A Truth Commission for Cyprus

Establishing a Truth Commission on missing persons on Cyprus is an initiative whose time may have come. It would allow the relatives of the missing to learn the circumstances of their loved ones' deaths in the bicommunal troubles and in the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. Also, it could increase trust between the island's two communities and contribute towards ending its division.

The negotiations on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation have been stuck for years. Most parents of those who were declared missing, and about half of the women whose husbands were lost, have died. Those who are still alive, and the lost men's children, deserve to know what happened to their loved ones in the last moments of their lives. Strengthening and broadening the mandate of the existing Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP), a bicommunal body that has offered valuable service...