The Committee on Missing Persons has discovered a misidentification of remains of a missing person in Cyprus.
A CMP announcement says that it has recently finalized the analysis of a set of remains that had been exhumed in 2015 and that DNA analysis of these remains, conducted by Bode Cellmark Forensics in Maryland, USA, indicated that they belonged to a person who had already been identified and returned to relatives in 2009.
This finding prompted a review of the case by the CMP with the support of Bode Cellmark Forensics to verify the DNA analysis which had been carried out by the Cyprus Institute for Neurology and Genetics (CING) in 2009.
This review has established that the conclusions provided by CING in 2009 were incorrect resulting in the misidentification of the remains.
The CMP says that it has informed the family of the missing person in question about these findings. The CMP Members have expressed their sympathy to the family and are making arrangements to return the correctly identified remains to them.
`The CMP would like to reassure all families of missing persons that it is committed to ensuring that the highest scientific standards are upheld at every stage of its operations. In this regard, a review of other relevant cases is currently underway` the press release concludes.
The Republic of Cyprus has been divided by Turkish military troops since 1974, when Turkey invaded and still occupies 37% of this EU – Mediterranean island state. A Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) was established, upon agreement between the leaders of the island`s two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning the remains of missing persons to their relatives.
According to the CMP, July 2007 marked a turning point of historical significance: the CMP began returning the first remains of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot individuals to their families.
According to CMP figures, the remains of 1192 people were exhumed by the end of 2016. Seven hundred forty missing persons were identified by December 31st, 2016.