The third member of the Committee of Missing Persons, Paul Henri Arni, has appealed to the EU, the two communities in Cyprus and other donors to help the CMP accelerate its work.

Henri was speaking to journalists after the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus, President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot Dervis Eroglu had visited the CMP`s Anthropological Laboratory, situated in the Nicosia Airport area, in the UN buffer zone.

The third member of the CMP thanked, on behalf of the CMP and the families of the missing persons in Cyprus, both leaders “for this unprecedented visit to the CMP”.

“It is the first time that the leaders come together to visit our lab and talk to our scientists in this bicommunal project. We feel encouraged by the interest that the two leaders have shown, they have encouraged the CMP to take steps to work faster”, he said.

He pointed out that CMP wants to accelerate its “in order to identify more remains of Cypriot victims of both communities”.

Henri Arni said that last year was “the best year so far and this year will be also a good year” but stressed that “it is not a good year for the families because we still have not found the remains of more than 1,000 people”.

“So we will take steps to accelerate access to places, to accelerate investigation, to accelerate exhumation, identification and to accelerate the return of the remains because we want to return the remains while the people are still alive otherwise it makes no sense at all”, he underlined.

He also expressed hope that “this will serve as a tool for reconciliation of the two communities”.

“For that we need money. We request, in addition to the present budget of close to 4 million euros, an additional 900,000 euros from donors from the EU, from both communities from other donors in order to help us hire most staff, mostly investigators, hire more machines that are expensive to excavate and pay the bills for genetic analysis which is growing”, he explained.

“With this we will be able to accelerate and help families put an end to this terrible suffering”, he concluded.

Meanwhile, in a press release given to journalists later on, it is noted that the CMP has exhumed the remains of nearly 1100 individuals and has identified and return to their families more than 500 of these.

However, it is pointed out that more than 1000 missing persons, both Greek Cypirots and Turkish Cypriots have yet to be found.

“Their families, 40 to 50 years after their disappearance, continue to suffer the unbearable pain of uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones”.

The press release also says that “lack of reliable information is the Committee`s biggest challenge today”, adding that “the CMP calls on all Cypriots who may have information on possible burial sites of missing persons to share this information with the CMP”.

Witnesses can request full confidentiality for any information shared with the CMP.