The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) would like to express its gratitude to the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou for kindly donating excavating equipment worth 45,000 euro, as contribution in kind, on 3 December, 2024. The equipment will contribute to the intensification of the Committee’s program for locating and identifying the remains of missing individuals bringing to an end the uncertainty which affected families for so many years.
The CMP was established in 1981 by an agreement between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot leaders, under the auspices of the United Nations. The CMP Project on the Exhumation, Identification and Return of Remains of Missing Persons in Cyprus became operational in 2006 and is co-funded by the European Union.
So far, 1,051 missing persons from both Cypriot communities have been identified and returned to their families for dignified burials.
CMP relies on donor support to implement its bi-communal project that alleviates the suffering of the concerned families.
Archaeologists Erge Yurtdas and Andreas Christou receive the key from Mrs. Rena Rouvitha Panou, Member of the Board of Trustees of Stelios Philanthropic Foundation to an excavating machine donated by the Foundation to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus.
CMP Members Pierre Gentile, Hakki Muftazade and Leonidas Pantelides thank Mrs. Rena Rouvitha Panou, Member of the Board of Trustees of Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, for the donation of excavating equipment. Present also is Mr. Jakhongir Khaydarov Head of the United Nations Development Program in Cyprus.
Mrs. Rena Rouvitha Panou, Member of the Board of Trustees of Stelios Philanthropic Foundation, delivers excavation equipment to the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus kindly donated by the Foundation.