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Friday, July 26, 2013

Commission to probe missing

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has directed Secretary to the President Lalith Weeratunga to appoint a commission to look into the incidents of disappearances that have taken place during the 30-year conflict.
The decision with regard to the terms of reference and members of the commission will be taken soon, the Presidential media unit quoted Presidential Spokesman Mohan Samaranayake as saying.
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) appointed by President Rajapaksa in May 2010 to investigate alleged human rights violations recommended to probe disappearances and alleged human rights violations during the conflict.
The Commission while stressing that Sri Lanka military has not deliberately targeted civilians recommended that the government should appoint a special commissioner to look into the alleged disappearances and provide material to the Attorney General’s Department to initiate criminal proceedings as appropriate, the Presidential media unit said.
It also said that ninety nine per cent of former LTTE cadres were rehabilitated and reintegrated into society. They were provided vocational training and the necessary tools along with monetary assistance to start their own projects.
Over 9,000 persons whose family members were killed at the hands of the LTTE were provided compensation by the government.
A panel of independent United Nations experts have begun investigating new or existing cases of disappearances in Sri Lanka and several other countries, a UN statement said last week.
The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances met in New York to review under their urgent action procedure, 17 reported cases of enforced disappearances that have occurred in the last six months, as well as more than 400 newly reported or existing cases in more than 25 countries including Sri Lanka. (Colombo Gazette)