CYPRUS has 1,924 people still missing from the inter-communal strife in the 1960s and the Turkish invasion of 1974. When the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) was set up under the auspices of the UN in 1981, the figure was 1,995; 502 Turkish Cypriots and 1,493 Greek Cypriots.
But as Politis chief editor Andreas Paraschos noted, there is no flag or nationality in a mother’s face, only pain and suffering. Around 40 of the Greek Cypriots went missing in the 1960s, the majority were lost in 1974. Many of the Turkish Cypriots went missing before the invasion.
July 2007 is described by the CMP as a turning point in the fate of the missing. For the first time in its 26-year history, the CMP was able to identify and return the remains of 71 people to their families for proper burial. One cannot underestimate the power of hope. Knowing the fate of loved ones is crucial to the life of those left behind.
The CMP is one of the only institutionalised bicommunal committees operating in Cyprus, with a Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot and UN-appointed foreign member. A bi-communal team of 18 archaeologists and anthropologists are responsible for carrying out exhumations on both sides of the buffer zone. Formal identification of skeletal remains is established by a team of anthropologists (from the CMP laboratory) and geneticists (from the Laboratory of Forensic Genetics of the CING).
As of last month, the remains of 373 individuals were exhumed from different burial sites located across the island. From that figure, 262 individuals were analysed by the anthropological laboratory before their bones were sent for DNA testing to the genetics lab. Last week, the media reported of new findings. The remains of 50 Greek Cypriots were uncovered under a pile of rubble in Kyrenia, while there are ongoing digs at Yerasa, Limassol, where the remains of 25 Turkish Cypriots from Tochni, Zygi and Mari have already been found. Also last week, a ceremony was held to mark the remains of 10 Greek soldiers identified by the US NGO Physicians for Human Rights.
For decades, families have been living with a strange marriage of hope and prolonged mourning. Finally, the process has started and some have been able to put their dead to rest. But why did it take so long? And is the CMP an adequate tool for the people of this island to deal with their violent past, bury it and move forward reconciled?
There seems to be a lack of real debate on the issue. The political leadership in both communities has invested much political capital in the missing without concerning itself with establishing the truth behind their stories. Not only would this speed up the process of finding the makeshift burial sites left hidden across the island but it would also help towards reconciliation for a people torn apart by conflict.
At a recent PRIO conference on human rights, Paraschos and Turkish Cypriot journalist and peace activist Sevg?l Uluda? led a debate on the missing. Both have been actively involved in the missing persons saga for over a decade. In 1995, Paraschos began a campaign to push the government to exhume bodies lying in a Lakatamia graveyard marked as “unknown soldiers and citizens” killed in 1974. The pressure paid off and in 1999, the government began exhumation of the bodies. Paraschos asked: “How can we be giving figures of the missing in international forums when we have 100-odd bodies left unidentified on our own doorstep?”
Uluda? published a best-seller on the issue called Oysters with their missing pearls. For the last five years, she has been uncovering untold stories about the missing and mass graves from both sides of the island. Through her newspaper columns, she opened a ‘hotline’ in the north, encouraging people with information to come forward, even anonymously. Uluda? used the information to help locate mass graves and begin the process of exhumations. In 2006, she was awarded the Reporters Without Frontiers-Austria’s Press Freedom Award.
Both journalists spoke of the politicisation of the missing persons and the lack of real investigation by the authorities. Every year, we march further and further away from the truth. On Thursday, EU Rapporteur on missing persons in Cyprus Eva Klamt called for a speeding up of the CMP process because eyewitnesses were getting older. There are still people out there who remember what happened and where. Why have they not come out to speak, 30, 40 years on? Why have we not encouraged them? As human rights lawyer Emine Erk noted, is it fair to wait decades before going up to a family member and asking them: “What colour coat was he wearing when you last saw him?”
What are the stories behind the missing? For those that are no longer alive, who killed them? And why? People are still afraid to talk of the dead or of the massacres perpetrated. There is fear that talk will open a Pandora’s box of blood, violence and revenge. What happened in the 1960s? What happened in 1974? Apart from the invading army, what crimes did Cypriots commit that have gone unpunished? These questions remain unanswered. Among Greek Cypriots, any talk of illegal killings is hidden behind great acts of heroism, noted Paraschos.
When Politis published a story on massacres perpetrated by both communities in 1974, the response from the public was one of shock. Many people had no idea about the massacres in Aloa, Maratha and Sandalari. For many, it was as if they never happened and reading about them brought a whole new perspective to inter-communal relations. The article was met with silence from the political establishment. Only the head of the Cyprus Church had something to say, calling Politis a Greek-speaking Turkish newspaper. In the north, the authorities’ reaction to the pleas from families with missing persons was “consider them dead”. The violent conflicts of the past affected everybody and yet nobody wants to talk about it other than as a channel for political discourse.
“We must understand that we are burying our sins along with our sons. If we cannot admit that we assassinated… if we do not write the real history of the island, we are doomed to failure. We owe it to the land to find out the truth, otherwise we will make the same mistakes,” said Paraschos.
For those that know the truth, they are in a better position to make choices and act on them. During her presentation, Uluda? showed a picture of a class of Turkish Cypriot school children. Only one pupil in the photo survived the massacres of 1974. Today, that man is a peace activist. The remains of a Greek Cypriot judge were recently identified and returned to his family. The son invited Turkish Cypriots with missing relatives to lay down wreaths at his father’s coffin. Two women with missing parents, one Greek Cypriot and the other Turkish Cypriot, were brought together by Uluda?. They shared their stories of pain, hope and sorrow. Now, they meet every week. When one is sick, the other brings her soup.
Through the work of Uluda?, Paraschos and the CMP, many details of the past have come to light, but none have been published so as not to burden the work of the CMP. The missing are not forgotten.
Grandchildren of the missing take on the plight of their parents. There is much work still to be done. But one question remains unanswered: what do we want? The mandate of the CMP is to establish the fate of the missing, not to establish cause of death or attribute blame. Do we want to know the stories behind the missing? Do we want criminals on both sides to roam free or do we want justice served? Do we want truth, reconciliation and expression of remorse? Or do we just want to bury the past with our dead?
