Pierre Gentile assumed on Friday responsibilities as the new UN Third Member of the Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP). According to a press release from the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Cyprus, Colin Stewart, welcomed the arrival of Pierre Gentile, who succeeds Paul-Henri Arni. The latter concluded his assignment with the CMP in August 2023. It is noted that prior to joining the United Nations in Cyprus, Gentile, a Swiss national, was the Director of the Social Center for the Integration of Refugees (CSIR) in Lausanne. He has extensive experience with the International Committee of the Red Cross, including as Head of the Central Tracing Agency's Protection Division and as the Project Manager of the 'Health Care in Danger' project. It is stated that in welcoming Gentile, SRSG Stewart praises the CMP project, which "is an effective mechanism to identify and return the remains of missing individuals, bringing to an end the unce rtainty which has affected the families of missing persons for many years and demonstrating the good cooperation between the two communities." Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown. A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974. Source: Cyprus News Agency