In the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgement (SC) on the Easter Sunday attacks, where the victims were awarded a large sum of compensation for the authorities’ negligence, the families of missing persons in the South, including those who went missing during the period of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) insurrections in 1988-1989, are presently looking into the possibility of seeking legal relief for mental torture by means of filing fundamental rights (FR) petitions in the SC.
Speaking to The Morning, Families of the Disappeared Chairman Brito Fernando said yesterday (19) that he intends to seek assistance from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in this regard.
“With the passage of time, disappearances are difficult to probe into, owing to issues with evidence. Therefore, we are exploring the possibility of addressing the mental torture that family members of the missing undergo, as there is a continuous psychological effect to what they have faced, and it continues to prevail because they don’t get concrete answers about their loved ones,” he added.
He further explained: “We are thinking of filing FR petitions, but there is a 30-day limitation, and therefore, we need to find a way around this. There may be SC judgements, and the United Nations (UN) letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated 8 November 2022 regarding the report on the Matale mass-grave excavations prepared by a Presidential Commission could be of use. In this UN letter, four rapporteurs sought to determine the actions taken based on the report’s recommendations. The Government did not reply to this query.
“Around 1,042 cases of disappearances were reported, but only 136 cases were inquired into by the said commission. Around 154 human skeletons were subsequently found at the Matale mass grave. But the Government says that the remains belong to the 1840s. We don’t believe that. Therefore, we suspect that justice has not been met. We also need to decide on a particular timeframe to be covered through these petitions.”
Meanwhile, the Families of the Disappeared held a media briefing yesterday in Colombo and noted that they have lost faith in the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). The relatives of the missing pointed out that the amounts that were to be given to them in compensation had not been paid properly by the Office for Reparations.
Speaking at the media briefing, Fernando further claimed that while the OMP had received about 19,000 applications, of which approximately 14,000 cases are from civilians and nearly 4,000 are from the armed forces, not a single inquiry had been addressed.
He noted that while the relatives of the missing from the South had visited the OMP, its Chairman Attorney Mahesh Katulanda said that if details are provided, inquiries would be initiated the very next day; but there was no progress.
“The OMP Chairman shouted at us, saying, ‘if you give me the details today, we will start inquiries tomorrow’. Therefore, a group of 24, who have registered under the OMP, went to the office and provided all the details as per his request, in order for the inquiries to commence. Now, it has been about two months, and he is still mum.”
Fernando pointed out that the OMP is a Government office and that public money is being utilised to pay its employees’ salaries; therefore, the people have the right to ask them to function as is required.
Fernando noted that the United National Front-led Government had promised the relatives of the missing a monthly compensation of Rs. 6,000 for two years for which they had allocated Rs. 500 million.
“From the allocated amount, which is not sufficient to compensate all the families, they only paid a sum of Rs. 11 million to 153 families, whereafter, the scheme ended. Then, former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa, in the 2021 Budget, said that he is allocating a sum of Rs. 300 million. We don’t know what he meant by that. Thereafter, all of a sudden, the Minister of Justice at the time, President’s Counsel (PC) M.U.M. Ali Sabry said that they intend to make an initial payment of Rs. 100,000 to each family. However, we never heard of anyone receiving that.
“All of a sudden, again, about one month ago, the new Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe PC said that Rs. 100,000 would not be sufficient and that payments of Rs. 200,000 should be made. These things come up in every UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session,” he added.
However, the relatives of the missing in the North and the East recently pointed out that they will not accept the compensation, as they felt that this would impede their struggle to ascertain the truth about the status of their missing loved ones.
He also noted that the Government is currently talking about a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he alleged is due to the UNHRC March session that is scheduled to take place.
“They are just addressing the international community and saying that they have not given up on solutions for the disappearances. We the locals know that actions are not taking place in Sri Lanka. We have to pressure the UN and other organisations to continue their campaigns internationally because they’ve been able to get results. Now, the US banned certain military officials and Canada issued sanctions against former President and incumbent Government MP Mahinda Rajapaksa and former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and two others from the forces. Therefore, the European countries are taking action even though we haven’t been able to take any legal action here”.