CMP will identify number of remains by end of April

By end of April the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) will have identified a number of remains, Leonidas Pantelides, Greek Cypriot Member in the Committee told the Cyprus News Agency on Saturday.

He said that some of these remains were exhumed recently and some others a few years back.

Pantelides explained that once the remains are located and the excavations and exhumations are completed, the identification process might take a while and sometimes a few attempts are made at the laboratory before full identification is established.

He also said that the identifications to be made in the coming days were not related to any remains found in 2021.

He also said that since the families have not been notified yet, he does not want to say how many identifications will be announced or where the remains were found.

Pantelides said there was a total number of approximately 200 remains right now at the anthropological laboratory which are yet to be identified. He said some might never be identified as they might not be related to missing persons, or are archaeological findings.

He also said that in some cases there is a very small fraction of bone and no DNA can be obtained and therefore no identification can be made.

According to Pantelides the last few months no announcements were made as the work of the CMP was put to a hold due to the pandemic. But now the work has resumed and at the end of each month announcements will be made on the progress of the identification process.

He again urged people to come forward with any piece of information they have on missing persons, pointing out that any information is valuable to the CMP.

He added that there were cases where team members  start to dig at a specific location and neighbours or other interested parties come forward with some new information that might assist them in their work.

Pantelides said that most of the reports are related to the location where a missing person was last seen or was seen dead.

He also said that there were cases were the remains were reburied and only small fractions of bones are located but the CMP needs to find and exhume all of the remains so they can be given back to the families for a proper burial.