Nicosia, Cyprus. A total of 1,100 people on the official bicommunal list of missing persons have been identified to date, including the remains of six missing persons recently found at sites in the north, officials told parliament on Tuesday. They also said 250 fallen soldiers have been identified.
Recent findings and excavations
Speaking before the House refugee committee, Greek Cypriot member of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP) Leonidas Pantelides said the remains of two missing persons had recently been found in Kyra Morphou, two in Lapithos and two in Lefkoniko.
Pantelides said 129 excavations were carried out last year, while eight excavation teams are currently operating, seven of them in the north.
Outstanding cases
Presidential Commissioner Marios Hartsiotis told the committee that 859 of the 1,619 Greek Cypriots listed as missing have so far been identified, leaving 760 cases still unresolved.
Of those 859 identifications, 803 were carried out by CMP and 56 by the Republic of Cyprus, he said.
Greek nationals and 1963-64 cases
Hartsiotis also said that 40 of the 77 missing Greek nationals have been identified, while 18 of the 40 people who went missing during the intercommunal violence of 1963-64 have also been identified.