be identified ‘without delay’

THE COMMITTEE for Missing Persons (CMP) yesterday agreed on the principles to be put in place in connection with DNA identification of the remains of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot missing persons, which would be set up without delay.

The agreement came four days after the remains of an unspecified number of what are believed to be Greek Cypriot remains at the village of Karavas in the north as part of the INFORCE project to resolve the 31-year old humanitarian problem.

A statement from the CMP yesterday said that “emergency exhumations” carried out by INFORCE started on Monday.

“This first phase of an emergency nature which is intended to safeguard remains and burial sites at risk due to heavy constructions and land use projects taking place is expected to last for a number of weeks,” the statement said.

It added that excavations would be carried out in certain places under the technical supervision of an INFORCE forensic archaeologist, due on the island next week, guiding a Turkish Cypriot team. A Greek Cypriot expert is also fully participating in the process.

Any remains found are being taken into temporary custody and transferred to the an anthropological lab to be set up in the buffer zone, the CMP said. Work on the lab will being next week.

If it is established that the remains found in Karavas, near Kyrenia, are those of missing Greek Cypriots it will be the first success for the tri-partite CMP since its inception in 1981.
Earlier this year, tempers flared when excavations in one location on the Turkish Cypriot side proved fruitless. The Greek Cypriot side accused the authorities in the north of deliberately giving out wrong information.

According to news leaked to the Turkish Cypriot media this week the remains found on Monday appear to be those of several people. They were located under a tree in the back garden of a house in Karavas.
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