UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed “deep appreciation” for the work of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) during a visit to its anthropological laboratory in Nicosia on Wednesday.

Guterres was briefed by the committee’s Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot and UN members on its humanitarian work before observing the scientific procedures used to identify missing persons.

“The secretary general expressed his deep appreciation for the CMP’s bicommunal operation, which locates, identifies and returns the remains of missing persons to their families,” the committee said.

It said Guterres praised the committee’s efforts to provide “long awaited answers” to families who have endured decades of uncertainty over the fate of their relatives.

He was accompanied by UN undersecretary general for political and peacebuilding affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, undersecretary general for peace operations Jean Pierre Lacroix and the UN Secretary General’s special representative in Cyprus and head of Unficyp, Khassim Diagne.

The CMP was established in 1981 under UN auspices following an agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities.

Its exhumation, identification and return of remains project became operational in 2006, with the European Union remaining its principal financial contributor.

According to the committee, the remains of 1,075 missing persons from both communities have so far been identified and returned to their families for burial.

As of June 30, a total of 1,719 of the island’s 2,002 missing persons had been exhumed. Of the 1,510 Greek Cypriots reported missing, 764 have been identified while 746 remain unaccounted for.

Of the 492 Turkish Cypriots listed as missing, 311 have been identified and 181 remain missing.

The committee continues to rely on international donor support to carry out its bicommunal humanitarian work locating, identifying and returning the remains of those who disappeared during the intercommunal violence of 1963 and Turkish invasion of 1974.