Members of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) in Cyprus underlined the advantages of a coordinated mechanism in the search for missing persons, during a round table in Moscow on Thursday, June 21 and highlighted the Cyprus project.

According to a relevant announcement, the three CMP Members discussed “Coordinated multiagency cooperation in search for the Missing Persons and Identification of Dead Bodies” along with Russian experts, at the invitation of the Regional Delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Russian Federation.

Experts from the Presidential Council on Human Rights, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Emergencies as well as a chairperson of a family association and a renowned academic also shared their experiences.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.

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.