United for Cyprus

Forensic Anthropology

 

1,474 persons comprising of military personnel and civilians are still missing. Turkey

refuses to co-operate in ascertaining their fate, despite photographic evidence

showing many missing persons captured by the Turkish military. The original

 number of 1,619 missing has declined as the remains have been identified by the

forensic anthropology team working on behalf of the United Nations and the

Committee on Missing Persons (CMP).

 

The unsponsored CMP under which DNA identification of the remains of persons

listed as missing since the 1974 Turkish invasion and from the 1963-1967 period would

be carried out by the genetic laboratory of the International Commission on Missing

Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The first 280

exhumed bone samples, believed to belong to some 70 missing persons, were prepared

for delivery to Sarajevo, which was due to be visited by a CMP delegation .The ICMP

laboratory would carry out the DNA identification work hitherto undertaken by the

Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING). The CMP stressed that the final

identification of  the remains of missing persons would be done in Cyprus by a

bicommunal team at the CMP laboratory in Nicosia.   

 

Since 2004, the whole issue of missing persons in Cyprus took a new turn after the

CMP designed and started to implement (as from August 2006) its project on

the Exhumation, Identification and Return of Remains of Missing Persons. The whole

project is being implemented by bicommunal teams of Greek Cypriot and Turkish

Cypriot scientists (archaeologists, anthropologists and geneticists) under the overall

responsibility of the CMP. As of date, 444 identifications of Greek Cypriots have been carried out, and 138 of Turkish Cypriots.  Approximately 200 cases are in the stage of anthropological or genetic analysis, 100 Greek Cypriots missing cannot be identified and the remains of 800 missing persons are still to be located.

 

UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions adopted by numerous other international organizations as well as decisions by international courts, reflect the universal condemnation of Turkey’s invasion and all subsequent acts of aggression against Cyprus and demand the return of refugees to their homes in safety and the tracing of the missing persons and call for respect for the human rights of all Cypriots as well as for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Cyprus.

 

The European Court of Human Rights has found the government of Turkey responsible for gross and systematic violations of human rights in Cyprus.

 

Successive rounds of UN-sponsored talks between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities since 1974 to resolve the Cyprus problem and reunite the country have been undermined by Turkey, which has sought a settlement that would leave Cyprus permanently divided. The government of Cyprus and the Greek Cypriots, on the other hand, have been insisting on the genuine reunification of the island, its institutions and its economy.

 

On 24 April 2004, a proposal by the UN Secretary-General (Annan Plan V), for a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem, was put before the people of Cyprus for a vote in separate but simultaneous referenda by the two communities. A clear majority of 75.4 per cent Greek Cypriots rejected the Plan because they felt that it was not balanced and did not meet their main concerns regarding security, functionality and viability of the solution. By their vote, Greek Cypriots did not reject the reunification of Cyprus, which remains their top priority; They only rejected the particular and seriously flawed Plan, which was put before them, because it did not lead to the genuine unification of the island and the reintegration of its people, institutions and economy.