Press Releases

I welcome all of you and I feel honoured and privileged to be with you. Firstly, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the Slovak Ambassador, Mr Jan Skoda, and his colleagues for their initiative to organise this visit. Slovakia is involved in the efforts for reconciliation and peace in our country for years.

As you are aware, thousands of families in our country experience the tragedy of living with the disappearance of loved ones. It is an experience that causes much pain and uncertainty, and prevents families from living a normal life and from closing a painful chapter in their lives.

For decades now, efforts are being made for a solution to the tragic issue of the missing persons in Cyprus.  In 1981, the Committee of Missing Persons (CMP) was established under the auspices and with the participation of the United Nations.  The Committee is still in operation today.

Despite the efforts being made by the CMP and the families, the tragic issue of the missing persons in Cyprus continues to date. It is unacceptable, and I can say inhuman – after all these years – families to wait still for information on their loved ones and missing persons presumed as deceased not to being buried according to their religious customs and traditions. 

For the Government of the Republic of Cyprus the missing persons issue is humanitarian; finding all those who went missing is an aspect long due for families and the newer generations. We cannot, and we should not, allow the perpetuation of this tragedy.  Dangers are grave and clear.

The CMP is operating according to its terms of reference and on a list of missing persons agreed by its members.  There are hundreds of cases of Greek Cypriots, but also Turkish Cypriots, who, for various reasons their name is not included in the list of the CMP.  The families of these persons have exactly the same rights and exactly the same needs as the families of those who are listed as missing.  These families too want to recover the remains of their loved ones and arrange a decent funeral for them.

Due to the limitations of the CMP, my Office receives a plethora of requests from these families, asking to locate the remains of their loved ones. I have to say that these requests are submitted by both Greek Cypriots families and Turkish Cypriot families. 

My Office takes a positive approach towards the requests submitted by the families and we do anything possible to address their needs. Human pain and suffering has no difference either you are a Greek Cypriot or a Turkish Cypriot.  This is our approach and this stance guides our humanitarian initiatives.  Our aim is to give answers to as many families as possible.

The investigation and the exhumations that we are carring out in the area of the Psychiatric Hospital had a purely humanitarian character and purpose. Many families of those who have lost their life in the hospital have contacted my Office asking for our help in order to receive answers about their relatives, and to have their remains for a proper burial. We do our best to comfort the needs of the families with the same noble aims and objectives: to help the victims rest in peace and their families to have a closure. 

(ML/II)