According to the press release, the three members of the Committee held meetings in New York, Washington and Virginia, during which they briefed the UN leadership and US authorities on results achieved and remaining challenges, while areas of cooperation were identified in the fields of advanced genetic analysis, training in investigation techniques, aerial imagery and information management.

As it is noted, from 15 to 18 May, the three CMP members , Gülden Plümer Kücük, Nestoras Nestoros and Paul-Henri Arni held meetings at the UN headquarters in New York with the Chief of Staff of the Secretary-General, Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti as well as with the Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix and the Assistant-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Miroslav Jenca.

They also met with the Head of the United Nations Development Program for Europe and the CIS at UNDP, the Chief of the UN Archives Unit and experts at the Geospatial Information Section.

In Washington and Virginia, the CMP Members held constructive meetings with Jonathan Cohen, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, the FBI and Bode Cellmark anthropological and genetic laboratories, the FBI training centre, the Defence PoW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA).

“Both the UN leadership and the US authorities expressed strong support for the humanitarian work carried out by the CMP on behalf of families of missing persons. They were briefed on results achieved and remaining challenges. Areas of cooperation were identified in the fields of advanced genetic analysis, training in investigation techniques, aerial imagery and information management,” the press release concluded.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third. Hundreds of Greek Cypriots went missing during the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, most of them combatants but also women, children and elderly people. During the same period and in the early 1960 when intercommunal fighting broke out Turkish Cypriots went missing too.

A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning the remains of missing persons to their relatives.

The CMP is a tripartite intercommunal investigatory committee comprising a representative of the Greek Cypriot community, a representative of the Turkish Cypriot community, and a Third Member nominated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and appointed by the UN Secretary General.