Serious doubts over Sri Lanka’s political will to find its disappeared
Sri Lanka’s president handing over the task of determining the fate of thousands of forcibly disappeared Tamils, to a group of ruling party politicians has cast doubt on the government’s political commitment to deliver justice to victims.
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PRESIDENT MAITHRIPALA SIRISENA
“There are also concerns that the appointment of this sub-committee could be a delaying tactic to further undermine the process, especially as there is no timeline given for its activities,” says the Johannesburg based International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in a press release containing damning evidence of the the dismal human rights record of two of the committee members.
Put together by ITJP, the human rights credentials of the head of the cabinet committee, Wijayadasa Rajapakshe and another member Mahinda Samarasinghe raises questions about their suitability for the job.
“Is the Sri Lanka Government serious about its Office of Missing Persons?” asks ITJP.
'Terrorist propaganda'
Most recently, Minister Samarasinghe rejected any suggestion that rebel Tamils who surrendered to the military were killed despite a member of parliament from his own party saying otherwise.
ITJP recalls that the minister has previously denounced reports of enforced disappearance as terrorist propaganda and outrightly dismissed the idea that Tamils disappeared after surrendering at the end of the civil war.
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MAHINDA SAMARASINGHE
As Human Rights Minister during the Rajapaksa Government, Mahinda Samarasinghe continuously defended their record and continues to deny state wrongdoing to this day.
“His appointment does not show political commitment to establishing the truth about enforced disappearances,” said Yasmin Sooka.
ITJP also questions the appointment of Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapaksa as head of the cabinet committee.
His record on “minority affairs, alleged support for religious extremists and intolerance of freedom of expression and homosexuality hardly make him the right person to oversee the implementation of a rights-based approach to disappearance,” says ITJP.
ITJP has already documented more than 300 cases of those who did not return after their surrender to the Sri Lankan military in 2009 May.☐