Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms releases interim report on missing and disappeared

The Consultations Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms, appointed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe on 26 January 2016, has released an interim report on the Office on Missing Persons Bill and Issues Concerning the Missing, the Disappeared and the Surrendered.

This interim report, released last week to legislators, is based on all written submissions received as of 17 July 2016 and consultations conducted until 8 August 2016.

This preliminary report provides a summary of submissions relating to the missing, disappeared and surrendered. It is prepared as a matter of priority in response to the Draft Bill to provide for the establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), which was gazetted on 27 May 2016.

The report aims to inform the Sri Lankan Government and the public about the consultations pertaining to the OMP and the issues of the missing and the disappeared made in the submissions received by the CTF.

According to the Chairperson of the 11-member Task Force, Manouri Muttetuwegama, the report seeks to distil the experience of a wide range of persons affected by disappearances, including those who experienced the war in their very midst in the North and East, families of servicemen missing in action, disappearances from the hill country Tamil Community, Sinhala fishermen who disappeared in waters in the North and East of Sri Lanka, disappearances attributed to the LTTE and other armed militant groups, or occurring in the context of the political violence of the 1987-1991 period.

The full report is available on http://hrcsl.lk/english/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Interim-Report-Consultatin-Task-Force-on-Reconciliation-Mechanisms.pdf.