Appendix 3

                                                  MISSING PERSONS  

The problem of missing persons in Cyprus began in 1963 when 211 Turkish Cypriots, all civilian innocent persons, disappeared following attacks by Greek Cypriots on the Turkish Cypriot community. In 1974 a number of Greek Cypriots and more Turkish Cypriots went missing following the events in July and August in that year. This is how Sir Geoffrey Howe, a former British Foreign Secretary, described the background of the problem in a letter dated 6 March 1987.  

Thank you for your letter of 23 February, enclosing one from your constituent, Mr Neokleous. I have very great sympathy for your constituent and his family, and indeed for all those in Cyprus, from both communities, with missing relatives.

 

You asked about the background. The problem of missing persons in Cyprus began in 1963, when a number of Turkish Cypriots disappeared following attacks by Greek Cypriots on the Turkish Cypriot community. In 1974, a number of Greek Cypriots and more Turkish Cypriots went missing, following the Turkish invasion.

In 1981 the UN set up an Intercommunal Committee on Missing Persons to investigate the post-1963 and post-1974 cases. It comprises a representative of each community and an independent chairman appointed by "'the ICRC (currently Mr Paul Wurth, a retired Swiss diplomat). The Committee made an uncertain start, largely because of the hiatus which followed the death of its previous chairman. But Mr Wurth has approached his difficult task with great energy and in recent months the Committee has made steady progress.

  I expect your constituent is familiar with the work of the Committee. It can, however, only investigate cases which are put to it by the respective authorities on the island. In your constituent's case responsibility for doing so would rest with the Government of the Republic of Cyprus and - if he has not already done so - your constituent should contact them. 

We believe that the Committee is best placed to clarify the fate of the missing persons. But a resolution of this problem will depend ultimately on the political will of both sides to the dispute to achieve it.

According to the reports of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Organisation at the time, the fate of 211 Turkish Cypriots, out of over 500 who had been abducted or disappeared, remained unaccounted for. The corresponding figure for the Greek Cypriots at that time was 43.

 The Greek Cypriot administration in Cyprus which had destroyed the constitution and usurped power through the use of force in 1963 refused, for 11 years until 1974 to give any information on the whereabouts of the missing Turkish Cypriots. It did not even admit that there was such a problem at all. All the pleas of the distressed Turkish Cypriot families for information about their loved ones fell on deaf ears. And, in order to lend support to its unfounded claim that the island was peaceful prior to 1974, it has conveniently "forgotten" the 43 pre-1974 alleged missing Greek Cypriot persons and never raised these cases in any platform nor have files been submitted for investigation despite the strong demands of the Greek Cypriot families concerned.

  The new situation created by the events of 1974, which had been triggered by the Greek engineered coup against Makarios on 15 July 1974, forced the Greek Cypriot side to reverse its policy regarding the issue of missing persons. At this time, the Greek Cypriots they broke their 11 years old silence and tried to make the issue an international one but of course again for political rather than humanitarian considerations.

  The Greek Cypriot side claimed, soon after the 1974 events, that it had over 3,000 missing persons, who allegedly, were arrested by the Turkish Army and taken as prisoners to the Turkish mainland prisons. The figure was subsequently revised to 2,500, then to 2,000 and later was brought down to 1,619 to be revised downwards yet again in 1995, to 1,493. Although the official figure, as published in the Greek Cypriot Official Gazette dated 10 July 2000 is 1,493 (a footnote in this gazette states that 3 named cases have been closed and that they should be taken off the list i.e. the total should be 1,490) even today the Greek Cypriot web pages claim that there are 1,588 missing "Cypriots".

While these figures were used for propaganda purposes the actual number of cases submitted to the Committee by years are like this:

 Year Cases Total cases.Submitted submitted

Year	Cases Submitted	Total Cases Submitted
1984	108	108
1985	-	108
1986	1	109
1987	10	119
1988	71	190
1989	-	190
1990	-	190
1991	20	210
1992	-	210
1993	-	210
1994	94	304
1995	1189	1493
Toplam	1493

The reason why the Greek Cypriot administration submitted a substantial number of cases during 1995 was that the Secretary-General of the UN exerted heavy pressure for the submission of all the files. 

It should be noted that whereas all the Turkish Cypriot missing persons are innocent civilians abducted from their homes, work places, and highways and even from hospitals, more than two thirds of the Greek Cypriots listed as missing are military personnel who died or went missing during combat – during the 5 day Greek Cypriot civil war after the coup and the intervention. The remaining, about one third, represents the Greek Cypriot civil war (15 - 20 Jul 1974) casualties and victims of individual revenge killings.  

In the absence of the Greek Cypriot leader Makarios, who was in exile, soon after the coup on 15 July 1974, Mr. Clerides and Mr. Denktaş, as the respective leaders of the two sides of Cyprus, cooperated and worked hard, with assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross, to deal with all humanitarian problems including that of the missing, which confronted both communities at the time. The ad-hoc sub committee that was set up worked until the beginning of 1976 and wound up its work on.5 March 1976 having resolved practically all outstanding issues. An ICRC statement that was issued on.11 March 1976 stated that all Greek Cypriot prisoners who had been taken to Turkey temporarily to protect them against possible reprisal attacks from Turkish Cypriots to avenge their murdered families, had returned to Cyprus and released in the Greek part of the island. Makarios ignored all that had been achieved and took the issue of missing persons to the United Nations General Assembly in .1977 and in 1978 where two Resolutions were adopted calling for the setting up of a committee of investigation. Pursuant to these Resolutions, negotiations took place between the two sides under the auspices of the Secretary-General's Special Representative in Cyprus which culminated in the establishment in April 1981 of the autonomous Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) to deal with the problem. The CMP comprises one representative from each of the two communities in Cyprus and a neutral member nominated by the ICRC president and appointed by the UN Secretary General.  

Whilst it was the Greek Cypriot side who insisted on the setting up of the CMP, alleging that there were prisoners held in Turkey who should have been released, ironically it was also the Greek Cypriot side which has deliberately undermined the effectiveness of the committee in order to prolong the issue so that it could be used for propaganda against Turkey in the international arena, accusing her, unjustly, of continuing violations of human rights of Greek Cypriots.  

The negative policy of the Greek Cypriot side towards the CMP started to become obvious in 1989 when, despite the eight years that had elapsed since the Committee's establishment, it refused to submit any cases for investigation beyond the 109, which had been submitted during those years. It transpired subsequently that it had no files whatsoever for about 1000 war-dead or missing in action who were listed simply as "missing".    

The Greek Cypriot side rendered the CMP : ineffective by insisting deliberately on something that the CMP's agreed Terms of Reference did not call for. It insisted on the discovery and identification of physical remains even though all that the Terms of Reference mandated was to determine whether a person reported as missing was dead or alive. The Greek Cypriot side refused, by the use of its veto power, to allow the CMP to pronounce any Greek Cypriot person as dead despite sufficient circumstantial evidence acquired by the CMP. The reason behind this inhuman policy was to become clearer by subsequent developments.  

At the meeting of the CMP on 19 October 1989, the then Third Member, in what was a reaction to unending and unconstructive discussions at the CMP, felt obliged to make the following remark which. was obviously directed at the Greek Cypriot side. He said:  

"I am absolutely convinced that there is no hope of an agreement. We are in a stalemate. In my opinion there is sufficient information in the files to conclude at least a number of the 169 cases that have been thoroughly investigated but it seems we shall not be able to conclude even one single case." 

And, indeed, stalemate continues to this day. The Greek Cypriot approach continues to be that every missing Greek Cypriot is presumed to be alive and held in Turkey until he is either released or if alleged to be dead his remains are .. returned for identification and proper burial by the families concerned. Whereas what the Terms of Reference calls for is the determination on the basis of sufficient evidence of whether a missing person is dead or alive so as to relieve the families concerned of their agony. This unconstructive stand of the Greek Cypriot side has obviously been adopted in order to leave the issue unresolved so that it could be exploited in the international field for propaganda in callous disregard of the continued agony of the families concerned who have been led to believe for nearly three decades that their loved ones might be alive. The case of Mrs. Andrulla Palma which came to light only a few years ago illustrates dramatically the inhumanity involved. Even though it was officially known to the Greek Cypriot side that her husband had died and been buried on the Greek Cypriot side of the island in 1974, for over 23.. years she was deliberately made to believe. that he was a prisoner in Turkey and she was supposedly motivated to take part in meetings and demonstrations against Turkey in and outside Cyprus. An internationally known Greek Cypriot journalist George Lanitis who was himself fooled to write Andrulla's story for the USA press subsequently condemned the Greek Cypriot administration's propaganda machine in an article in the Cyprus Weekly on I-7 May 1998 which ended as follows:   

"She was fooled, I was fooled and many other journalists were fooled and we fooled our readers. I apologise. I acted like the rest of them, bona fide. " 

The IJN Secretary-General himself began as from 1990 to press the CMP to complete its work and addressed a number of letters to the leaders of the two sides urging them to submit all their cases to the CMP and to cooperate so that it could complete its humanitarian task without delay. The Greek Cypriot side had until I994 submitted to the Committee a total of 304 cases only i.e. 20.35o/o of their total cases. It was in the following year i.e.1995, after heavy pressure from the Secretary-General that the Greek Cypriot side submitted a further 1189 cases and quietly dropped 126 files from its original list of 1619. 

The attitude of the Turkish Cypriot side at all stages has been positive and exemplified, in a humane spirit, a readiness to cooperate to resolve the issue of missing persons. The same cannot be said for the Greek Cypriot side. This is evident from the fact that whilst it accepted as dead the 126 cases they had dropped from the original list of ·1619 without the prior discovery of physical remains, ironically they continue to insist on the discovery of remains for the determination of the fate of the I493 cases that have been submitted to the· CMP. It transpired through revelations in the Greek Cypriot press during the year 2000 that the Greek Cypriot side insists on the discovery of physical remains before closing a file ·only in those cases where in their opinion the Turkish Army might be held responsible for the deaths. In other words, the approach contravenes the letter and spirit of the Terms of Reference of the Committee article 11 of which provides that no attempt would be made to attribute responsibility for the deaths of any missing persons or make findings as to the cause of such deaths. The Greek Cypriot side's: approach is obviously politically motivated. In other words, the main criterion for submitting the case of a Greek Cypriot missing person to the CMP is political and not humanitarian. It is truly ironical that whilst they insist; without it being required by the Terms of Reference, on production of physical remains before a case file could be closed, for the 126 cases which the have closed unilaterally as dead no physical remains have been sought before they were pronounced to be dead. 

The Secretary-General of the LTN Organization finally addressed t serious letters to both sides, on the 4 April 1996 and 4 December 1996 in which he proposed specific modalities to be followed in order to secure swift progress in the work of the CMP and insisted that he would not start the process appointing a new Third Member in place of Ambassador Paul Wurth, who 1 retired in March 1996, unless the implementation of the modalities he I proposed was well under way. :