The Commission of Inquiry for Missing Persons conducted exhumations at the Paphos cemetery on Saturday, as part of the Republic of Cyprus program for exhumation and identification of remains. The exhumation is expected to be completed late Sunday.
As Xenophontas Kallis from the Investigative Committee for Missing Persons (CMP) stated to KYPE, these exhumations are related to the makeshift hospital that was set up in 1964 in Pachyammos. There was a group of volunteer nurses of the Paphos sanitary squad, which consisted of 5 people, including Dr. Mavrogenis. The hospital treated the wounded who came from the battlefields, which were very close, he explained.
On August 9, the hospital was bombed by napalm bombs by the Turkish Air Force, Mr. Kallis said, referring to a related video from the British Pathé on YouTube, entitled & # 8220; The bombing of a Greek Cypriot village & # 8221 ;. As a result of the bombing, he continued, the bodies of those in the hospital were dismembered and scattered at a distance of tens of meters from it. Then, the bones of the victims were buried in the cemetery of Paphos, where the exhumations are now taking place.
At the moment, said Mr. Kallis, there is a tomb that bears two of the five names members of the nursing team, while there are also three individual graves.
Two years ago, an excavation was carried out at the hospital in Pachyammos, where the crater was discovered, along with many bones, from which some identifications were made, including some members of the medical staff.
& # 8220; Now let's go to these exhumations, to two of the four tombs to see what's inside & # 8221 ;, he said.
He noted that the plan is to complete the exhumation at the Paphos cemetery late Sunday, while on Monday the team will go to Pachyammos, for two more cases, which are not directly related to the bombing of the hospital, but to the events of 1964 in general.
As he said, after the exhumation, the bones are transported to the anthropological laboratory, where they are cleaned and examined for age and any wounds and then samples are sent to the Institute of Genetics, to his team Mario Kariolou.
& # 8220; I hope we will have some results soon, in a month or two & # 8221 ;, said Mr. Kallis.
The Presidential Commissioner, Fotis Fotiou, speaking to KYPE, said that the exhumation & # 8220; is the continuation of the effort made to complete and complete the exhumations & # 8221; which had also started in Pachyammos.
As he said, these fallen are not in the list of the missing, & # 8220; they are fallen of both ΄63 – & # 8217; 64 and & # 8217; 74, that the relatives are looking for answers & # 8221;.
The effort that is being made, noted Mr. Fotiou, is to complete these excavations with the help of foreign experts who came to Cyprus, such as Mr. Iliopoulos.
< p class = "text-paragraph"> & # 8220; We hope that soon we will be able to give answers to the relatives & # 8221 ;, he noted, while answering the question how many people are in question, the Presidential Commissioner answered that & # 8220; no one knows , will be evident from the excavations and exhumations that will take place & # 8221 ;.
& # 8220; The program of the Republic of Cyprus is almost completed with the large mass graves in its Tomb Makedonitissas with Noratlas, with Phaethon, with the mass graves in Konstantinou and Eleni, with the mass grave in Athalassa Hospital, minimal are the pending issues of this program and within the next 1-2 months these excavations will be completed & # 8221 ;, he concluded.
KYPE
