LEFKOSA - Committee on Missing Persons (in charge of excavations and identification in order to determine the fate of missing persons in Cyprus), plans to return remains of dead people to their respective families at the beginning of October.
The committee earlier identified and returned remains of 19 Turkish Cypriots and 38 Greek Cypriots to their relatives. The remains belonging to 320 missing persons that were unearthed will also be returned to their families after the completion of the examinations.
Turkish member of the Committee Gulden Plumer Kucuk said identification was a difficult process that takes long time, noting that 3 months technical process is needed to identify each person.
Kucuk said the project envisaged an 3-5 year working, stating that their target was to find all the remains and to return them to their families.
Kucuk said identification required an important financial budget, recalling that budget of the Committee for 2007 was only 2.7 million USD.
"2 million USD of this amount is met by EU financial assistance and the rest is covered by the donations by Turkey, Belgium and the Netherlands," she said.
-EP APPOINTS RAPPORTEUR-
On the other hand, German Parliamentarian Ewa Lamp, the Rapporteur appointed by the European Parliament, (EP) is expected to travel to the island soon.
Lamp will prepare a report for the EU after participating in the works.
According to official figures, 502 Turkish Cypriots are listed as missing while number of missing Greek Cypriots is about 1468.
The committee was established in 1981 by the United Nations in order to determine the fate of missing persons.