The Wind of Death

On the plains of Mesaoria, northwest of Famagusta, lie the three villages of Atlilar, Sandallar and Murutaga. Today there are no more than a few survivors of the massacre that probably was carried out by Greek Cypriot extremists on August 16, 1974. On this day the wind of death blew over the Mesaoria plains, when 196 men, women, children — old as well as young — were taken out from the villages to a dump to be executed. The pit that once was the villagers' mass grave is still preserved, close to the entrance road to the villages. Twenty years after this tragedy, the Civil War of Yugoslavia provided us a name for such a massacre: ethnic cleansing. When human madness excels beyond comprehension.