Cyprus: Committee On Missing Persons To Convene Tomorrow

LEFKOSA - Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus will convene for its third meeting in the buffer zone in Lefkosa on Tuesday.
The Committee, which was formed to trace the whereabouts of the Turkish and Greek Cypriot missing persons, held its first meeting also in the buffer zone on August 30th, after four years of interval.
Rustem Tatar is representing Turkish Cypriot side, Elias Georgiadis is representing Greek Cypriot side and Pier Couperan is representing the U.N. in the meeting.
Tatar said that they would discuss the method to be used in researches in Tuesday`s meeting. He also noted that they did not receive an answer to the letter sent to Geneva asking for experts to work in exhumation.
The aim of the committee is to conclude researches and to close files regarding missing persons.
Turkish Cypriot side wants the Genetic Institute where DNA tests will be performed on the bodies of the missing persons, and which is based in the Greek Cypriot sector of the island, to be re-organized to gain a bi-communal structure. If this institute is not restructured accordingly, Turkish Cypriot side requests that DNA tests be performed in Turkey.
(EÖ-ULG) 06.09.2004