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The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Refugees, Internally Displaced Persons, Missing Persons and Victims Mr. Mr. Christos Christofias, Mr. George Karullas, Ms. Rita Theodorou Superman, Mr. Christos Senekis, Mr. Sotiris Ioannou, Mr. Michael Yakoumis and Mr. Kostis Efstathiou, had today, in the presence of the Speaker of the House of Representatives and Anita Demetriou, a meeting with the new Permanent Rapporteur of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) of the European Parliament on the issue of the missing persons of Cyprus, Ms. Isabel Santos. The meeting was also attended by Cypriot MEPs Mr. Loukas Fourlas and Mr. Costas Mavridis.
On behalf of all Members of the Committee, Mr. Kettiros congratulated Ms. Santos on her appointment and expressed his thanks for her keen interest in the humanitarian issue of the missing persons in Cyprus and for making a fact-finding visit to Cyprus immediately after her appointment. Kettereros pointed out that there is information and evidence of mass graves and the movement of remains of missing persons and stressed that pressure should be brought to bear on Turkey to cooperate and provide the necessary information to establish their fate. On the part of the Cypriot MEPs, it was underlined that the issue of the missing persons, regardless of whether they are Greek Cypriots or Turkish Cypriots, remains an open wound for their families, which must be healed. We are relying, they said, on the European Parliament to put pressure on Turkey to provide information on the locations of mass graves while there are still eyewitnesses, including areas designated as military zones, which the occupying army is constantly expanding, and on the movement of remains in the occupied territories. The need for Turkey to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights was also stressed, as well as the need for unanimity and unanimity of all political forces on this humanitarian issue.
Ms Santos noted that her current fact-finding visit to Cyprus, three weeks after her appointment as Rapporteur on the issue of the missing persons in Cyprus, aims to formulate as complete a picture as possible in view of the resolution she will table on this issue by the end of this year. Ms Santos noted her very good cooperation with the Cypriot MEPs, within the terms of her mandate. Describing time as the worst enemy in the efforts to establish the fate of the missing persons, Mrs Santos pointed out that the issue is mainly about the disclosure of information, on-site access and exhumations and assured that she will do everything possible within the framework of her mandate, because, as she said, establishing the fate of the missing persons will help to solve the Cyprus problem in unity and peace. In this endeavour, Mrs Santos asked for the Commission's assistance.
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