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Cyprus to increase contribution to UNDP to support CMP and intensify excavations


Government Spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis has said that the Council of Ministers approved on Tuesday an increase of Cyprus’ contribution to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) so as to support the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) and intensify the excavations to locate the missing persons.

In statements on Tuesday after a meeting of the Council of Ministers, the Spokesperson said that the Cabinet approved the increase of the contribution of the Republic of Cyprus from the year 2024 to 300,000 euro, from 175,000 euro to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in the framework of an Agreement between them, with the aim of supporting the CMP and intensifying the excavations to locate the missing persons.

The CMP, he said, began excavations and exhumations in 2006. According to the official list of missing persons of Cyprus, their total number was 2,002 (492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots).

Until today, he said, CMP teams have carried out more than 1,500 excavations through
out the island, and the remains of more than 1,205 missing persons have been exhumed. In total, 1,034 missing persons have been identified (742 Greek Cypriots and 292 Turkish Cypriots).

Furthermore, he said that in the Anthropological Laboratory of the CMP, 210 cases are under examination, while in the excavations list there are another 90 cases that are either ready or almost ready.

He also said that the annual budget of the CMP amounts to 3.2 million euro, of which 2.6 million euro, or 80%, comes from the European Union adding that the EU has granted so far more than 30 million euro.

“The determination of the Government and the President of the Republic personally to achieve the goal of ascertaining the fate of all the missing persons, remains unchanged and we will continue to strengthen our efforts and actions towards this goal,” he concluded.

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.

Source: Cyprus News Agency