Remains of missing to be handed over by April

THE Committee of Missing Persons (CMP) hopes to be able to return the first sets of remains to families concerned by April 2007.

The Committee, which held its last meeting of the year yesterday, said 160 sets of remains were being held at the Antropological Laboratory, built by the CMP in the United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) in Nicosia, where they are analysed and prepared for DNA tests.
An announcement said that during 2006, the Committee formalised and launched its project on the exhumation, identification and return of remains of missing persons in Cyprus.

“The project is carried out by bi-communal teams composed of both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot scientists. These teams, under the guidance of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team (EAAF), are exhuming remains all over the island, and are carrying out

anthropological analysis on the remains stored at the Anthropological Laboratory built by the CMP in the United Nations Protected Area (UNPA) in Nicosia. A bi-communal team of scientists will also carry out DNA identifications,” the announcement said.

“The CMP hopes to be able to return the first sets of remains to the concerned families by April 2007. It is in close contact with the respective family associations of missing persons,” it added.
The budget for the project in 2007 will be 2.1 million euros, much of it obtained through fund raising. The project is expected to last several years.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.