By Jean Christou
THE MOTHER of the first missing Greek Cypriot to be identified as part of the exhumation process was yesterday coming to terms with the realisation that her son was dead, after 25 years hoping that he might still be alive.
Eleni Zinonos, whose son 16-year old Zinon was named as the first Greek Cypriot whose remains were identified, yesterday visited the facility where the results of the exhumations are being investigated.
After leaving the facility with one of her other sons, Eleni told reporters how she felt when she saw her son’s remains.
“I saw my son as he was the last time I saw him in his military clothes. That’s how I saw him. I didn’t see his bones or his skeleton. I just saw his shadow,” she said.
“I feel proud. His homeland is welcome. He was both a family head and a patriot.”
Zinon Zinonas was last seen on the morning of July 21, 1974, in the Nicosia suburb of Omorphita the day after the Turkish invasion began.
The boy of 16, who was not in the army, returned home in military fatigues. Zinon was the eldest of four children, and his father had died when he was eight. On that day, he kissed his mother and his brothers and sisters and set off carrying a gun. He told his mother not to worry and to take care of the other children. No further trace of Zinon was found until his remains were dug out of a Nicosia cemetery this year, along with hundreds of other.
He is the only one so far identified as having been on the list of 1,619 people believed missing since 1974, although the remains of eight other people were identified.
The remains of an American Cypriot, Andreas Kasapis, also 16, is the only other missing person so far positively identified as dead. An American investigative team identified his remains in the occupied areas last year and his name has been removed from the missing list, which will now officially registers 1,617.
According to exhumation team leader Professor William Haglund, more names are likely to be gradually removed from the list of missing persons as investigations progress.
“It is more than likely that we will find more names listed as missing, because there is an excess of remains compared to those names known to be buried there,” said Haglund, who heads a team of forensic experts from the organisation Physicians for Human Rights.
Haglund said the results announced on Tuesday were only the initial identifications, and that more will be made public by February.
When asked if he could say how Zinonos had died, Haglund said that the cause of death of the young man could not be determined.
“If the soft tissue was affected, then we cannot determine the cause of death,” he said.
It was also revealed yesterday that DNA from a ninth body had been isolated by the experts, but that the identity of the victim would have to remain unknown for the time being because there were no DNA samples from any relatives to match it with.
More than 200 marked graves have been exhumed. About 90 contained remains that had already been removed in previous exhumations.
Haglund urged relatives of missing persons who have not yet donated DNA to come forward and give blood samples.
Nicos Theodosiou, joint chairman of the committee for the relatives of missing persons, said yesterday the exhumation effort was finally bearing fruit.
“We have the first results of a Greek Cypriot missing person,” said Theodosiou, who added that Zinonos had been a classmate of his and a personal friend.
“His mother, who was among he most active in events of committee, hoped her son would one day knock on her door alive. It is the classic instance of a family that hoped and believed their loved one was alive without any information that might allow them to think he was dead, and yet this person was lost in the free areas for 25 years,” Theodosiou said.
He said he hoped the process would yield more cases by February, and expected a third group of results by the autumn.
Yesterday, the Council of Ministers approved £440,000 for the continuation of the work of the DNA bank at the Institute of Neurology and Genetics.
