The Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) has marked International Day of the Disappeared by releasing information about its work and the continuous efforts to locate and return to the next of kin remains of persons missing in Cyprus.

As of 1 August 2011 the CMP visited 542 alleged burial sites (130 more than in August 2010), exhumed bones relating to 798 individuals (108 more than in August 2010).

A press release, issued by the Committee on the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared on 30 August 2011, said that as of 1 August 2011 the CMP conducted 472 osteological analyses at the Anthropological Laboratory, had 1,443 DNA analysis performed by the Laboratory of Forensic Genetics of the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics (CING) (256 more than in August 2010), and returned to their families remains of 297 missing individuals for a proper burial (49 more than in 2010).

The efforts of the CMP, the press release says, while it is Cypriot owned and led, are facilitated by the United Nations, supported by the international community, and enjoy robust endorsement by the leaders of the two communities in Cyprus.