Turkish Cypriots bury slain villagers 33 years on

NICOSIA, July 12 (Reuters) Turkish Cypriots laid to rest today the bodies of 13 compatriots executed by Greek and Greek Cypriot militia in 1974 and now handed over by the Greek Cypriots under a UN-backed plan.

The 13 bodies were among the first to be returned to their relatives with the help of the Committee for Missing Persons.

The bodies of 15 executed Greek Cypriots have also been handed over in recent days for burial in the Greek Cypriot southern half of divided Cyprus.

In 1974, Turkish troops took over the northern part of the Mediterranean island in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens. The invasion led to killings on both sides and to the ethnic partition of the island that has lasted three decades.

''We buried them in our hearts 33 years ago, but today we can exercise one of the most fundamental human rights by burying them according to our religion and traditions,'' said Kudret Ozersay in a speech at the funeral ceremony.

Ozersay's father and three uncles were among the 13 men executed and now returned. They were all from the same village of Aleminyo, near Larnaca, in the mainly Greek south.

The 13 had officially been registered as missing, but Ozersay said the families of the men had known since 1974 that the men had been executed after being captured by Greek and Greek Cypriot militia while trying to defend their village.

FIVE MINUTES TO SAY GOODBYE Ozersay repeated the claims of witnesses, saying the bodies were bulldozed into a single mass grave near the village.

''There were witnesses, including my grandfather, who saw them lined up against a wall. Later he heard machine-gun fire,'' Ozersay said.

Ozersay described how his uncle had been taken to his wife, who was among the civilians being held prisoner by the militia, and was told to say goodbye. ''They told him he had five minutes to say goodbye to his wife forever,'' he said.

The men were buried with full military honours, but the ceremony was low-key and devoid of nationalist rhetoric.

As soldiers carried the coffins draped in Turkish Cypriot and Turkish flags to the burial site, the now-elderly wives and mothers of the dead grieved.

''My child! My Ali! How will we bear this pain?'' cried an inconsolable old woman.

The Committee for Missing Persons, formed in 1984, is charged with finding the remains of approximately 2,000 Greek and Turkish Cypriots who went missing on the island during intercommunal conflict between 1963 and 1974.

The Committee has so far unearthed the remains of 303 Cypriots, that will also be returned to their families.

Reuters AM VV2314