Nicosia: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed his deep appreciation for the Committee on Missing Persons' (CMP) bicommunal operation, which locates, identifies, and returns the remains of missing persons to their families.
According to Cyprus News Agency, the CMP welcomed yesterday the visit of United Nations Secretary-General Ant³nio Guterres to its Anthropological Laboratory, located within the UN Protected Area in Nicosia. During the visit, the UN, Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot Members of the CMP briefed the Secretary-General on the Committee's humanitarian work. Guterres subsequently toured the laboratory, where he observed the scientific processes underpinning the identification of 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. He commended the Committee's efforts to help bring long-awaited answers to families who have endured decades of uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones."
Secretary-General Guterres was accompanied by Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, Jean Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations, and Khassim Diagne, Special Representative and Head of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus.
The CMP was established in April 1981 under the auspices of the United Nations through an agreement between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, following a call to establish a mechanism made in two UN General Assembly resolutions. The CMP Project on the Exhumation, Identification, and Return of Remains of Missing Persons in Cyprus became operational in 2006. The European Union remains the project's principal financial contributor.
To date, the remains of 1,075 missing persons from both Cypriot communities have been identified and returned to their families for dignified burials. The CMP relies on donor support to implement its bi-communal project.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. 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 to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.
According to statistical data published on the CMP website by June 30, 2026 out of 2002 missing persons 1,719 were exhumed and 1,075 were identified. Out of 1,510 Greek Cypriot missing persons, 764 were identified and 746 are still missing. Out of 492 Turkish Cypriot missing persons, 311 were identified and 181 are still missing.