Victim and witness protection unit and support services:

CC to select OMP Commissioners

Cabinet has approved the setting up of an Office for Missing Persons (OMP) to help thousands of families of missing persons across Sri Lanka, to find the fate of loved ones gone missing and the circumstances under which they went missing.

"The need to set up such an office is acute, as Sri Lanka has one of the largest caseloads of missing persons in the world - the result of uprisings in the South and the war lasting nearly three decades," an official source said.

This is the first of the four mechanisms dealing with conflict-related grievances that the Government pledged to set up. Legislation will soon be presented in Parliament to make it a reality.

The new office will be set up to address the issue of missing persons after a rigorous review of best practices in Sri Lanka and across the world - including Uganda, Bolivia, Argentina, and Uruguay which have all had missing persons offices. Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Ghana and South Africa, which also had commissions that dealt with the issue of missing persons, were also studied.

The OMP will consist of commissioners and officers of the high moral integrity, constituted by President Maithripala Sirisena on the recommendations of the Constitutional Council.

It will have a victim and witness protection unit and will also provide victims access to administrative, legal and psychosocial support, when victims may require it.

"This Office will not duplicate the work of other Commissions. It will absorb previous records in to a centralized system, aiming to complete outstanding investigations and finally provide families with the answers that they have long sought," the source said.

The OMP will work in tandem with the other post-conflict mechanisms, and along with the implementation of the convention on enforced disappearances, will prevent the re-emergence of the white van culture contributing to the safety and security of all Sri Lankans.

"Sri Lanka has a long history of recognizing and assisting missing persons through ad-hocstructures. Law enforcement mechanisms have traditionally held responsibility for searching for missing persons. However, the Southern uprisings and civil war, created the need for new commissions to deal with this issue," the source said.

The 1995 Zonal Commissions, established by former President Kumaratunga, and a subsequent follow-up commission, investigated cases beginning in 1987. More recently, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) noted that the GoSL is 'duty bound' to ensure that allegations of missing persons are properly investigated. The LLRC asserts that relatives of missing persons have the right to know the whereabouts and the "truth about what happened" to their loved ones. This allows them the possibility of 'closure' and also enables them to seek appropriate legal remedies.

However, despite these Commissions, some formed in the aftermath of the LLRC recommendations where over 20,000 complaints were collected, the vast majority of these cases still remain unresolved.

"This Office will however, ensure that measures are taken and recommendations will be made, so that Sri Lankans no longer have to fear disappearance in the future," the source said.