New member of Committee on Missing Persons arrives in Cyprus – UN

The recently appointed third member of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus, Christopher Girod, has arrived in that country for a preliminary visit before assuming his fulltime official duties in July, a United Nations spokesman announced today.

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Cyprus, Michael Møller, will introduce Mr. Girod to the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mehmet Ali Talat today and to the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, tomorrow, the spokesman reported.

Both sides had agreed to the appointment of Mr. Girod, according to Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s latest report on Cyprus.

In that document, published late last month, Mr. Annan noted that the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus has finalized the project proposal document on the exhumation, identification and return of remains of missing persons.

“This marked the end of a lengthy process of discussions, analysis and consultations with all entities involved,” Mr. Annan wrote. “The Committee decided to place emphasis on local participation and ownership, thereby strengthening the project’s potential positive impact on the broader reconciliation process.”

The project will be launched as soon as the necessary funding has been secured, according to the report.

Recent exhumations carried out twice for capacity assessment purposes, under the supervision of an international forensic expert, brought together, for the first time, the Committee’s new bicommunal team of archaeologists and anthropologists, composed of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot scientists.