OMP Chief urges Govt. to implement interim relief recommendations

Monday, 4 March 2019 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Chairman of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) President’s Counsel Saliya Peiris on Saturday called on the Government to implement the interim relief measures recommended by the Commission in its interim report.

Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker of Parliament

Chairman of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) President’s Counsel Saliya Peiris

At the opening of the first regional office of OMP in Matara on Saturday, the OMP Chairman highlighted the need to implement the interim relief recommended in the OMP interim report.

President’s Counsel Peiris called on the Government to implement the justice related recommendations including to suspend public officials named as suspects in criminal actions involving abductions and related crimes.

The OMP, which prepared an interim report on their work during the first six months, handed over the report to the President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in September 2018.

“As a country we have a duty to establish the truth, provide justice and fulfil the rights of the families of the missing and disappeared,” Peiris said speaking at the event.

“We have seen from recent incidents, including in Rathgama, that we must take action to ensure the non-recurrence of enforced disappearances,” he added.

He said the opening of the regional office today is not for Geneva, or for any external parties but to address the rights of the families of the missing and disappeared.

The regional office opened in Matara today under the patronage of Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker of Parliament, is the first one of twelve regional offices the OMP hopes to establish around the country.

Speaking at the event, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya said the OMP is an important institution that has been established to address the issues that affect the families of the missing and disappeared and requested all staff at OMP to treat all families humanely and respectfully with an understanding of what the families have gone through.

He said the Office for Reparations will also be established soon.

The family members of the disappeared who attended the opening welcomed the OMP to Matara and expressed their concerns. They requested that the OMP establish an external committee to monitor the progress of the Matara OMP.

Coinciding with the first-year anniversary of OMP, it will establish two offices in Mannar and Matara in the month of March.

The Regional Office in Mannar will be at No. 5 Station Road, Mannar and the Regional Office in Matara at 54, Dharmarama Road, Fort, Matara.

Minister Mano Ganesan, OMP Commissioners, and representatives of families of missing persons also participated in the occasion.