CMP determined to use all technological means available to fulfill its mission

The Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) is determined to use all technological means and the newest methods and techniques available to locate possible burial sites of missing persons on the island, as time runs out, testimonies dwindle and relatives, one after the other, pass away.

CMP hosted four experts from the USA and Canada with their assistants who, using GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar) and ERT methods, conducted ground investigations in four areas in the Republic and the occupied areas in search for human remains from the 1974 Turkish invasion and the 1963-64 intercommunal violence.

Professor Harry Jol, from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, was in Cyprus with his student and Eric Johnson, Senior Geoscientist of the BGC Engineering company from Calgary, Canada, was also in Cyprus with an assistant. Their work is done pro bono and CMP covered their airfare and accommodation.

Jol is visiting Cyprus for the third time. CMP’s goal is to determine how reliable the methods used are in order to proceed with the acquisition of the special machines and train their archeologists in using them.

The scientists from abroad are preparing a report on their findings and depending on the results, the CMP will decide whether to proceed with excavations.

The searches on the first day were carried out in occupied Nicosia, near the prison department, where there was information about a mass burial site of Greek Cypriots from the 1974 period.

The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) learned that two mass burial sites were identified by CMP in the area in the past and there is testimony that there is also a third area, hence investigations were carried out using both methods.

The second area was Ayia Eirini village in occupied Kyrenia, towards the beach. CMP has information of two Turkish Cypriots possibly buried there in 1974.

The scientists went to the area a second time as the investigations came to some findings of soil disturbance that might indicate a burial site. The area has been excavated in the past on a large scale but without any results. But CMP believes that human remains could be buried there as the information is quite reliable.

The third research area was in Assia village in the Turkish occupied areas, between the Turkish Cypriot cemetery and the Green Cypriot one.

In older excavations carried out by the CMP there were positive results outside the Christian cemetery. The information about the specific location says that a neighbour who had a digger was collecting the bodies from the houses and burying them outside the church.

In earlier excavations, the remains that belonged to six people were located, but there are others missing and most possibly buried the same way.

CMP pursued investigations using technology because the Turkish Cypriot cemetery is being expanded and evidence may be lost from the destruction.

The fourth research point was in Athalassa, Nicosia, in an area near the park. CAN was present during the search and had the chance to talk to the scientists who explained the procedure and what they were hoping to find.

The information about the area comes from an elderly Greek Cypriot who says that two Turkish Cypriots were buried in the area in 1964.

The witness remembers that the burial was next to the road by the river, which is now dry, with points of reference the Aronas hillock.

In 2015, the witness came to the area and pointed the possible spot, but CMP’s investigations did not yield results. However, since the testimony seems reliable and research was also carried out through satellite maps that showed that there was then access for a digger to enter, the efforts were not abandoned and repeated with the two new methods.

It is worth noting that in Ayia Eirini the area is of archaeological interest and CMP scientists are therefore a bit reserved.

Last year, investigations showed soil disturbance in the area of Panagra and excavations were carried out, but they did not involve any missing persons. The use of technology strengthens the work of the CMP in other areas where there is the risk of being destroyed or distracted due to a massive construction boom.

This is the case in Strovolos for Turkish Cypriot missing persons, in Lapithos where there is a large construction development and elsewhere.

At the moment, CMP crews are working at Galateia pond in Karpasia and in the village of Komi in the north. The information is about Greek Cypriot civilians who went missing after August 1974.

Two mass burial sites were previously found in Galateia. The information says that citizens from the villages of Yialousa, Komi Kepir and Koma tou Yialou were arrested, taken for interrogation and then murdered and buried in the pond.

The lake is dry but there is mud in the subsoil and the crews prefer to work mainly during the summer or with favourable weather conditions.

Searches were carried out in the area in the past, in wells, but there had been no results.

Marathovounos and Mia Milia villages have also been searched in the past as well as a military area in Karavas, near the beach. Crews were working in Lakatameia area in the Republic in search for a Turkish Cypriot but the team will move now to Paphos as no results have been reported.

CNA spoke to Jol from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire who came to Cyprus accompanied by a student. They used equipment with the GPR method.

The ground penetrating radar uses FM radio waves just like on cell phones. The scientists are putting red waves into the ground and these reflect off changes in the subsurface.

“So often we’re looking for layers and those layers can get disturbed. So, in cases like these, we’re looking for potential burial. Just like we work on Holocaust sites, we’re looking for similar type of features that are disturbed and from those disturbances we can pass on that information to our colleagues that we work with,” he said. The professor explained that the radar system and the ERT system don’t find the barriers and excavations are needed for that.

“So what we can do is take sites and say this is not a good site to excavate because we don’t see disturbances and this site is better to excavate because we see some of those disturbances. A large part of the problem in any archaeological or excavation work is trying to eliminate the areas that most likely are not, you know, don’t have sites in those locations. So our final report that we were going to discuss, we’ll talk about areas that have more potential or less potential of for excavations in the future,” he told CNA.

He said that he is open to coming back as he has in the past because he believes it’s important to do this collaboration amongst the whole team and ultimately the team could have a system like this and they can operate on their own.

Replying to a question about how far technology could go in assisting them in this kind of searches, Jol said that right now there is a variety of different tools or technologies that are always improving.

“But it’s just like your cell phone, your cell phone is only going to work as good as the cell network. And, so, for this we have the best tools. With the equipment that we have here, it’s not going to improve significantly more just because of the frequency. Maybe it can improve on how we do some of the fine tuning and I’ve had these different tools use different tools over the years. Sometimes the older equipment is better than the newer equipment, just like the cars”, he said.

Eric Johnson, Senior Geoscientist of BGC Engineering from Calgary and his assistant are using the ERT technique. This is basically an electrical resistivity tomography and that entails putting a steel electrode and ground every 50cm and then injected current at different spacing. This allows them to image below their feet by at least 6m.

“It tells you a bit of what the material is below your feet. So, if the electricity can flow very well it’s more like silt and clay, and then if it’s resistive and there’s less electricity that can flow, it’s more like something like gravel or coarse grain material, and then it can also be other material as well. If there is disturbed material then it’s kind of full of air and it’s a little bit looser that will be resistive as well. So, what we get in our data is a cross section along the whole cable that we lay out and then we can see different zones that are resistive which might be disturbed and zone of interest,” he explains.

Johnson said that they had some zones of interest in the specific area and they will share their evidence in a report they will prepare.