Teams from the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) have been searching the site of a hotel in occupied Lapithos since Monday, after a man who worked on its construction said bones were found there and the contractor ordered them to be covered over so that building could continue.
Construction of the hotel began illegally in the late 1980s. The worker said the bones were found while work was under way and gave detailed information about the exact spot, said Leonidas Pantelides, the Greek Cypriot representative on the CMP. Efforts were made to persuade the contractor, but they came to nothing, he said.
Building later stopped because of financial difficulties, and the structure passed to a new contractor who decided to demolish it. The CMP contacted him, and he was willing to let the committee’s archaeologists monitor the demolition to try to pinpoint the spot, and then to give them access to excavate for any remains, Pantelides said.
Two teams went to the site on Monday, 2 November, and searches are continuing. “We are optimistic,” Pantelides said.
Soldiers believed buried in a well
The CMP has faced similar access problems in another case, involving eight soldiers believed to be buried in a well in the garden of a house bought illegally by a German man, who stubbornly refused permission for a search. Years later he sold the villa, and the CMP is now in contact with the new buyer to persuade him to allow an excavation. Pantelides said there was some willingness on the new owner’s part and that talks were under way.
Because the well is no longer visible, a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) will be used to scan the ground and locate where it stood.
The CMP has signed a cooperation protocol with the Cyprus Institute on the use of advanced, specialised technology. Experts from the US and Canada previously used such technology in a pilot programme and are expected to return to Cyprus to train their students in the field.
Identifications
According to updated CMP figures, 1,090 of the 2,002 Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot missing persons have been identified, 765 Greek Cypriots and 325 Turkish Cypriots. A further 217 people who are not on the CMP’s official list have also been identified.
So far in 2026, 28 people have been identified, 27 of them on the official list and one not. There were 12 identifications in 2025.
Excavations under way
In Lapithos, the first phase of a separate excavation has been completed, with two people located, and work is continuing. At Agios Georgios Spatharikou, where two Greek Cypriots were possibly buried in a well, an excavation has been completed and two bones belonging to two people were found. At Neo Chorio Kythreas, towards Mia Milia, fragments and small bones belonging to one person were found at a spot where information pointed to the burial of four or five Greek Cypriots.
Excavations at Koutsoventis, for one Greek Cypriot, and at Livadia, Famagusta, where a Greek Cypriot was believed to have been buried in a pit, were completed without finds. A large-scale excavation is also under way at Exo Metochi, where four to six Greek Cypriots are believed to be buried, though nothing has been found so far.
The Spatharikou team has moved to a well in Trikomo, where information points to the remains of three Turkish Cypriots from 1963-64 and to Greek Cypriots buried at the same spot in 1974. At Karmi, an excavation is under way in a military zone following information about the burial of one Turkish Cypriot, the second-to-last excavation in a military zone this year. The Livadia team has moved to Galateia, where excavations began on Monday, 2 November, and searches are continuing at Gerolakkos following information about a Turkish Cypriot burial from 1963-64.
Investigations have been completed for about 100 cases, which have been added to the list of sites to be excavated in the coming months, depending on team availability. About 300 more cases are under investigation.
Those killed in action
At least 550 Greek Cypriots killed in action are on a list kept by the Republic of Cyprus, but the CMP has no mandate to investigate them. Pantelides said there are three lists: this one, the CMP’s official list, and a third list of 126 names, half of whom have already been identified.
Most of those killed in action were buried at sites where missing persons may also lie, which complicates matters. Pantelides described an excavation in the Morphou area where 24 people were found, one of them buried in a coffin with an unknown person, but the CMP could not carry out an exhumation.
A Republic of Cyprus programme has carried out similar investigations for Turkish Cypriots killed in action and buried in the free areas, at the request of their families.
Pantelides said it would be useful to allow some flexibility so that a number of such cases could be included in the CMP’s work where families ask for it. The CMP is not seeking a change to its terms of reference, which would take time, he said, but a small relaxation would allow it to carry out, for example, five to ten such excavations a year.
(Information from the Cyprus News Agency)
