The belief that within 2023 it is possible to locate large burial sites of missing persons, is expressed by the member of the a/c side at the DEA, Leonidis Pantelidis, pointing out that “we have relatively good information on 2-3 cases, maybe more, and if we are really accurate in the information, they will make a difference in the numbers.”
“We are constantly doing a little better and I hope that in 2023 we will be more effective in identifying more people,” said Mr. Pantelidis in his statements to KYPE, when asked about the progress of the DEA project. He said that in 2022, 63 excavations were carried out by the Commission's crews, compared to 79 in 2021 and 65 in 2020. Mr. Pantelidis, underlining that the accuracy rate has significantly improved. That is, he explained,” we have found bones in 9 of the 63 digs we have done, with an accuracy rate of 14.3%. In 2021 that rate was 5%, we had 4 digs with bones and 3 in 2020 with an accuracy rate of 4.6 %”.
“So there is an improvement in the information that affects the degree of accuracy. The numbers have not increased significantly because we were finding a few people in each excavation. The largest number of people we found in a grave was four people in two or three cases. But we consciously do not neglect the cases where it can be one or two people and many times we make attempts again and again that involve one person. We have several such cases,” added Mr. Pantelidis.
He emphasized that alongside the accuracy rate, the number of people identified must also increase. “And the way to do that is to locate large burial sites,” he said.
He said that “as much as we can and dig we are satisfied because it means that we can also locate. But we would like to find more people, we still have too many missing people, the families are waiting and no matter how intensively we work with seven crews that we always have we cannot to consider that the rates at which we locate and return bones are satisfactory”.
He added that “in 2023 we hope to locate some large graves, because we have relatively good information on 2-3 cases maybe more, which if we are really accurate in the information it will make a difference in the numbers. We are more confident today that for some excavations that are in the program the information is good.”
Continuing, Mr. Pantelidis expressed the hope that, “in 2023 we will also have a significant improvement in the numbers that will reflect the greater accuracy we achieve in locating the sites because we will also attempt some of the big cases that we know are many people in one place, as a result of gatherings for example”.
He noted that currently the crews are working in Kyrenia, Paphos, Gypsum, Karmi, Assia, Dikomos, Myrtos and Agia Irini.
We hope to excavate Strovolos in 2023 and we also have 10 military sites in the occupied areas as we do every year. It has important military sites that we have requested to be excavated, but we still have no response, he added.
Regarding the problems they face, he said that over time “witnesses are lost, families are lost, the points of interest to us are altered due to residential activity, road construction activity, agricultural work, for many reasons”.
“We have the problem that we often find few bones because the graves are not as they were in their original state. Some of the burials were superficial and have been disturbed even with agricultural work and so on. The problems are a lot, but there is information,” he said.
He pointed out that there is a question of improving accuracy and explained that the more information there is, “it helps us focus more specifically on the right point.” Information, he said, “also exists from past and more recent but always when there is more information it helps so I always encourage people if they know something to tell us because combined with other things we know it can help us to locate the exact point”.
Mr. Pantelidis also said that there is cooperation with the Red Cross, which quite often sends scientists and other officials from various countries to Cyprus to see how the DEA program.