Disappearances

(OFFICE ON MISSING PERSONS/MEDIA RELEASE/15 January 2020) Recent media reports have claimed that the government plans to review the Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act No. 14 of 2016 (the Act) with a view to amending the same. The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) officially communicated its position by letters […]

Issuing  a statement the National Peace Council has listed three issues that can have  impact upon inter-community relations with the state. The statement says that “at this time we want to express our concerns about several matters that could potentially impact upon inter-community relations with the state. “The first is the president’s statements that development […]

Image: Minister Rajitha Senaratne with the ‘White Van’ drivers at the press conference yesterday.Picture by Kelum Liyanage. The Government will begin investigations into the rest of the murders and abductions committed during the Rajapaksa era after its affirmation in power on November 17, Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said yesterday. The […]

Image: On the International Day of the Disappeared, 30 August, Colombo. © Sunanda Deshapriya. The OMP made such progress amidst an array of challenges including lack of cooperation from key state actors and continuous efforts to deny the rights of families of the missing and disappeared, says Saliya Pieris P. C. , Chairperson, Office on Missing Persons issuing a […]

Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Presidential candidate, former Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa today dismissed allegations on LTTE cadres who surrendered to the military during the war. Rajapaksa also said that if he becomes President his Government will not recognize the UN Resolution on Sri Lanka which was passed by the UN Human Rights Council in […]

Image: Trinco Navy camp where abducted 11 youth were held. The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has decided to raise their concerns with President Maithripala Sirisena on the recent confirmation of rank granted by the Sri Lanka Navy to Commodore D.K.P Dassanayake. The former Navy Spokesman, Dassanayake is one of the main suspects connected to […]

Image: The placard asks by implication: When will you start issuing ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) ©Sunanda Deshapriya. The Government has extended, by two more years, legal provisions that enable issuance of a ‘Certificate of Absence’ (CoA) to families of war-time missing and disappeared persons. The Registrar-General’s Department issued a Gazette Extraordinary last Wednesday to extend the effective […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Sri Lanka is going into another presidential election in a few weeks with unresolved human rights issues and undelivered promises in hand. The Executive Presidency continues unabolished despite repeated promises of the presidential candidates who came to power in the last 25 years. Though the 19th Amendment to the Constitution trimmed the powers […]

Image: Sri Lanka has failed to implement many of the recommendations from the WGEID. © Sunanda Deshapriya. 2019. We thank the Working Group for its follow-up report on Sri Lanka. This month marks the two years anniversary of the legislative establishment of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). While we welcome the independent work carried out by […]

Image: Waiting for the justice for disappeared relatives © Sunanda Deshapriya. Follow-up to the recommendations made by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances in the report of its visit to Sri Lanka from 9 to 18 November 2015 (A/HRC/33/51/Add.2) 4. On 29 November 2018, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances requested the Government of Sri […]

Image; Mauri Inoka has been waiting six years for justice held a solo protest on 2nd September 2019 at the GalleFace Green, Colombo. © Sunanda Deshapriya. Quintus Colombage,Colombo. Mauri Inoka Jayasinghe sits silently under the hot sun by the side of a main road in Colombo. It is Sept. 2 and this painful experience in […]

Image: A solider having a look at (temporary) the memorial wall for the disappeared at OMP on 31 August 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya Office on Missing Persons (OMP) says the Government has failed to heed the recommendations made by them on Military and Police officers involved in enforced disappearances. According to the Chairperson of the […]

Image: Families of the disappeared gathered in front of UN, Colombo and handed over a memorandum. © Sunanda Deshapriya. August 30 was the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Despite Government figures indicating more than 65,000 complaints of disappearances in Sri Lanka, for most Sri Lankans, most media and the Government, it was just […]

Image: A relative of a disappeared writing on the memorial wall at OMP on 30 Aug 2019. © Sunanda Deshapriya. UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka- Statement on the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearances. “No-one has been forgotten” Today we stand up for the rights of the victims of enforced disappearances and their relatives. […]

By Shreen Abdul Saroor. The International Day of the Disappeared is on the 30th August and I was in Mannar when a group of mothers were preparing to show their collective resistance at Omanthai in North and Kalmunai in East. The discussion was around how safe it is to protest even though the emergency has […]

Image: General Shavendra Silva is seen at the Ampara Air Force camp in eastern Sri Lanka August 24, 2009.  © 2009 Reuters/Stringer/Files. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia Director, HRW. Sri Lanka’s President Maithripala Sirisena has appointed a general whose forces have been credibly accused of war crimes as the commander of the national army. The move would seem to confirm the […]

Lieutenant-General Silva commanded Sri Lanka’s 58th Division during the final stages of the military campaign against the LTTE rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, commonly known as the Tamil Tigers, and UN investigationshave implicated the division in alleged serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law. The UN High Commissioner for Human […]

New Delhi: India’s desire to give some breathing space to Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe found a sympathetic ear in the international community. His government is to be granted a further extension of two years to carry out key pledges on transitional justice and accountability. Just before the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) session ends […]

Image: When will Sri Lanka respond to the mothers waiting  for a decade to find answers on their disappeared children? (c) Vikalpa. (Daily Mirror 14′.03 .19) Sri Lanka will not agree to what is written in the UNHRC report and will express its opinion, Minister of Foreign Affairs Tilak Marapana told parliament today. Responding to a […]

Image; Families of the disappeared persons continue their campaign for justice.  (Colombo Gazette/March 11, 2019 ) The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) welcomes the inclusion of its interim relief proposals in the 2019 Budget. On 5 March 2019, the Government proposed the allocation of Rs. 500 million in the 2019 Budget, to provide Rs 6,000 monthly […]

(ECONOMYNEXT 02.03.19) – Former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda, who is wanted in connection with the abduction and killing of 11 young men has for the first time involved former defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa in the case, court records showed. Filing a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the prevention of his imminent arrest by the […]

Image: UNHRC, Geneva. (c) S.Deshapriya. Sri Lanka: Need for time-bound plan for implementation of commitments to the Human Rights Council February 25, 2019 Your Excellency,l We write to seek your support in ensuring that the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC or Council) adopts a resolution at this 40th session to maintain scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s […]

Image: Former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda in the middle. (ECONOMYNEXT/Feb 23, 2019) Former navy chief, Wasantha Karannagoda, has been accused of conspiracy to murder and made a suspect in the internationally-condemned killing of 11 young men a decade ago. Colombo Fort Magistrate Ranga Dissanayake impounded the retired admiral’s passport on Friday after police named him the 14th […]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Read the full report as a PDF:Sri Lanka Briefing Note No 14 Feb. 2019 In the last two months of 2018, Sri Lanka witnessed a political coup led by its President. The coup was short lived. The attempt to overthrow the democratically elected Government and bring back the authoritarian ruler, who was rejected […]

(Sunday Observer 17 Feb 2019) Right wing politicians have taken up cudgels against Navy officials testifying against senior rankers implicated in an abduction for ransom racket in 2008-2009. Investigators worry the campaign of intimidation could hamper the probe and deter key witnesses from coming forward In 2012, Naval Intelligence officer Lieutenant Commander Krishan Welagedara became […]

BY MANJULA FERNANDO. In an interview with the Sunday Observer Dr.Suren Raghawan, the first ever Northern Province Tamil Governor, spells out his aims and objectives to serve the people in the region and build bridges not only to send the farming produce from the North over to the South, but bring together the youth of […]

image: Michelle Bachelet Jeria with UNSG. Jaffna/30 January 2019. Her Excellency Michelle Bachelet Jeria The High Commissioner for Human Rights Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Palais Wilson 52 rue des Pa quis CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland. Your Excellency, Re: Your Report to the UNHRC in March 2019 on Sri Lanka We […]

Image: FMM team in front of the Human Rights Commission, Sri Lanka. Press Release/2019-01-29. The Human Rights Commission is ready to accept any basic information that could be provided in order to commence further inquiries into Assault, Killings and Disappearances of Journalists, Chairperson, Human Rights Commission, Dr. Deepika Udugama says. She stated this when she […]

“We haven’t finished excavating yet. We will continue until we get to what we call a bone-free margin, to rule out any more bones,” says W.R.A.S. Rajapaksa (Below), Consultant Judicial Medical Officer at Mannar District General Hospital.   | Photo Credit: Picasa Meera Srinivasan . The recent discovery of a mass grave in Mannar town in Sri […]

Meera Srinivasan . For Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, the new year began with two stark reminders. It was the year 1948, when young American Jesuit priest Father Benjamin Henry Miller, or Fr. Harry Miller as he was better known, arrived in Batticaloa. He spent the next seven decades here, teaching at a local boys’ school, serving […]