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Refugees prepare to sue over ‘unfair treatment’
By Elias Hazou
THIRTY-three years after the invasion, Greek Cypriot refugees have begun to organise, claiming they have been treated as second-class citizens.

Their target: the Cypriot state itself.

A new group calling itself the Refugee Rights Claims Movement is seeking compensation from the Republic.

Basing their argument on the principle of the “equitable distribution of burden”, the refugees say that despite the loss of property and income in the wake of the invasion, they were subjected to the same taxing obligations as non-refugees.

They say tax laws in force after the 1974 disaster – when an estimated 40 per cent of Greek Cypriot wealth was lost – did not distinguish between displaced persons and people already living in the south.

As a result, refugees bore the brunt of reconstruction in the post-war years.

Set up this week, the group aims to file class-action suits against the state. Over 200 people have filed applications in a matter of days, and the movement is expected to pick up pace.

Some see the move as a wake-up call among refugees, who feel the state has not done enough for them.

An estimated 200,000 Greek Cypriots and 50,000 Turkish Cypriots were displaced as a consequence of the invasion. Most had to rebuild their lives from scratch.

According to Pavlos Angelides, legal counsel for the movement, Greek Cypriot refugees had to pay exactly the same taxes as non-refugees, resulting in an inordinate and unfair burden on them.
But the refugees’ plight could open a whole can of worms. One of the movement’s premises is that, unlike other European countries, Cyprus does not have a wealth tax. For the most part, taxation is mostly levied on income.

Thus refugees who lost everything found themselves in a position of paying the same, or sometimes higher, taxes than people living in the south who own large tracts of land.

Angelides cited the example of a refugee, employed in the civil service, with an annual income of £25,000 and no immovable property. This person pays more in taxes than a non-refugee who has a salary of £20,000 but who owns land worth millions of pounds.

It is not clear whether the movement aims to push for the introduction of wealth tax – but doing so would no doubt rock the boat and certainly not sit well with non-refugees.

Legal circles have pointed out that the claims face an uphill struggle. For one thing, there is no legal precedent to guide the judge once the case makes it to court. Moreover, the refugees must produce a specific government action or decision which demonstrates that the state omitted to look out for their rights. That may be easier said than done.

Angelides seemed unfazed by these potential pitfalls, insisting that the equal distribution of burden among citizens is, or should be, an overriding principle in a state of law.

The actual claims expected to be filed late this year, or even next year.

Meanwhile Politis reported yesterday that the European Court of Human Rights has rubber-stamped a settlement reached by the breakaway regime’s property commission regarding a property exchange.

The case concerns a Greek Cypriot refugee who took to the commission and, instead of compensation for his property in the north, agreed to be given in exchange property in the south belonging to a Turkish Cypriot refugee.

The government does not recognise the north’s commission.

According to the report, Strasbourg has already notified the Cyprus government of the arrangement, and the Greek Cypriot refugee has been removed from the list of applicants to the ECHR.

With no shortage of controversy, the north’s property commission was established in its current form after an ECHR ruling in December 2005 said Turkey should work to provide a local remedy to Myra Arestis’s loss of her property in Varosha.

It is said around 190 Greek Cypriots have applied to the commission either to gain resettlement in their properties, secure financial compensation, or to exchange their properties in the north with abandoned Turkish Cypriot properties in the south. To this date, 18 cases have been successfully resolved, with three applicants moving back to their properties in the north, and 15 accepting financial compensation.

The appeal of the property commission in the north, and now the refugee legal action in the south, is seen by many as a symptom of the lack of hope for a political settlement.

Copyright © Cyprus Mail 2007

[paliometoxo]

so many groups and nothig ever happens in the end