la vraie liste des perdus

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Time to sort out real list of missing

THE FAMILY of a man listed as missing since 1974, whose body was finally identified in 2000 following exhumations at a cemetery in Lakatamia, is suing the state for negligence.

Christofis Pasha was last seen in Ayios Pavlos in Nicosia on August 14, 1974. He was a reservist, who appears to have died in action. Even though his body was recovered and buried, he was listed as missing for quarter of a century. Now, the family is accusing the state of negligence, failing to take the necessary action to clarify the fate of the missing.
Without prejudging the specifics of this particular case, there is no doubt that successive governments used the fate of missing persons as one of the key weapons in their arsenal to exert pressure against Turkey in the international arena.

Indeed with the strategic cards stacked up against Cyprus, it is understandable that the Greek Cypriot side exploited the humanitarian trauma of the invasion, playing to the maximum on the human rights abuses that accompanied the tragedy. And there is no doubt that – more than 30 years on – Turkey still has questions to answer on the fate of Greek Cypriots who disappeared in the summer of 1974.

But why, for instance, did it take until 2000 for the government to publish a comprehensive list of the names of those listed as missing, with details of where and when each one disappeared? And why were exhumations not carried out earlier, given the number of unmarked and common war graves at cemeteries accessible to the authorities in the free areas?

When one of the missing – a boy of 16 – was publicly identified through DNA testing in 1999, a witness came forward to say he had known all along the youth was dead, having tended to his wounds, taken him to hospital and then been told by a doctor that he was dead. He was never approached by the authorities, and had never come forward himself, simply assuming it was known the boy was dead, as he had given nurses his identity. He had heard someone with the same name mentioned as missing, but he was listed as having been last being seen led away by the Turks, whereas he actually fell in fighting in Omorphita.

Such cases have unfortunately reinforced the suspicions that our political leaders were so keen on painting a picture of Turkey taking away Greek Cypriots who then disappeared into a black hole that they overlooked the very real humanitarian tragedies suffered by the relatives of the missing, people whose lives have been kept dangling on hold for decades.
Things may have improved in recent years, with a steady trickle of exhumations and identifications, yet still the black clad mothers are wheeled out for protests and still the slogans are mouthed in self-righteous patriotic platitudes. It is time for this to stop, time for the relatives to receive an apology, and time to step up efforts to sort out the issue once and for all.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2006