A total of 1,100 people, including the remains of six missing persons recently found at sites in the north, officials told parliament on Tuesday.

Speaking before the House refugee committee, Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) Leonidas Pantelides said the remains of two missing persons had recently been found in Kyra Morphou, two in Lapithos and another two in Lefkoniko.

Pantelides said in addition to the 1,100 people from the official bicommunal list of missing persons identified to date, so have 250 fallen soldiers.

“We are not finding missing persons at the rate we would like,” he said, attributing this to the limited information being provided by the Turkish Cypriot side and the movement of human remains from original burial sites.

He added that 129 excavations were carried out last year, while eight excavation teams are currently operating, seven of them in the north.

Presidential Commissioner Marios Hartsiotis told the committee that 859 of the 1,619 Greek Cypriots listed as missing have so far been identified, leaving 760 cases still unresolved.

Of those 859 identifications, 803 were carried out by CMP and 56 by the Republic of Cyprus, he said.

Hartsiotis also said that 40 of the 77 missing Greek nationals have been identified, while 18 of the 40 people who went missing during the intercommunal violence of 1963-64 have also been identified.

Hartsiotis warned that efforts to establish the fate of the missing are becoming increasingly difficult because potential witnesses are dying.

“The information we receive has begun to dry up because many people who had knowledge have passed away,” he said, adding that the Turkish side was also limiting the information it provides.

He announced that the fifth phase of examinations of skeletal remains belonging to Greek and Cypriot fallen soldiers has been completed, with further identifications expected. He also said the government is moving ahead with plans for a permanent anthropological laboratory, with cabinet expected to approve a building to house the facility in one of its upcoming meetings.

In addition, a permanent ossuary will be created for both identified and unidentified remains.

Hartsiotis said the government has allocated €1 million for specialised genetic testing of contaminated bone samples belonging to 32 individuals at the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics. Most of the remains belong to members of the Greek military contingent, Eldyk, and the first samples have already been submitted for analysis.

During the committee meeting, relatives’ organisations renewed calls for Turkey to open its military archives and allow excavations at suspected burial sites, particularly the Dikomo landfill, where relatives believe dozens of missing persons may be buried.

Hartsiotis said the government had recently completed a registry of children of missing persons following instructions from President Nikos Christodoulides. The registry has been forwarded to the labour and finance ministries to examine what financial assistance can be provided.