Disappearances Commission to appoint independent investigators
Thursday, 28 November 2013 00:00
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Commission rejects government recommended team of investigators led by ex-CID chief
Seeking ‘mixed’ team of investigators including lawyers, ex-cops and university students
Insists team must be credible and conduct transparent inquiries
Commission receives 8000 complaints; deadline for complaints extended
25% of complaints from Kilinochchi District
Military families also seeking missing soldiers, says Chairman
By Dharisha Bastians
The Presidential Commission to probe disappearances will appoint a special team of independent sleuths to inquire into credible complaints of missing persons in the north and east up to the end of the war in May 2009, Commission Chairman Maxwell Parakrama Paranagama said yesterday.
Independent investigators will go into complaints of missing persons in the north and east from the period 1990 to May 2009, once the Commission determines if some 8000 complaints received so far are credible, the Chairman said.
“We are looking at all options to build this team of investigators,” Paranagama told reporters at a press briefing at the Commission yesterday.
The Chairman said that in order to refer the cases for legal action by the Attorney General, the Commission had to gather evidence, which required investigative teams.
The Commission has already rejected a team of investigators suggested by the Government, headed by an ex-CID director, Commission sources told Daily FT.
“These are the people being complained about, they will not have credibility among complainants,” the sources said.
“We are insisting that this team is completely independent and credible. The criteria is twofold – that they should be independent and have experience,” Commissioner Sujatha Vidyarathne said.
Vidyarathne told Daily FT the Commission was seeking a mixed bag of investigators, comprising lawyers, retired CID officers and even university students who could carry out transparent inquiries into cases of the disappeared.
“It is most crucial that members of this team have no connection to the past,” the Commissioner explained.
The Commission has decided to extend the deadline for complaints till the end of November after requests from the north and east, Chairman Paranagama said. He said that while the Commission’s mandate was initially for a six month period, they would be seeking an extension given the volume of complaints received.
“We will take our time, we are an independent commission and this work cannot be rushed,” Paranagama said, asked about whether the Commission was under pressure to deliver a report within a specific time frame. He said the Commission would undertake field trips to all districts of the north and east once the complaints are tabulated and summarised.
“Since the most number of complaints so far are from the Kilinochchi District, our first field visit will be there,” Commissioner Mano Ramanathan told reporters.
The Commission is to hold public sittings at the District Secretariats of each affected district in the former conflict zone.
Chairman Paranagama said that the Commission had also received some 4,000 complaints from families of soldiers dead or missing in the war.
“Most of the complaints are about the final days of the war,” he said.
The Presidential Commission to Investigate Complaints of Missing Persons was appointed by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in August this year as Sri Lanka comes under increasing pressure to look into enforced disappearances both during and after the war. The three-man Commission is headed by ex High Court Judge Paranagama and includes Commissioner Sujatha Vidyarathne, a former Director General of the Census and Statistics Department and former Deputy Legal Draftsman and LLRC Commissioner Mano Ramanathan.
The Disappearances Commission was appointed in accordance with recommendations by the LLRC. Sri Lanka has over 5,000 cases of enforced disappearances, the highest number of such cases in the world, next to Iraq.
