In his speech at the Workshop "Missing persons, 48 years later, still waiting", organised today by the 1619 Football Academy and the Pancyprian Organisation of Relatives of the POW/MIAs, in Lefkara, Mr. Fotiou said that "the clarification of the fate of the missing and fallen with convincing and evidence and the return of the remains to their families for a dignified burial, was and is a matter of the utmost importance and priority of the respective governments of Cyprus and Greece".
He added that "the President of the Republic Nicos Anastasiades has repeatedly made public appeals to anyone who possesses evidence that can help in determining the fate of the missing persons to submit it". At the same time, he noted, "with undiminished interest and tireless efforts[/B], actions and activities are being carried out at all levels to improve the effectiveness of cooperation between the competent bodies dealing with relevant issues".
We always stress, he continued, that "it is unacceptable and inhuman for so many decades that the souls of so many of our compatriots, in Cyprus and Greece, who continue to climb their personal Golgotha without getting the answers they have been seeking for the fate of their loved ones, without having the opportunity to address their last greetings, in accordance with our faith and sacred traditions, are being tortured every day".
As Mr. Fotiou said, "at every opportunity we stress in our contacts that the decisions of international tribunals established specifically for the protection of human rights cannot be so defiantly disregarded and ignored by the occupying power".
"The international community cannot continue to tolerate Turkey's contempt for the basic principles and values of civilized humanity," he noted.
Turkey, he said, "has enormous responsibilities and obligations both for creating the problem and for perpetuating it to date. We wonder how long the international community will turn a blind eye to violations of the human rights of the missing persons and their families, violations that have been decided and defined by the institutions of the international community."
The Government, Fotis Fotiou continued, "has supported and supports in every way the efforts of the Committee of Inquiry on Missing Persons to resolve the humanitarian aspect of the problem of the missing persons. Unfortunately, the results of the exhumations in the occupied areas are not as expected," he said, noting that "the source of the problems is the refusal of the occupying power to cooperate on the issues that are an obstacle to progress," he said.
The occupation force, he said, "refuses to submit the information in the Turkish army's records on the fate of our missing persons, especially the pending cases, and continues to put obstacles and obstacles in the arbitrarily called military zones for both searches and exhumations. It still refuses to indicate the mass graves created by the Turkish army from the collections of the dead from the battlefields, while the same refusal characterizes the occupying power in revealing the new reburial sites of the remains deliberately moved by the Turkish army from the primary burial sites."
After stating that "with sincerity and goodwill our side is participating in the relevant efforts by facilitating the investigative work and making available to the Commission all the evidence at its disposal", the Commissioner for the Presidency noted that "this is not the case with the many more cases of Greek Cypriot and Greek Cypriot missing persons that are pending before the Commission".
"We acknowledge the problems that exist and that have been raised from time to time, but they are clearly subordinate in importance to those related to the lack of the required will and determination of the side involved in the disappearance of a large number of persons even after their arrest", he added.
We all understand, the Commissioner said, that "without the sincere cooperation and assistance of the occupying power, we do not expect or appreciate that progress can be made". It is for this reason, he said, "that we expect and look to the United Nations, the European Union and other countries to undertake, even now, humanitarian initiatives and actions to exert pressure on the occupying power to cooperate and finally behave as a member of civilized humanity that respects international law and human rights principles and values."
Source: CNA
Contents of this article including associated images are belongs Cyprus Times
Views & opinions expressed are those of the author and/or Cyprus Times
Source
