Shallow 5.3 quake in southern Peru kills at least four

Members of Peru's National Institute of Civil Defense and Peru's Air Force load a cargo plane with aid to be delivered to the Caylloma province of the Andean region Arequipa after a 5.3 magnitude shallow earthquake rocked the region, in Lima, Peru, August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo

Members of Peru's National Institute of Civil Defense and Peru's Air Force load a cargo plane with aid to be delivered to the Caylloma province of the Andean region Arequipa after a 5.3 magnitude shallow earthquake rocked the region, in Lima, Peru, August 15, 2016. REUTERS/Guadalupe Pardo

Tue Aug 16, 2016

A 5.3 magnitude shallow earthquake killed at least four people, including a U.S. tourist, and injured dozens when it rocked a copper-producing region popular with trekkers late on Sunday, authorities said.

The quake struck just 8 kilometers (5 miles) deep in the Caylloma province of the Andean region Arequipa and at least five aftershocks shook the region anew on Monday, the Geophysical Institute of Peru said. The USGS reported the earthquake as having a 5.4 magnitude.

Hundreds of houses, many made of adobe, collapsed as the tremor downed electrical distribution and phone lines in several towns, the National Civil Defense Institute (Indeci) said. Irrigation canals, health clinics, schools and highways were also damaged.

A 66-year-old U.S. man staying at a hotel in the town of Yanque was among the four confirmed casualties, according to Indeci.

The Caylloma province is home to Peru's Colca Canyon, one of the deepest in the world and a draw for trekkers.

Copper mines in Arequipa operated by Southern Copper Corp and Freeport McMoRan Inc were unaffected by the quake, representatives of both companies said.

Vice President Martin Vizcarra traveled to Caylloma to oversee the distribution of humanitarian aid as the government of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski prepared to declare an emergency in the region, state news agency Andina reported.

Local authorities were setting up tents in town squares and soup kitchens to help families left homeless, Indeci said.

The quake struck a day before the ninth anniversary of a 2007 earthquake in Peru that killed hundreds in the region of Ica.

Earthquakes are common in Peru, but many homes are built with precarious materials that cannot withstand them.

(Reporting By Teresa Cespedes, Marco Aquino and Mitra Taj; Editing by Bill Trott and Sandra Maler)

Shift workers more susceptible to infections

An often-disrupted body clock leaves a person more prone to contracting diseases than those who go to bed regularly at a ‘normal’ time

 Woman with sleep mask. Photograph: Shelly Strazis/Getty Images/Uppercut

Monday 15 August 2016

People are more susceptible to infection at certain times of the day, research from the University of Cambridge suggests.

Academics found that the body clock affected the ability of viruses to replicate and spread between cells, with those in a resting phase or with a disrupted body clock more likely to succumb to illness.

The findings, published in the Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, may help explain why shift workers, whose body clocks are routinely disrupted, are more prone to health problems, including infections and chronic disease.

When a virus enters the body, it hijacks cells to help it replicate and spread. The resources of cells fluctuate throughout the day, partly in response to our circadian rhythms – in effect, our body clock – which controls functions including sleep patterns, body temperature, our immune systems and the release of hormones.

A study of mice saw creatures infected with herpes at different times of the day, with scientists measuring levels of virus infection and spread. The mice lived in a controlled environment where 12 hours were in daylight and 12 hours were dark.

Researchers found that virus replication in those mice infected at the very start of the day – equivalent to sunrise, when these nocturnal animals start their resting phase – was 10 times greater than in mice infected 10 hours into the day, when they are transitioning to their active phase.

The experiment was repeated in mice lacking the gene Bmal1, which helps control the body clock, and they found high levels of virus replication regardless of the time of infection.

Research was conducted at the Wellcome Trust – Medical Research Council Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge.

“The time of day of infection can have a major influence on how susceptible we are to the disease, or at least on the viral replication, meaning that infection at the wrong time of day could cause a much more severe acute infection,” said Professor Akhilesh Reddy, the study’s senior author. “This is consistent with recent studies, which have shown that the time of day that the influenza vaccine is administered can influence how effectively it works.”

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When the body clock was disrupted in either individual cells or mice, researchers found that the timing of infection no longer mattered – viral replication was always high.

Dr Rachel Edgar, the first author, said: “This indicates that shift workers, who work some nights and rest some nights and so have a disrupted body clock, will be more susceptible to viral diseases. If so, then they could be prime candidates for receiving the annual flu vaccines.”

The genes that control the body clock also undergo seasonal variation and are less active in the winter months, when diseases such as influenza are more likely to spread through populations.

Researchers hope the molecular machinery of the body clock may offer the potential for new drugs to help fight infection. The research was mostly funded by the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council.

செஞ்சோலை தளிர்கள் கொடூரமாக கருக்கப்பட்ட 10 ஆவது ஆண்டு நினைவு 

 

Aug 14, 2016
யுத்தம் நடைபெற்ற காலத்தில் இலங்கை விமானப் படையினர் மேற்கொண்ட ஈவிரக்கமற்ற தாக்குதல்களுள் அனைவரது மனதையும் ஒருகணம் உலுக்கிய கோர சம்பவம் செஞ்சோலை படுகொலை. அதன் 10ஆம் ஆண்டு நினைவுதினம் இன்றாகும்.

முல்லைத்தீவு மாவட்டத்தின் வள்ளிபுனம் பகுதியில் அமைந்திருந்த செஞ்சோலை சிறுமிகள் இல்லத்தின் மீது, கடந்த 2006ஆம் ஆண்டு ஓகஸ்ட் மாதம் 14ஆம் திகதி இலங்கை விமானப்படையினர் நடத்திய குண்டுத் தாக்குதலில், கொடிய யுத்தத்திற்கு தமது உறவுகளை பறிகொடுத்த அப்பாவி சிறுமிகள் 61 பேர் கொல்லப்பட்டதோடு, 129 பேர் படுகாயமடைந்தனர். குறித்த தாக்குதலில் பலர் தமது அவயவங்களை  இழந்து வாழ்க்கையில் இன்றும் போராடிக்கொண்டிருக்கின்றனர்.

மாணவிகளான குறித்த சிறுமிகள் மீது மனிதாபிமானமற்ற வகையில் இலங்கை படையினர் நடத்திய தாக்குதலுக்கு பல நாடுகள் கண்டனம் தெரிவித்திருந்த நிலையில், அப்போதைய ராஜபக்ஷ அரசாங்கம் இதனை வேறு விதமாக குறிப்பிட்டிருந்தது.

அதாவது, செஞ்சோலை சிறுவர் இல்லம் எனும் பெயரில் புலிகளின் பயிற்சி முகாமே இயங்கி வந்ததாகவும் அங்கிருந்தவர்கள் சிறுவர் போராளிகள் என்றும் குறிப்பிட்டு வந்தது. பொதுமக்கள் மீதான ஒவ்வொரு தாக்குதலின் பின்னரும் ஒவ்வொரு கதையை புனைந்துவந்த மஹிந்த அரசாங்கத்தின் கபட நாடகமே இந்த கட்டுக்கதையென புரிந்துகொள்வதற்கு நீண்டநாட்கள் செல்லவில்லை.

பாடசாலைகள் மற்றும் சிறுவர் இல்லங்கள் மீது நடத்தப்பட்ட இவ்வாறான கோர தாக்குதல்களை தடுப்பதற்கு, ஐக்கிய நாடுகளின் சிறுவர் நிதியம் உரிய நடவடிக்கைகளை எடுக்க தவறிவிட்டதென பாதிக்கப்பட்ட மக்கள் குற்றஞ்சாட்டியிருந்தனர்.

அன்றைய தினம் துடிதுடித்து இறந்த சிறுமிகளின் ஆத்ம சாந்தி வேண்டியும் நீதி கிடைக்க வேண்டுமெனவும் வலியுறுத்தி, இன்றைய தினம் தமிழர் விரவி வாழும் வடக்கு கிழக்கின் பெரும்பாலான இடங்களில் பல நிகழ்வுகள் ஏற்பாடு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளன.
குறிப்பாக இன்று பிற்பகல் 3.30 மணிக்கு யாழ்.முனியப்பர் கோவிலடியில் தமிழ்த் தேசிய மக்கள் முன்னணியின் ஏற்பாட்டில் விசேட பிரார்த்தனை நிகழ்வு ஏற்பாடு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளமை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது

Transformation from Constitutional Disequilibrium to Sustainable Equilibrium? Is it Possible?

by Laksiri Fernando

“The Constitution doesn’t belong to a bunch of judges and lawyers. It belongs to you.” – Anthony Kennedy (US Supreme Court Judge)

( August 14, 2016, Sydney,  Sri Lanka Guardian ) Traditionally, ‘constitutional equilibrium’ talked about the balance between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Independence of the judiciary was of paramount importance. Montesquieu in his ‘The Spirit of Laws’ (1748), argued that England preserved constitutional equilibrium and thus human liberty because of separation of powers and checks and balances. While this is still valid and fundamental, there are many other aspects of constitutional equilibrium or disequilibrium that we need to be concerned about under modern circumstances.

Sri Lanka has gone through quite a number of constitutional upheavals particularly in the 1970s and in recent times. Take the recent examples of constitutional amendments of the 17th, the 18th, and the 19th. They were going back and forth, let alone the dictatorial orientation of the 18th Amendment. A primary objective of a new constitution, therefore, has to be to give some stability to the constitutional system. The rationale or the felt need for a new constitution is long standing while this is going to be the fourth constitution of Sri Lanka, if it is successful, since independence in 1948. Admittedly, therefore, there has been some continuous disequilibrium in the constitutional system in the country.

Transformation From Constitutional Disequilibrium to Sustainable Equilibrium is It Possible by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Submissions for the Public Representation Committee on a New Constitution (1) by Thavam Ratna on Scribd

Reconsidering ethnic reconciliation

By Izeth Hussain-August 12, 2016, 12:00 pm 

The essential precondition without which there can be no ethnic reconciliation worth the name is a political solution to the ethnic problem. Yet we hardly hear anything about it these days while the focus is almost entirely on ethnic reconciliation. Some time ago Tamils who seemed to be well-informed were assured that an understanding had been reached between the TNA and the Government about a political solution but nothing definite has been heard about it up to now. We all know that the problem is not so much that of reaching an understanding at an elite political level but that of selling it to the Sinhalese masses who have a deep enduring allergy to devolution on an ethic basis. So, it appears that a solution can be found only through a very radical modification of 13 A or by jettisoning it altogether. But that will not be acceptable to our Tamils who have long been fixated on the idea that the only solution has to be on the basis of a very wide measure of devolution on an ethnic basis. However the Tamils will have no alternative to accepting a solution on an entirely different basis if India agrees to that, while jettisoning 13 A altogether.

What I am driving at is that what we have on our hands is not a purely indigenous Tamil ethnic problem but an Indo-Sri Lanka Tamil ethnic problem, in which India arguably plays not an ancillary but a key role. I will refer to two recent developments as pointing to that fact. What happened recently at Jaffna University was a clash between Tamil and Sinhalese students, not an affray in which the latter were beaten up by the former. Yet the available details suggest strongly that it was a remarkably one-sided affray. The Tamil students began it all by attacking the Sinhalese ones; the latter sought to hide themselves and were ferreted out by the former; the five students who were injured, one seriously, were all Sinhalese; the student ring-leader sought by the police was a Tamil; and the Sinhalese students have been refusing to resume their studies there because of fear of further attacks. Those are the available reported facts. Assuming that they are accurate, it seems remarkable that members of the conquered, the Tamils, went on the offensive against members of the conqueror, the Sinhalese who furthermore have been relishing their triumphalist role in the North since 2009. Those remarkable facts point to the sense of strength that our Tamils as a whole seem to drive from the Tamil Nadu/ India factor: they are in a minority in Sri Lanka but they are part of a majority regionally, and that numerical disequilibrium, they seem to believe, is going to count in their favor some day – in favor, that is, of Eelam.

The other development I have in mind is the proposal of the Northern Provincial Council for a memorandum of understanding with the Government on the sharing of the Moragahakanda waters. It was the subject of a very important editorial in The Island of August 1, which I see has also been reproduced in a website. Irrigation is on the Concurrent List, a constitutionally grey area which carries much potential for contention – which in this case can be expected to assume an ethnic form. In my view it is a good example to show why devolution on an ethnic basis can be expected to aggravate the ethnic problem, not solve it. Anyway, what is of particular interest for the purpose of this article is the following sentence in the editorial about the TNA controlled NPC: "It never misses an opportunity to give expression to its antipathy towards the state and that practice has put paid to the country’s reconciliation efforts under the new government". I must add that the NPC Chief Minister in particular has acquired something like notoriety for his injudiciously belligerent posturing over the ethnic problem. That is partly an expression of a burning Tamil sense of injustice – with which I am totally in sympathy. But behind it there is also a consciousness of the power of the Tamil Nadu/India factor.

I doubt very much that India will agree to jettison 13 A unless – a very unlikely eventuality – powerful members of the international community persuade it to do so after recognizing that devolution on the basis of ethnicity will almost certainly aggravate the problem, not solve it. What options are left to us? To find the answer we have to ask what ethnic problems are about. They are about perceptions of discrimination among ethnic minorities, perceptions that they are not being given fair and equal treatment. Discrimination is the core of the problem, it is discrimination that has to be eliminated, and that can be done without resort to any devolution as in the case of immigrant minorities in the West. The Tamil objection to that is that they are not an immigrant minority in Sri Lanka but a national minority with a right to self-determination, inclusive of a right to set up a separate state. But nothing in what I am proposing precludes their engaging in a glorious struggle to exercise their right of self-determination, which incidentally the international community does not recognize as a right outside a colonial context. In the meanwhile let us proceed to enact the legislation and set up the institutions to secure their rights, as in Britain, Canada and other Western countries. There is nothing inimical to legitimate Tamil interests in what I am proposing. Let them continue their glorious struggle for self-determination; let us engage in the relatively inglorious struggle to secure for them the rights recognized by the international community.

I come now to the crucial question. The proposal I am making may be sound at a theoretical level, but will effective action be taken? I believe that attitudinal changes are necessary as a pre-condition for effective action. In my article Against nonsense on reconciliation (Island of July 30) I urged that both the Sinhalese and the Tamil sides should acknowledge their own transgressions and stop blaming only the other side. Nothing can be gained by continuing to demonize the other side. In particular I wanted the Sinhalese side to acknowledge that they were responsible for starting the war: discrimination taken to a grotesque extreme was followed by State terrorism from 1977 to 1983, which made a violent rebellion unavoidable. I want them now to acknowledge that to regard the ethnic war in terms of LTTE terrorism and nothing more than that is untenable, indeed ridiculous.

Over the decades I have written more than one article arguing that case, and I must declare that as far as I can recall I have not used the term "terrorist" about the LTTE even once. I consider that it would be superfluous to write a further article on that subject, the case being simple, straightforward, irrefutable. There are now more than a hundred definitions of terrorism, and there can be hundreds more without finality ever being reached. But there is broad consensus on one point: terrorism involves the killing of innocent civilian non-combatants. That certainly fits the Pettah bomb, the Maradana bomb, the Sacred Bo Tree massacre etc but it is ridiculous to pretend that the quarter century war consisted only of that kind of terrorist action. It was war, and the horrible truth is that it was a war of national liberation, "horrible" because the LTTE stood for the most retrograde kind of ethno- nationalism that led to the Nazis in Germany and today to the apartheid Zionists of Israel.

The preceding paragraph would explain what looks like a schizophrenic attitude among Western countries towards the LTTE: on the one hand they have been ready enough to declare the LTTE a prohibited terrorist group while on the other hand they have allowed it much latitude to carry out its operations. Most Sri Lankans see that as the expression of hypocrisy and double standards on the part of Westerners who cannot forgive us for having "won the war against terrorism" contrary to their expectations. The explanation is really this: the West recognized that the LTTE was guilty of horrendous terrorist crimes, but it also recognized the LTTE as a nationalist movement though its nationalism was of a very horrible order. Anyway the important point is that if we continue to hold that the LTTE was a purely terrorist movement, that we have had a terrorist problem and not an ethnic problem, and that the war was a war against terrorism, there will be no ethnic reconciliation, not this year nor next year, nor even in a thousand years. We need to stop nonsense about terrorism, as part of the attitudinal changes from which a political solution can grow, instead of having solutions imposed on us by ignorant interfering foreign busybodies.

izethhussain@gmail.com

CTF INTERIM REPORT: GOVERNMENT URGED TO REPEAL PTA

(A leaflet of  the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms.)

14/08/2016

Grave concerns have been expressed to the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms about on-going human rights violations in the North and East, including allegations of abductions and incidents of intimidation of victims and human rights defenders.

CTF, headed by Manouri Muttetuwegama, says the continuation of these incidents is a matter of serious concern, having a detrimental impact on the credibility of the Transitional Justice process.

The Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms has been obtaining submissions from the public in the North and East and most submissions call on the government to demonstrate its commitment to the stated goals of reconciliation, truth, accountability, justice and non-recurrence.

It is strongly and repeatedly stated in the submissions that the government must repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and must introduce legislation, to give effect to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, including the criminalisation of enforced disappearances, in addition to ensuring arrest and detention take place in accordance with the Presidential Directives issued in June 2016.

The CTF for its part has raised concerns about the impact of harassment and intimidation, and from the outset provided written instructions to the military and police to ensure that no such incidents relating to the consultations would take place and adversely impact these consultations. Fear continues to be a factor impacting consultations, including when family members are asked questions on options for justice at public meetings, as they believe that their missing family members are being held in custody and will be at risk if the family speaks out.

An overwhelming number of submissions received by the CTF articulate the need to punish perpetrators and to hold them accountable. They submit that this is the only way to ensure non-recurrence of these incidents. This was seen as particularly important for the State, as it is answerable to its citizens. It is also recommended that non-state actors responsible for disappearances are held accountable; for example, former LTTE leaders who are still alive.

Some submissions also recognise that the question of justice and accountability for disappearances is not directly addressed by the Office on Missing Persons (OMP).

The feeling is that it will merely refer cases, where it suspects an offence has been committed, to a prosecuting or law enforcement authority. Given the absence of legislation giving effect to Sri Lanka’s obligation under the International Convention on Disappearances, the lack of information about the mandate of the Special Court and the lack of trust in the Police and Attorney-General, it is seen as imperative that adequate administrative arrangements and checks are instituted to ensure independence from those actors and agencies who are implicated in enforced disappearances (e.g. TID and CID) and to foster confidence in the eyes of the families of the missing and disappeared. The nature of such administrative arrangements should be clarified before the OMP Bill is passed into law.

The CTF notes that the four Presidential Commissions of Inquiry into the Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of Persons, which were appointed in the 1990s, recommended the following: persons responsible for disappearances must be prosecuted no matter who the perpetrators are; prosecutions should not be limited to junior officers; special courts to hear disappearance cases and an Office of an Independent Human Rights Prosecutor; the recognition of the right of an aggrieved person to file a private plaint; and the establishment of a Legal Advisory Service Bureau to provide legal assistance to members of families of disappeared.

While punishment and accountability were the primary drivers of justice seeking in the submissions, some point to the need for restorative justice, where perpetrators are (including army and security officers deemed responsible) are rehabilitated. It is noted in the submissions that victims and perpetrators of disappearances live side by side, that the immensity of suffering related to disappearances must be recognised and that relationships between different communities must be rebuilt. Hence, the government must also explore restorative justice process and mechanisms .

Several submissions to the CTF refer to the importance of memory initiatives and the ways in which memory relates to transitional justice processes and practices. While memorialisation falls within the realm of reparations, it is a concept that cuts across three pillars of transitional justice i.e. the right to know, the right to justice and the guarantee of non-recurrence. It is noted that, “a sensible, sensitive, nuanced approach to memorialisation can act as a tool for reconciliation and healing”.

However, state practice of memorialisation has been selective, and more likely to erase and deny the past, propagating a lack of understanding or acknowledgment of the abhorrent nature of the crime of disappearances and its devastating effects on families, the lack of understanding that it is a crime that transcends ethnicity and is not limited to the war or a crime that came into being during the war. Furthermore, it is recommended that state practice of memory must be conducted in a strategic, sensitive and balanced manner keeping in mind that government involvement in memory initiatives can exacerbate already existing divisions between communities.

It is suggested that the State adopt a national policy on memorialisation, establish a museum dedicated to remembering the war and its impact, including disappearances, and declare a national day to remember disappearances. Submissions also recommend that the Government amend the national educational curricular, protect and reinstate monuments to remember disappearances, lift prohibition on remembering the missing and the dead in the North and the East, recognise the human suffering caused by war to all families affected in Sri Lanka, recognise the right of victim-survivors to memorialisation initiatives, and ensure the provision of state support for and facilitation of these initiatives.

http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2016/08/14/government-urged-to-repeal-pta/

Politically Powerful Must Face Punishment

By Veluppillai Thangavelu –August 14, 2016

Veluppillai Thangavelu

Those Who Wield Political Power Will Be Punished If They Deviate From Righteous Principles!

Cilappathikaram or the story of Jewelled Anklets is one of the great epics in Thamil literature written about first century AD and authored by Ilango Adikal a Jain monk. It narrates the ordinary lives of early Thamils. The story begins in the Chola Kingdom, then moves on to Pandya Kingdom and finally ends in Chera Kingdom. The epic describes the presence of King Viyabahu at the invitation of Cheran Senkudduvan propitiating a temple for Kannagi (Goddess Paththini) the heroine of the epic.

Kovalan the son of a wealthy merchant marries Kannagi the daughter of an equally wealthy merchant and the parents find them a separate house to live. However, Kovalan falls in love with a dancing girl called Madhavi leaving Kannagi to live alone. After some l years and squandering his family wealth he returns to Kannagi and apologises profusely for his shameful conduct. Penniless, Kannagi offers her precious pair of anklets filled with rubies to be sold and with the proceeds to restart his trade. Ashamed to live in the city of his birth and unable to face his parents and in-laws, Kovalan asks Kannagi to accompany him to the great city of Madurai, capital of Pandyan Kingdom.

On arrival at Madurai they found shelter in a cottage, and Kovalan went to the market to sell one of Kananga’s anklets. But the queen of Neduncheliyan, king of the Pandyas, had just been robbed of a similar anklet by a wicked court goldsmith. As fate will have it, the king was told that the thief who robbed the queen’s anklet was waiting in the market to sell it. The king without a second thought gave orders to slay the thief and bring the anklet forthwith.

There were bad omens on that day and when the news was brought to Kannagi that her husband was mistaken for a thief and was killed by guards on the orders of the king. She then goes out in search of her husband into the town. After weeping, sobbing and crying over her husband’s dead body she hastens her way to the palace addressing the king as “an unenlightened” king. By dashing the anklet to the floor and breaking it Kannagi proved to the king’s discomfiture that the anklet seized from Kovalan is filled with rubies while the anklet stolen from the queen is filled with pearls. Ilango describes the court scene thus:

When he saw it the parasol fell from his head and the sceptre trembled in his hand.

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Kasun’s will to succeed wins the day

By Nelani de Costa-2016-08-14

It was a day of celebration and festivity as hordes of University students filled the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) wearing their billowing black gowns and pink sashes, which were fluttering in the wind. They were proudly holding on to their degree certificates, which they had earned after four years of hard work, dedication and commitment. However, all their achievements paled in comparison to one special student. He was Kasun Chamara, a 25-year-old graduate affected by a rare muscle growth disorder. He earned a Bachelor of Commerce (Special) Degree from the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura.

Rare muscle growth disorder
Kasun Chamara, who is originally from Matara, now lives in Raththanapitiya, close to his University, for practical reasons. Hailing from a modest family of five, Kasun was born as the eldest of three brothers. The other two are, Thimal and Manthika. As the eldest child of his mother, Mangalika Rajapaksa and his father, K. A. Piyasiri, he was born on 25 September 1990. Weighing only one kilogram and 750 grams, he was born with a rare muscle growth disorder, where there were difficulties in the development of his muscles, thus making him differently able.

However, his parents never conceded to these difficulties and relinquished their hopes in him. They continuously aided him in his academic path, giving him all the motivation, help and encouragement he needed. His mother particularly has been the guiding light in his journey to success. She even gave up her job at a firm when he was born, to provide him with all the love, care and attention that he needed.
An education enthusiast
He has always been a child who was passionate about learning. Speaking to Ceylon Today about his love for education, as a schoolboy, Kasun said, "I have always been a very keen and enthusiastic student at school. I believe, this helped me in my endeavours to reach this very position in life. My favourite subject during my school days has always been Commerce, so I am very happy that, I was able to complete my degree in B Com (Special)."
Apart from his love for Commerce Kasun is also passionate about Cricket. In an eager tone he told Ceylon Today, "I will never miss a cricket match on TV."

After Kasun got selected to the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, his Father became the breadwinner of the family, working as a Driver at his University. His mother of course became his dedicated caretaker, carrying him in her arms to the University as she had always done during his days as a schoolboy. Kasun of course loves his mother dearly for all her sacrifices and was very keen to appreciate everything she has done for him throughout all these years.

A devoted mother
"It is my mother who has always been there for me. Throughout the period of 25 years my mother has always been the pillar of strength and motivation in my life. From my days at the Montessori up to my school days she has been carrying me. Even during my University years she was still carrying me in her arms. She is the reason why I am here today."

According to Kasun's friend Shashika Rathnayaka, Kasun is a very outgoing and friendly personality who believes in helping his friends with their studies to the best of his ability. "Kasun is like a brother to me. We met him during University and were in the same department. Whenever we talk with him we never talk about the difficulties of his condition. Actually his mother is the force behind his strength. She sacrificed a lot to get him to the position he is today."
When asked about that momentous occasion when he was finally awarded his Degree certificate, Kasun said, "I felt very happy when I received my Degree certificate. Education is the only option for me. So I am very glad that I was finally able to earn my degree."

A Positive attitude
Kasun is a confident individual with an optimistic attitude to life. He has so many hopes and aspirations including getting all the medical treatment he can, to stand up on his own two feet one day. Referring to his dreams towards his professional success Kasun said, "The most important thing now is finding a job which is the most suitable for my degree. I want to become a person who is not a burden to the society. I want to be a socially responsible person, who can give back what I have received throughout these years. My dream is to go forward in the Banking and Financial sector at present. It might change in the future."
Kasun said that he has always been a blessed individual as he has met several friends who have never discriminated against him during his school days as well as University.
Beacons of light
"It was during my University days that I received a wheelchair from a monk who studies in Korea. At University there were so many professors and lecturers who helped me out. Some of the names that I should mention here is the Vice Chancellor of our University Professor Sampath Amaratunga, the Dean of the Faculty of Management Dr. U. Anura Kumara and the Alumni Association at University. There were so many other special people who have helped me in my endeavours as well."

Challenges
Kasun said, most of the challenges he faced were physical ones. "However I did not think about them. I worked to the best of my ability trying to keep aside the pain."
With regard to his treatments Kasun said, "I underwent so many different types of treatment and exercises as a child, and up until now, to improve my condition. At present I am receiving a lot of Ayurvedic treatment and applying medicinal ointments on my body."
When Ceylon Today inquired from Kasun's mother, Mangalika Rajapaksa, about how she felt when her son finally received his Degree certificate, she expressed her joy to have witnessed his journey and for being with him every step of the way.

Everything is worth the pain
"I was overcome with happiness at that moment. I have made a very long and arduous journey to get my son here. Sometimes I have cried alone by myself when the times were too hard. It was very painful at times but now that pain has become something to be happy about. My son received a lot of help from his friends at school as well as university. I had time to myself when Kasun's friends helped him out. His friends never discriminated against him and they always treated him as a normal child."
Kasun also informed Ceylon Today that, the Minister of Health Rajitha Senaratne has personally called his mother and promised him a job and health services. Though there have not been any updates till now, Kasun said that he is very grateful to the Minister for extending a helping hand to him. 

OMP – When labels take precedence over content

Featured image courtesy IRIN News

KUSAL PERERA on 08/14/2016

On Thursday 11 August, 2016, Parliament pushed through one of the most sensitive and important pieces of legislation, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) Act amidst the most uncivilised and ugly Parliamentary behaviour. That was not how such an important bill should have been passed in Parliament. The OMP allows for a permanent mechanism to be established to investigate “missing” persons. Set without a time period, by definition it includes enforced disappearances too. That awakened the present day JVP parliamentarians after more than 25 years. The death (or murder) of their leaders Wijeweera, Gamanayake and others they realised, could be investigated too. Yet that is not why this piece of legislation is so important to post-war Sri Lanka.

“The passage of the OMP law is a huge stride forward for Sri Lanka in advancing truth and reconciliation” said Nisha Biswal, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs within hours of passing the bill, when congratulating the unity government. US ambassador in Colombo Atul Keshap lost no time either in tweeting the same. Yet a notable silence came from the Indian quarter. Neither the Colombo High Commission nor the Minister of Foreign Affairs in New Delhi hastened to congratulate the unity government.

That apart, the importance of the OMP Bill is in how it would create a genuine space for promised reconciliation on Sri Lankan ground. With the US initiated UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka at the Council’s 30th Session co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera told the general sessions on 14 September, 2015,

“From May 2009 post-conflict reconciliation eluded us as a result of the short-sighted policies and the triumphalist approach that was adopted immediately following the end of the conflict. The National Unity Government is now approaching reconciliation afresh as a matter of urgent priority”. Therefore Minister Samaraweera said, “The (present unity) Government of Sri Lanka recognises fully the process of reconciliation involves addressing the broad areas of truth seeking, justice, reparations and non-recurrence….”.

One therefore has to ask, “was the whole process of drafting the OMP Bill and adopting it in parliament, a seriously open process that allowed for confidence and trust building in post war Sri Lanka, recognising reconciliation ‘as a matter of urgent priority’ ?” The answer is “No”. The government leadership very consciously restricted the process to a closed-door exercise.

The OMP is the first of 04 such mechanisms to ensure the process of much needed and continuously talked of reconciliation. “Reconciliation” being the process of making “two opposite beliefs, ideas or conflicting situations agree to set aside differences with an understanding that leads to future compatibility, peace and stability”. In a conflict ridden, polarised post war society like ours, “reconciliation” is all about confidence and trust building, allowing social and cultural freedom and working for genuine sharing of political power.

That was what Foreign Minister Samaraweera told the UNHRC general debate and what the Sri Lankan government promised within the UNHRC Resolution 30/1. It promised a broad national consultation process of both victims and civil society in order to help design and implement these processes; a necessary pre-requisite in creating such sensitive and important mechanisms. Yet in October 29 last year, Foreign Minister Samaraweera told a select group of civil society leaders of the government’s choice, that they can have two weeks to make submissions on designing the public consultation process. That was followed by a lull during which nothing notable happened.

Almost three months later in January 2016, the government appointed an 11 member “Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms” to have national level consultations on transitional justice for reconciliation. While that cannot be called a credible task force, since what happened since January remained largely unknown to the public, the FM Samaraweera once again presented a draft to a select audience of civil society leaders in early May on what finally became the gazetted OMP Bill.

This approach of the government refused the opportunity to educate the public on understanding the necessity of an OMP and the need for a bill to establish it. It also completely denied any chance for confidence and trust building among affected families, ethnic and religious communities, trade unions, professional associations, artistes, provincial councils and society as a whole. Those in government and in the Colombo civil society circuit who were hesitant to engage in serious and open social dialogue instead resorted to “smuggling” in answers to satisfy international commitments. That gave more space for racist and extremist interpretations on both sides of the divide and also to unwarranted fears and suspicions.

The “broad national consultation process of victims and civil society” this unity government promised in establishing the 04 mechanisms including the OMP turned out a total lie in practise. While there was no broad national consultation, there was also no urgency that necessitated the bringing forward of the Parliamentary debate on the OMP bill by a fortnight. What does the government achieve by passing the bill on 11 August that it cannot achieve by passing the same bill two weeks later in late August? That unwarranted and undefined haste only led to a very serious bill being pushed through in 02 hours accompanied by howling and hooting.

It denied an open debate in parliament. Some journalists were happy to report that the “government crept through the ear of the JO”. Not that this parliament is particularly capable of serious debate. They have never proved so. Even Prime Minister Wickremesinghe has often taken time to indulge in cheap and dull jokes and slander. Yet if Parliament had an open debate, it would have compelled government leaders to answer questions raised, clarify issues that were misinterpreted in media and in society by extremist elements and justify the need of having an OMP permanently when there’s a promise to have measures adopted that would ensure “non recurrence”. Though for the government and the TNA leadership such debate was not necessary, they are necessary and important for the public to know what took place and why.

The bill now carries with it the danger of being implemented as decided by the Southern Sinhala ideologies and not by its provisions. The Joint Opposition (JO) and Rajapaksa’s SLFP will continue to exploit unfounded and continuously sloganised Sinhala supremacist arguments against the OMP Bill that the government would continue to dodge. All such anti OMP campaigns would allow State security forces to continue with their interpretations of “national security” from a Sinhala ideological standpoint and push President Sirisena to further compromise on demands for undeclared immunity for “war heroes”. On that, this “unity government” has always been as Sinhala-centric as Rajapaksa was. Wickremesinghe has always given into Sirisena on “requests pandering to the Sinhalese community” and would never gamble on his premiership for the sake of affected families.

Despite promises and rhetoric by government leaders such unwritten compromises by Sirisena-Wickremesinghe leadership would leave the OMP vulnerable to Sinhala nationalist pressure and another usual Commissions of Inquiry (CoI). It would also push the JVP into a quandary having decided to request an investigation into the deaths of their leaders, after over 25 years. The JVP would never challenge the status of “war heroes” enjoying immunity against investigations on war crimes.

But for the North and the East, they cannot afford to allow this “opportunity” to go without being tested and with demands for purposeful and effective investigations. For which the North and East would want at least major contradictions removed and safeguards strengthened.

• Exemption from RTI is one important amendment the affected families would want clarified. They would want the right to know how far their complaint had been investigated into and if there are delays, why these have occurred. They may want other information regarding the investigation too that the RTI Act allows without compromising “national security” and third party sources. The South could also see in it the possibility of this setting a precedent to have similar clauses in all future bills passed, making the RTI Act irrelevant. [Editor’s note: The media has since reported that the RTI will only not apply to information communicated confidentially]
• Affected families especially in North and East will have a major issue with the “victim and witness” protection system and on how effective it would be. The National Authority (NA) established for that purpose on January 08 (2016) under the provisions of the “Assistance to and Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act, No. 4 of 2015” does not hold any trust as it is. Some ex officio members in the NA have been notoriously and savagely anti witness in their duties. An experience of those who went before the Udalagama Commission. Located in Denzil Kobbekaduwa Mawatha, Battaramulla and not publicly known either, the NA is without immediate reach to the provinces. In the North and East witnesses are under surveillance of military and police intelligence personnel. In the past, going before 03 previous CoI’s, they have had their share of intimidations and harassment. Trust in these mechanisms could have been built, if affected parties were allowed good representation in the drafting of the OMP bill. Not given such responsibility within the process of drafting, they wouldn’t trust any of them with the government pushing things through for the sake of having a name boards.
• 
  
• The PTA the government promised to repeal is one more issue the North and the East is facing with adverse impacts. This obnoxious piece of legislation could be used to threaten and silence witnesses evading the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses Act. It is therefore important to have the PTA repealed before the OMP is established.

The TNA leadership could have if they wanted to, prevailed upon the government leadership to have at least a serious parliamentary debate. They could have then taken up these issues and even moved required amendments. They like the government leaders were only eager to have the bill passed. It seems the TNA leadership has mixed up their political responsibilities. These were therefore not taken care of by the TNA leadership that should first stand with the Tamil people who voted them to parliament, before they stand with this government. It thus becomes the responsibility of the affected families and others interested in genuine reconciliation to keep pressure on the government to see if these could be straightened out for the benefit of all people.

[Readers who found this enlightening may also want to view our video interviews on the process of setting up the OMP and Professor Ronald Slye’s lecture on crafting a coherent transitional justice process.]

OMP IS VERY IMPORTANT ELEMENT OF THE COUNTRY’S TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE PROCESS – NPC

13/08/2016

The passage of the Office of Missing Persons bill (OMP), albeit in controversial circumstances in Parliament, augers well for the forward movement of the reconciliation process. The National Peace Council welcomes the new law, and the legal foundation of the first of the four transitional justice mechanisms that the government has pledged to establish. We are disappointed that the Joint Opposition members failed to cooperate with the parliamentary process, and refused to debate the new law according to the agreed schedule in parliament. It was unfortunate that those who were human rights champions in the 1980 and 1990s, and widely admired for this, displayed their opposition to OMP by word and deed.

The underlying rationale of the OMP is that people need to know what happened to their loved ones so that they can stop the endless search for them. It is to help them to end the search, and to bring closure to that open wound that exists in the body politic. The purpose of the OMP is to find out what happened to those missing that stretch back decades and the insurrections that took place in the South of the country and were bloodily suppressed. The OMP law constitutes the maximum effort that the Sri Lankan state can take to find out where they are if they are living and if not living what happened to them. This is why evidence that is not admissible in courts of law is admissible in the OMP investigation. This is also why evidence that is confidential is permissible, which even the Right to Information Act cannot access.

We note that the OMP is a very important element of the country’s transitional justice process and the set of institutions and measures outlined the government. But it is only one part of the process of transitional justice. After the successful passage of the OMP bill in parliament, government spokespersons have said that the government would set up a Truth Commission, a judicial mechanism to deal with accountability (and punishment) issues and an office of reparations. We believe that these additional mechanisms that the government has still to set up will offer more avenues for truth and accountability seeking. Truth, justice and reconciliation will be delivered via the totality of these bodies, and not just the OMP. We call on the government, opposition and society at large to cooperate in the implementation of the OMP and the setting up of the other transitional justice mechanisms so that the past does not stand in the way of Sri Lanka’s future as a just, peaceful and developed society.

-National Peace Counci

Sri Lanka: Healing the Scars of Conflict

All their tears are the same. The grief they feel, their anguish, their pain is personal, but the same. Their suffering cannot be explained in words. Every day, there are people in this country who go to sleep at night, praying that their loved ones will return. There are mothers who are paralyzed with grief; they are lost in time; unable to continue with their day-to-day lives, worrying whether their sons, wherever they may be, have enough food to eat, or whether they are being treated alright; wondering how much they may have grown, or how much they may have changed since they last saw them. These people are torn between hope and despair, and they are unable to live meaningful lives.

Bill on the Office on Missing Persons: Excerpts of Foreign Affairs Minister Mangala Samaraweera’s statement tabled in Parliament on August 11, 2016.

by Mangala Samaraweera

( August 14, 2016, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Office on the Missing Persons’ Bill, which we will be debating today in this House, I believe heralds a new beginning, a new era of peace and reconciliation for our long suffering country.

68 years after Independence, two youth insurrections, and a 26 year old war, Sri Lanka is now ready to commence the healing process of our wounded and fractured nation, coming to terms with the tragedies of our past, so that we could harness the potential of our great nation and its people to pave the way for the future our country truly deserves.

As Lee Kuan Yew, in his memoirs – “From Third World to First” wrote –

Ceylon was Britain’s model Commonwealth country. It had been carefully prepared for independence. 

After the War, it was a good middle-sized country with fewer than 10 million people. It had a relatively good standard of education, with two universities of high quality, a civil service largely of locals, and experience in representative government starting with city council elections in the 1930s.

When Ceylon gained independence in 1948, it was the classic model of gradual evolution to independence.

Alas, it did not work out. During my visits over the years, I watched a promising country go to waste.

It is sad that the country whose ancient name Serendib has given the English language the word ‘Serendipity’ is now the epitome of conflict, pain, sorrow and hopelessness.

Today, however – 7 years after the end of the brutal war and the defeat and the demise of LTTE terror, Sri Lanka is now ready to win the peace and heal the scars of conflict, sorrow and pain. This Bill is the first step in healing our own nation and its people so that we could face the challenges of the future as a united nation; unity in diversity!

This is a very special day for all of us in this House, irrespective of the political parties, the colours, symbols and ideologies that we represent.

Today is a day that seeks to unite us as human beings. A day for each of us in this House to pause for a moment, reach deep within our hearts, speak to our conscience and demonstrate through action, that we are guided by peace, compassion, empathy and brotherhood, noble principles which the four main religions in our country – Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam – teach us.

As you know, there is no corner of this blessed and beloved country of ours, that has not been drenched by the tears of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and children who have wept and continue to weep, not knowing where their loved ones are, or what happened to them. They only know that they are missing. They don’t know whether they are dead or alive.

Tears and pain have no ethnicity, no religion, no race, no caste:

• the tears of a mother or father in the South who cries not knowing what happened to their soldier son;
• the tears of a wife who cries not knowing what happened to her husband in the Police;
• the tears of a mother whose son was forcibly recruited to fight for the LTTE;
• the pain of a mother whose child went missing during the Southern insurrection;
• the anguish of a child who still waits for his or her father to return after the end of the conflict;
• tears of parents and loved ones waiting for those who were held as prisoners by the LTTE who have still not returned.

All their tears are the same. The grief they feel, their anguish, their pain is personal, but the same. Their suffering cannot be explained in words. Every day, there are people in this country who go to sleep at night, praying that their loved ones will return. There are mothers who are paralyzed with grief; they are lost in time; unable to continue with their day-to-day lives, worrying whether their sons, wherever they may be, have enough food to eat, or whether they are being treated alright; wondering how much they may have grown, or how much they may have changed since they last saw them. These people are torn between hope and despair, and they are unable to live meaningful lives.

When one sees a dead body, no matter how unbearable the pain of loss may be, there is closure, because there is knowledge that one’s loved one is no more.

But how can one find closure, and how can one be expected to find closure when there is no knowledge of what has happened to someone?

There is probably no district, and certainly no province in this country which has been untouched by the phenomena of someone going missing – either in the 1970s, the 80s, the 90s, or later.

In my electorate in Matara, there are mothers who still go from astrologer to astrologer trying to find out what happened to their children who went missing in the 80s and 90s, and some even as far back as the 70s. They still live in hope.

There are mothers and sisters of soldiers who still shed tears urging us to at least find a bone fragment of their sons and brothers who went missing during the years of conflict, if they are to come to terms with what they have been told – that these soldiers are no more. Without that, they say they cannot come to terms that their loved ones are no more. They have only heard, they say, that a camp was overrun but received no further details. They have received no evidence that their loved ones are dead. So they wait and they wait forever, without carrying out the last rites; without giving alms to confer merit on the departed. Is this what the families of our soldiers deserve?

As a responsible State, can we continue to ignore their tears and their pleas? Can we just say to them that we don’t know what happened to their loved ones, and ask them to accept that they are dead? Can we expect them to take whatever few thousand rupees are given to them as compensation and lead normal lives?

Can we, as a responsible State, just tell them that all the people who are missing – and this includes soldiers, policemen, and other security forces personnel – have all probably gone overseas and are now leading new lives under new identities, and so, they are best forgotten? Can we, as a responsible State, say that no country in Asia or no country in NATO has established an Office to ascertain the fate of those who have gone missing and that therefore, we should also not make any attempt to find out what happened to the Missing in our country, to provide answers to families or loved ones?

These are our citizens: those who went Missing are our citizens; those who grieve are also our citizens. Don’t we, as a responsible State, have a duty to try to alleviate their agony?

Try to at least help them find an answer; or try to help them find closure? If this is not the compassion that Gautama Buddha has taught us, then, what is? It certainly cannot be the symbolic chanting of gathas, or offering of flowers, or building new statues and temples. We have to be able to reach out to our fellow citizens who are suffering; who have been suffering for years and years, and alleviate their pain. If the loved ones they seek are no more, we have to be able to help them find the truth.

We have to help them to come to terms with the truth. We must assist them in their process of healing. We must help them to continue with their lives in a meaningful way, and be productive citizens of our country. How can we say that we are guardians of the noble teachings of the Buddha if we don’t practice his Teachings? Can we, as the compassionate nation we claim to be, shut out the grief of a large number of our mothers, our fathers, our brothers, our sisters, and our children, and be deaf and blind to their pain, their wailing, their silent agony, their psychological trauma and their tears?

For long years, this nation has suffered the phenomena of our citizens going missing from all parts of our country. Today, we have before us a Bill to establish a Permanent Office on Missing Persons.

This is an opportunity for all of us as elected representatives, to show that we care about our citizens’ grief and that we uphold their basic human right to know what happened to their loved ones. This is a humanitarian exercise. This is an opportunity for our nation to unite in our empathy towards our own citizens.

An opportunity for us, as a nation, to set an example to the whole world that we care about our citizens; and that we are a nation that is capable of compassion, even after two insurrections in the South and a prolonged conflict in the North. It is also an opportunity for us to make a pledge to our own citizens and future generations that, as a responsible State, we will take measures at all times to ensure that no citizen of our country, whether Sinhala, Tamil, or Muslim, will have to go missing ever again.

It is also an opportunity for us as Parliamentarians to lead by example so that our citizens will also take the responsibility to play their part in the process of healing and reconciliation so that at least the future generations in this country will be spared from the pain and anguish of their loved ones going missing.

As you are aware, Hon. Speaker, the LLRC as well as previous Commissions have all recommended that a special mechanism must be established to address the issues pertaining to Missing Persons and deter future occurrences.

For some, this emotive and heart-wrenching issue is a mere numbers game. They argue and argue until they turn blue, and keep writing newspaper report after report stating that the number claimed by some agency or individual is wrong and the number indicated by some government entity is the correct one. They try to justify the numbers by saying such and such a number are overseas and accuse countries for not sharing information.

This is not the way to approach this issue. It is not a matter of numbers. It is a matter of individuals. It is a matter of human beings. It is a matter concerning our citizens, and it is a matter of creating mechanisms that are credible which enable people to share information, even entities in countries in which some who are reported as missing may be leading new lives under new identities.

I am sure there is duplication and errors in the various records maintained by various different entities. With the setting up of this Office, by an Act of Parliament, we will finally have a credible mechanism that will be in a position to centralize data at national level, integrating all information with regard to missing persons currently being maintained by different agencies, as recommended by the LLRC, way back in 2011.

Questions are raised as to why we propose to establish an Office on Missing Persons by an Act of Parliament:

– We do so because in the past, Commissions that have looked into Missing Persons have been ad hoc arrangements.

– They were constrained by time durations. They were dependent on extensions. Their mandates were restricted by geography and time-frames. They faced funding constraints which made it difficult for them to get the best technical and forensic expertise to identify remains and find the kinds of answers that will help the families find closure, or psychological and psychosocial support required. They didn’t have the necessary means to protect victims or witnesses. They didn’t have the necessary legal mandate or personality to seek assistance to trace the whereabouts of people from other institutions and from other countries.

This Office will be different. It will not be constrained by time. It will be open-ended with no start or end date or restrictions based on geographic areas. Anyone from the South or the North or the East or West or the Centre of the country can take a complaint to this Office, and the Office will try to find answers. They will have the freedom to provide individual answers to the families who seek answers. Unlike previous Commissions, this Office will be answerable to this House and to the people of our country. This Office should be in a position to consolidate the lists existing elsewhere, including the data of past Commissions, find people who may even be overseas, and provide accurate figures of how many may be actually missing.

If a person who is alleged to be missing is found to be alive, then that person will most certainly be taken off the list of persons who are missing. This is clearly stated in Section 13. The fact that a person has been found will be disclosed. It is only the location of the person found alive that may be withheld from the public, but that too, in limited circumstances. But the provisions of the Bill do not prevent a Court from requiring the Office to disclose the location of such a person.

The main functions of this Office outlined in Clause 10 of the Bill, will be:

(i) searching and tracing of missing persons

(ii) clarifying the circumstances in which such persons went missing and their fate making recommendations to relevant authorities in order to reduce incident of missing and disappeared persons.

(iii) making recommendations to relevant authorities in order to reduce incident of missing and disappeared persons.

(iv) identifying proper avenues of redress.

I have seen some people who are slaves to causing hatred and division and driving fear into people’s minds as a tactic to gain votes, stating that the legislation of this Office has not been drafted by Sri Lankans but by foreigners. They say that this Office has been imposed on us.

This is an insult to the intelligence and competence of our officials. It is equally an insult to the long suffering people all over this country who bear the pain of their loved ones having gone missing. It is indeed the best legal minds that we have in this country and dedicated, competent and compassionate individuals of this country who feel for the pain of their fellow citizens, and who yearn to find solutions to their problems, who studied the positives and negatives of the previous Commissions that we have had, that came up with this piece of legislation which is best suited to find solutions and forms of relief for the citizens of this country. Wide consultations were also held with relevant individuals and groups.

This has been designed for our local needs, using local expertise.

Nothing will ever be imposed on us by any foreign entity, if we find solutions to our own problems. It is when we fail to find solutions to our own problems, and when we fail to provide redress, that the problems of our citizens become the problems of others, and others are then compelled to seek to try to force us to find solutions.

But yes, there will be many who will be willing to help us, if we are honest about what we set out to achieve.

What we are trying to deal with today is a very human problem. One of basic humanity and compassion. Helping someone to find the whereabouts of their loved ones. But some see conspiracies behind the noblest of human deeds, which indeed is sad.

There are other countries in this world that have set up institutions of this nature to trace the whereabouts of their missing. Such countries include – South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, El Salvador, Peru, Ghana, Guatemala, Uganda and Timor L’este (East Timor).

This Office will be a responsible institution, reporting to this House. The allegations levelled that it will accept reams and reams of false evidence manufactured overseas, against our soldiers, have absolutely no basis. This, Hon. Speaker, will be an Office that will be accountable and answerable to this House and it will conduct itself with the utmost care in evaluating the information and evidence it receives. There is absolutely no space for false evidence being accepted or admitted as claimed by certain fear-mongers.

Information in the possession of this Office will NOT, under any circumstances, be sent overseas or shared with any foreign organisation or entity. This Organisation is only answerable and accountable to Sri Lankan processes – this House, the legal entities of this country and the public of this country.

Where appropriate, the Office will determine the need for the issuance of a Certificate of Absence, or a Certificate of Death if it is determined that a person who had been reported as Missing is in fact dead.

The establishment of the Office on Missing Persons will help alleviate the pain and agony that the people of our country have suffered for long years.

Approving this Bill is an act of Compassion towards those who are helpless, vulnerable and traumatized.

Passage of this legislation will demonstrate to our citizens, our conviction to assist them, and our commitment to care for them.

It will also stand as an affirmation of our determination to ensure that no citizen of our country, will ever go missing again, and that our mothers, our fathers, brothers, sisters and children will not have to bear the trauma of their loved ones disappearing, or being reported as Missing in Action in the future.