Issuing death certificates for missing persons under discussion

Political parties are discussing a bill that would allow for the issue of death certificates for missing persons who have been identified through DNA testing as a result of the work of the Committee on Missing Persons.

The issue was discussed on Tuesday at the House refugee committee where MPs failed to reach any kind of unified consensus and plan to pick the matter up again in two weeks’ time, according to CNA.

Based on existing legislation it is impossible to issue death certificates for the missing as in many cases there are only fragments of remains and also no clear cause of death, as required by law for a death certificate.

Committee chairwoman Skevi Koukouma, an Akel MP, said the new bill would find a way to allow the issuance of a death certificate for the missing even in cases where only small fragments of bone have been found.

Koukouma said after the meeting that concerns and objections had been expressed about the bill regarding the legality of issuing a death certificate in the case where only bone fragments were found, and in some cases such fragments may be too little to even constitute proof that a person has died in that legal sense.

This was why the committee would bring the matter up again, Koukouma said.

Other MPs speaking afterwards showed their disagreement over the bill. Ruling Disy MP Kyriakos Hadjiyannis said since in many cases there is no evidence to support the death of a person still listed as missing “we do not accept that a death certificate can be issued through bureaucratic procedures”.

Diko MPs Charalambos Pittokopitis told reporters: “Among other things, they talk about death. These people did not ‘just die’. Either they have been killed in the coup or they have fallen on the battlefield defending the independence of the Republic.”

Then number of Greek Cypriots listed as missing is 1,510 of which 712 have been identified through DNA testing.