Abstract
BackgroundIn 1981, the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) was established with a clear purpose: to determine the fate of the missing Greek and Turkish Cypriots who disappeared during the periods 1963–64 and 1974. Following many years of investigations and negotiations, such as on a mutually agreed list of 2001 missing persons (493 Turkish Cypriots and 1508 Greek Cypriots), the CMP officially began its operational phase in 2006 with a small number of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot scientists.MethodsThis paper presents and analyses the development of the programme, the ways of providing assistance to other countries, and how the programme has influenced local and regional capacity. To do so, the authors performed qualitative and quantitative analyses to assess the programme accurately (annual staff numbers, annual excavations, exhumations and identifications, applied field and lab methods, internship and training programmes).ConclusionsThe results show that the CMP has established a successful humanitarian programme, serving as a model for cooperation in a post-conflict environment. Since 2006, the team of scientists has grown in both numbers and experience, while the CMP has developed into a key player in the field of human identification that is able to provide expertise and technical assistance at a regional level. Ultimately, the authors were able to elucidate the current prospects and future perspectives of the programme to provide a holistic view to readers.
Highlights
In 1981, the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) was established with a clear purpose: to determine the fate of the missing Greek and Turkish Cypriots who disappeared during the periods 1963–64 and 1974
The authors performed the following: a) Archival research regarding the specific historical background related to the CMP; b) Review of international forensic programmes to present and contextualise the CMP case; c) Qualitative analysis of the project’s establishment and development (2006–16), with the involvement of organisations such as Equipo Argentino de Antropología Forense (EAAF); d) Qualitative and quantitative analysis regarding the scientists employed by CMP, as well as the field and lab operations; e) Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the CMP’s internship and training programme; f ) Overview and discussion of the CMP’s public outreach on a local and international level
The overview of the available data has shown the following: a) the CMP has initiated the review of archival material from international and local bodies in the investigation stage, b) there has been an increase in staff numbers and an increase in field and lab teams, c) the increase in staff numbers has enhanced the capacity and multidisciplinary character of the field and lab teams, d) the increase in field teams has resulted in an increased number of annual excavations, e) the decade of CMP operations has established it as a key player in human identification, and f) the CMP has a proven that it plays a positive role in the reconciliation process in Cyprus
Summary
In 1981, the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) was established with a clear purpose: to determine the fate of the missing Greek and Turkish Cypriots who disappeared during the periods 1963–64 and 1974. Following many years of investigations and negotiations, such as on a mutually agreed list of 2001 missing persons (493 Turkish Cypriots and 1508 Greek Cypriots), the CMP officially began its operational phase in 2006 with a small number of Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot scientists. The origins can be traced back to sixteenth-century medical research on the cause and manner of death in military operations, but it was not until 1832 that scientific techniques were applied by James Marsh in solving a murder case of arsenic poisoning; this was the first true forensic sciences case. Developments in the field continued and the application of DNA analyses for Physical anthropology played an important role from the inception of the field of forensic sciences (Snow 1982). The role of physical anthropologists quickly expanded into the identification process of the dead during times of war, raising the visibility of anthropology in the forensic community (James and Nordby 2003). The World Wars had international influence, and it is not accidental that the first investigation of war crimes occurred after the end of World War I, at the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference (La Haye 2008)
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