Relatives refusing to co-operate in DNA identification of missing

AROUND 15 per cent of relatives of missing persons have not yet donated blood for the purposes of DNA identification of remains of the 1974 war victims.

The objectors claim that giving blood is tantamount to writing off their relatives as dead and buried.

The touchy chapter follows the launching of a DNA bank on the island to identify the remains of the missing after they have been exhumed.

The DNA bank was set up following a July 1997 agreement between Greek and Turkish Cypriots to resolve the issue of the missing. This fell through early this year, obliging the Greek Cypriot side to go it alone. Efforts are currently concentrated on exhuming the remains of some 20 to 25 unknown Greek Cypriots known to be buried in the free areas.

The DNA bank is housed at the Institute of Genetics in Nicosia, and the project is headed by Dr Marios Kariolou. George Sergides, official at the Missing Persons Committee (MPC), insists that the ultimate goal is to establish the fate of all 1,618 missing persons. Recently, DNA testing carried out in the United States established the fate of Andreas Kasapis, the only missing person to be identified so far, as a casualty of war.

The MPC calls on all missing persons’ relatives to co-operate. “We are trying to convince them that giving blood does not mean that their relatives are dead,” Sergides said. “But some of them are understandably reluctant to participate for emotional reasons.”

The blood bank also welcomes blood samples from relatives of Greek soldiers who are missing since the 1974 hostilities.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.