No effort to politicize the missing persons issue will be accepted, Cyprus tells UN session

The issue of Missing Persons due to armed conflicts constitutes “a human tragedy that continues to affect many countries around the world, including my own country, Cyprus,” said the Representative of Cyprus, Rona Panteli, during the UN session held on the issue of Missing Persons at the headquarters of the international organization. She emphasized that the situation on the island stems from the “foreign military invasion and the ongoing occupation for five decades,” and sent the message that no attempt to turn the missing persons issue to a political one will be accepted.

“Cyprus, as a victim of foreign military invasion and continued occupation for the past five decades, continues to recall the important humanitarian issue which arises in respect of the Missing Persons. The fate of approximately 50% of the Missing Persons, both soldiers and civilians—including children, women, and elderly—remains undetermined to this date,” she said, expressing Cyprus’ support to the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) and noting that the government has increased its contribution to €4 million.

She said that Turkey, the occupying power, bears “the legal and moral responsibility to cooperate” and must “ensure immediate and unhindered access to all military areas in the occupied part of Cyprus, full disclosure to the CMP of all information in its possession… to conduct effective investigation in order to establish the fate and conditions of disappearance of all the Greek Cypriot and Greek Missing Persons”.

Cyprus called on the occupying power to “implement all relevant judgments of the European Court of Human Rights”.

“This is an open wound that will not heal until all receive answers,” Rona Panteli noted.