By Jean Christou
THE UN’S representative on the Committee for Missing Persons (CMP) is acting more like a tourist than an appointed official, House President Spyros Kyprianou said yesterday.
“I’m not happy with the way the new representative of the Secretary-general is handling things,” Kyprianou said. “Apart from the fact – and without revealing too much detail – that he supports unacceptable positions… he is a tourist”.
The House President was speaking after a meeting with the Committee for the Relatives of Missing Persons, where it also emerged that President Clerides has asked UN Chief of Mission Dame Ann Hercus to take on board the missing issue as part of the new round of shuttle talks which got under way last Friday.
Kyprianou’s comments on the issue yesterday were directed at Jean-Pierre Ritter, the Swiss diplomat appointed as the UN Secretary-general’s representative to the CMP.
According to Kyprianou, since his appointment nearly six months ago for an 18-month period, Ritter has done little in his capacity as a member of the CMP.
He said Ritter was not making a “serious effort” to move things forward on the tripartite committee, which also includes one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot.
“He was only here for a few days, so his efforts are not serious,” Kyprianou said. “This is a humanitarian issue and the international community has a huge responsibility. We are not going to accept that the missing issue has reached a dead end.”
The President of the relatives’ committee, Nicos Theodosiou, said the missing issue had gone off the rails. “It appears we are not moving in the right direction, but we are not going to accept that they are dead,” he said.
“We are definitely worried with the way Mr Ritter has been handling the issue until now, and we are also worried over the long period of time he is absent from the island.”
UN sources said that since the breakdown earlier this year of a July 1997 agreement between President Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash on the missing, there was little Ritter could in fact do.
But Humanitarian Affairs Commissioner Takis Christopoulos told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that there was no connection between the continuing work of the CMP and the 1997 agreement on the exchange of information and exhumation of remains.
He said the terms of reference were still there, and that Ritter’s mandate was to continue the work of his predecessor Paul Wurth. “There are lots of cases which have not been touched yet,” Christopoulos said.
He said that since his appointment, Ritter had visited the island in July and September, staying around a week each time. He is due back on the island in the beginning of November.
Christopoulos said there had been some difficulties involving the Turkish Cypriot side, which has set a number of conditions, which the Greek Cypriot side does not agree with, before the CMP can continue its work.
