Sri Lankan government establishes phony Office on Missing Persons
By
Vijith Samarasinghe
21 August 2017
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena last month signed a gazette to establish an Office on Missing Persons (OMP) so as to pretend to be delivering justice for the tens of thousands of people who disappeared during the country’s three-decade communal war and civil emergencies.
In reality, this is a desperate attempt by the government to paint itself in “democratic” colouring, while protecting and further arming the same police and military forces responsible for these crimes.
More than 20,000 people, mainly Tamils, went missing during the 26-year communal war that ended in May 2009. Tens of thousands of Sinhala youth also disappeared during the suppression of rural unrest in the 1988–1990 period. These people were abducted by the security forces or associated paramilitary death squads and killed.
After signing the gazette on July 20, Sirisena tweeted: “This marks another step forward in Sri Lanka’s path to sustained peace.” UN Secretary General António Guterres commended the government, saying the decision was “an important step for all Sri Lankans who are still looking for the truth about their loved ones.” Various media outlets and “civil society” quickly endorsed the government’s claim of a victory for democracy.
Referring to the OMP, the official leader of the parliamentary opposition, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader R. Sambandan, said he “wished the issue of the missing persons would be credibly dealt with to ensure relief for the families.”
All of this is false. Establishing the OMP was a key recommendation of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution in 2015 on “Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability…