Relatives of missing persons in Cyprus were officially informed Tuesday that remains would now be tested at a laboratory in Sarajevo
The work had previously been carried out by the Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics but they failed to agree on the renewal of the contract with the Committee of Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP).
A new contract was signed this week between the UNDP/CMP and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) based in Sarajevo.
The three members of the CMP met representatives of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot organisations of families of missing persons on Tuesday, to inform them of the signing of the contract earlier in the day and that around 280 bone samples, corresponding to about 70 missing persons, would be delivered within the coming days to the ICMP genetic laboratory in Sarajevo for DNA testing.
CMP scientists will visit the ICMP to fine tune the procedures.
The ICMP genetic laboratory will start processing the samples while the CMP continues its efforts to secure copies of both Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot Family Reference Sample Databases (FRSD) from the CING in order to code them and provide a copy to the ICMP.
The ICMP was set up in 1996 to support the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It now cooperates with governments and organisations around the world in identifying missing people from conflicts.
Another copy of both FRSDs will also be kept at the CMP Anthropological Laboratory for cross-checking, since the final identifications of the missing persons will be done in Cyprus by a bi-communal team of Cypriot anthropologists and geneticists at the CMP Laboratory.
Cyprus Weekly