EU Parliament Rapporteur on Cyprus "MISSING" People Busuttil to EuroFora: MEPs to Visit on 19-21/12

*Strasbourg/EU Parliament/Angelo Marcopolo/- A Delegation of MEPs dealing with the tragic, curiously unsolved, and currently stalled issue of Cyprus' "Missing" People, would visit the island between December 19-21, revealed EU Parliament's competent Rapporteur, Dr. Simon Busuttil, a mainstream Member of the Bureau in the Biggest Group of MEPs (European People's Party), to "EuroFora".

Curiously, however, EU Parliament's Rapporteur on Cyprus' MISSING People himself didn't appear sure about his own participation  :  

- "I don't know, I might be" participating to the visiting team of MEPs, mainly of the Legal and Human Rights Committees, he simply told us.

- "But", at any case, "the Delegation should go, it should go", Busuttil strongly stressed twice.

Another strange point is also the fact that the already anounced visit of MEPs, (See earlier "EuroFora"s NewsReport also with other, more extensive Replies of Dr. Busutil to "EuroFora"s questions during a Press Conference that he held in EU Parliament in Strasbourg last September 2012), was now scheduled to take place "After", and "Not Before" the Next Plenary Session of December 10-13, as well as after CoE's Committee of Ministers check, on December 4 -6, also in Strasbourg, if Turkey made any progress, or not, in its obligation to implement ECHR's judgements which have condemned Ankara on Cyprus' "Missing" People, as well as when a crucial December 13-14 EU Summit in Brussels, due to examine also Turkey's compliance with its EU commitments, would have, meanwhile, ended without any chance for MEPs to be directly informed on the spot and hold any Pluralist Debate, before CoE's Ministers and/or EU Heads of State/Government take important Decisions.

Already, Turkey has pushed to exceptionally postpone almost all its EU official contacts during the July-December 2012 semester of the current Cyprus' EU Council's rotating Presidency, both vis-a-vis EU Council of Governments and EU Parliament's Joint interparliamentary Delegation, (which normally should have convened on October 2012), except from being paid more than 876 Millions € in full free Grants from EU's 2012 Budget, even in these times of Financial Crisis and hard Austerity Measures notoriously imposed to EU Member Countries' Administrations, Businesses and Citizens, including several "Freezings" and/or "Cuts" of Funds..

- "The (EU Parliament's) Delegation (due to check on the spot the current situation on the issue of Cyprus' "Missing" persons) should go (visit the island) on the 19th - 21st December" 2012, (i.e. .. long after both CoE's and EU's Highest Political Organs' scheduled Meetings and Decisions for this Year, 2012 : Comp. Supra), the competent EU Rapporteur indeed revealed to "EuroFora".
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ECHR's well established case-law, (issued mainly from Judgements concerning precisely Cyprus' "Missing" persons, further confirmed and developed also in other, more recent cases in mainland Turkey, in the Caucausus and in the Western Balkans, etc), notoriously focused on "Effective Investigations" to discover what really happened to those who have gone "Missing", find and punish all those resonsible for their enforced disappearance.

Ankara's Government has been already repeatedly Condemned by several ECHR's Judgements on cases of People gone "Missing" in Cyprus since the 1974 Turkish Foreign Military Invasion and Occupation of the Northern Territories of the island, an EU Member State since 2004, particularly for blatantly Failing to conduct any "Effective Investigation", but also for submitting the Victims' Families into "Inhuman and Degrading Treatments" even by stubornly refusing to give them serious and timely information on the real Fate of their beloved ones, while also Nobody has ever been found and punished for more than 1.500 Enforced Disappearances in Cyprus despite many Individual, Collective and even Inter-State Applications lodged in Strasbourg's PanEuropean Human Rights Court on those events triggered by the 1974 Invasion and still continuing Foreign Occupation, even if it was, meanwhile, proved, behind any reasonable doubt, that, in fact, the Turkish Army had scandalously failed in its Duty, also under International Treaties' and Humanitarian Law, to protect People taken Prisoners while Alive and Healthy, from being afterwards atrociously Killed, disarmed and defenseless, their bones hidden by having been thrown down into a deep well, according to Macabre Findings revealed more recently, on August 2009, (See relevant "EuroFora"s NewsReport : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/missingpowskilled.html ).

Recently, on June 2012, CoE's Committee of Ministers ... "underlin(ed) the Urgency to make further progress in the process of Effective Investigations into deaths of persons identified", and "called on the Turkish authorities to adopt a proactive approach as regards effective investigations into the fate of persons who are still missing", specially by "giving the CMP and investigative officers Access to all relevant information and places, in particular concerning Military Zones", and by "repl(ying) to all ...Questions raised...,", such as "the investigators’ access to Forensic Data and Evidence found and/or conserved", "while also drawing on all relevant information contained in Military Archives and reports".

But, just a week afterwards, in Strasbourg, Turkish Minister for EU affairs, Bagis, blatantly dismissed a Cypriot Woman MEP's call (Antigoni Papadopoulou-Pericleous)  to help find the Truth on Cyprus' "Missing" People, by merely shouting his rejection in an astonishingly brutal and insulting way :  - "I'm fed up ! I've had enough !" I don't wonna hear anymore about that thing !...(See relevant, previous "EuroFora"s NewsReport : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/danisheupresidencyonturkey.html)

- "Every Day that the Sun rises, as long as the Truth hasn't been revealed on what really happened to "Missing" People, and those responsible for their Enforced Disappearance haven't been found nor punished, a crime continues to be committed", had stressed in reply to an"EuroFora" question, the experienced former President of UNO's Group on "Missing" Persons at nearby Geneva, Santiago Corcuera from Mexico.

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Recently, UNO Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's Envoy on Cyprus' isssue, Australian former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, (who visited EU Parliament in Strasbourg on June 2012), didn't refuse, and, on the contrary, appeared to consider as a possibly good idea to be examined and adequately shaped, "EuroFora"s question whether it might help create more TRUST and build a Feeling of Common Belonging between Greek and Turkish Cypriots if effective Investigations (f.ex. under CoE/EU/UNO's auspices) would succeed to start unveiling the Truth on what really happened to at least certain "Missing" Persons in Cyprus, find and punish at least some among those Responsible for having committed the Worst Crimes in the Past, whoever they might be, Turks or Greeks, Turkish Cypriots or Greek Cypriots and/or other, in order to slam any Deadly, Violent Extremists, and give at least such Symbolic Assurances to the wide Majority of mainly Peaceful, Honest and Good-Willing Greek and Turkish Cypriots, (who, in fact, are, more or less, both Victims of Foreign and other violent extremists' Manipulations in the Strategic Island's Historic Past), that the European and International Community would not allow to hide odious Crimes nor a total Impunity even of the worst Criminals, and will not accept such Horrible Crimes to be ever committed again in the Future against Innocent People in a hopefully Reconciled and ReUnited Cyprus, which has also become, meanwhile, a full EU Member Country, currently even holding the rotating Chairmanship of EU Council for the period of July-December 2012. Such a possible move could be partly inspired f.ex. by the South-African example of "Truth Committees" which helped definitively overcome the Racist "AppartHeid", oppressive regime of the Past, but in a way able to respect also European Court of Human Rights' case-law on "Missing" People, which notoriously guarantees to Victims' Families to really seek the Truth and do at least an elementary Justice. (A dialectic "aufhebung" of a notoriously Tragic issue, to possibly turn, on the contrary, into a Positive Confidence-Building Measure, able to both ensure at least an elementary Human Rights' respect for all People involved, and to Guarantee that a Better common Future will never fall back victim to any kind of repetition of Crimes of the Past, but will be ensured to advance forward united together in a peaceful European country, as "EuroFora"s co-Founder has already often suggested also to various other Key CoE, EU or UNO Officials since the late 1990ies and early 2000ies, even with the Agreement of "Missing" People Families' President, Dr. Theodossiou, as he recently confirmed to us during his latest visit to Strasbourg on September 2012).

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Argentina, notoriously is one of the leading countries in the World for Crimes committed against "Missing" People even 40 or more Years ago to be Investigated, and for those responsible to be brought to Justice. But in Mexico and some other Countries, the plight of new "Missing" People re-appeared even recently, particularly close to the American border, (comp. : http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/hammarbergmissing.html ).

While the Inter-American Court has played a Pioneer role about establishing Principles on "Missing" Persons' cases, and is reportedly still keeping its non-binding but landmark standards, it's mainly the European Court of Human Rights which developed, in recent Decades in Strasbourg, mainly based on Cyprus' cases Historic precedent, a Legally Binding case-law which has, in theory, to be implemented by CoE's Member States. UNO has adopted on 2007, at nearby Geneva, a New, specific Treaty on Enforced Disappearances, which upgrades  Human Rights standards from many points of view.

So that if no real progress is done soon enough on the most long-standing and massive ECHR case of "Missing" People, that of some 1.619 Greek Cypriots who "Disappeared" since the July 1974 Turkish Foreign Military Invasion and Occupation at the northern part of the island, (among whom many seem to have been even arrested and transferred to certain Prisons in mainland Turkey), then, paradoxically, Europe's recent "advance" on Human Rights Values and Standards vis a vis the rest of the World would practically vanish, by being bypassed by Latin America and others...
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