Swiss national Pierre Gentile on Friday began his duties as the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP)’s third member.
Gentile succeeds his compatriot Paul-Henri Arni, who left the role at the end of August last year.
Before taking up the role in Cyprus, Gentile had previously worked as the director of the Social Centre for the Integration of Refugees in the Swiss city of Lausanne, and also served in various roles in the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The CMP has thus far identified 52 per cent of Cyprus’ missing, with Turkish Cypriot member Hakki Muftuzade saying earlier this month that of the 2,002 Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots listed as missing, 1,051 have been identified. Of these, 756 are Greek Cypriots and 295 are Turkish Cypriots.
“The fate of 754 Greek Cypriots and 197 Turkish Cypriots remains unknown,” he added.
This relative success was praised by Arni when he left the role last year. He said Cyprus has the “second-best results in the world” regarding the search for missing persons.
There are 42 countries in the world in which there are missing persons from conflict or political violence, and Henri said in most of those, the success rate for finding their remains is below 20 per cent.
“Some are at zero per cent, some at one per cent. Georgia is at 16 per cent. Argentina, a very cold case, is at 20 per cent”, he said.
The highest rate of missing persons found is in the former Yugoslavia, with 75 per cent of missing persons now having been located.
