Roundup: Cypriot authorities excavate for debris of plane downed 41 years ago

Cypriot authorities started an unprecedented excavation on Monday in search for the debris of a military plane shot down 41 years ago and the remains of several Greek soldiers killed in the crash.

The plane was a French built Nord Noratlas transport of the Greek air force which was on a stealth mission to bring reinforcements for the hard pressed Cypriot National Guard fighting superior Turkish army forces.

It had taken off at night with 28 commandos and a crew of four and was scheduled to land at the now defunct Nicosia airport which was the focus of fierce fighting.

But due to bad communications and to the battle confusion the plane was shot down by Greek Cypriot fire as it made a landing pass on the outskirts of Nicosia in the small hours of July 22, 1974.

Turkish troops landed on Cyprus on three days before in response to a coup engineered by officers of the Greek military junta in what Turkey said was a peace operation and Cypriots described as an invasion.

Excavations for the remains of about 2,000 missing people, most of them Greek Cypriots are still going on, a grim reminder of the ferocity of the fighting.

Up to now only about 500 missing people have been identified.

Twelve bodies were recovered from the wreckage site at the time, but because of continued fighting the bodies of 19 other people believed to have died in the main part of the fuselage were buried under an earth mound.

A monument in memory of those killed in the plane and other soldiers killed in action in the same region was erected later on top of the mound. The surrounding area was turned into a military cemetery for several hundred people killed in the fighting.

Presidential Commissioner for Humanitarian Issues Photis Photiou said that task will not be an easy one as the Greek military authorities have warned that explosives were carried in the plane.

"But we have a moral obligation to identify the dead and return their remains to their relatives," he said.

Actually the Cypriot government made the decision to excavate for the plane acting on a recommendation by the European Court of Human Rights, which had heard a petition filed by the families of two officers killed in the crash.

Photiou said that after a preparatory digging which will last for about a month, anthropologists under the guidance of an Australian specializing in similar tasks, will start a detailed search, removing thousands of tons of earth. Endit