{"id":116461,"date":"2021-07-24T16:27:18","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T23:27:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116461"},"modified":"2021-07-24T16:27:18","modified_gmt":"2021-07-24T23:27:18","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-c11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/24\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-20-c11\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 20 C11"},"content":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

 (Continued from C10)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OFFICE OF MISSING PERSONS   (2016)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Office of\nMissing Persons Act was passed in Parliament on 12.8.16, during the rule of the\nYahapalana puppet government. It was rushed through Parliament ignoring\nobjections. It went\nthrough all three readings within 40 minutes. The Bill was not referred to\nSupreme Court.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nJoint Opposition refused to accept OMP Bill as properly passed.  They said Parliament had not followed proper\nprocedures in adopting it.  It was passed\nagainst the Standing Orders of Parliament. Only a Bill passed in accordance\nwith the Standing Orders could be accepted as a proper piece of\nlegislation.  Also, a Bill cannot be\ndeemed to have been passed when more than half of the MPs were standing on the\nfloor of the House. Even government MPs were not in their seats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere\nin Asia has a mechanism such as this OMP been set up, said Dayan Jayatilleke.\nThe only OMPs set up so far were for persons missing under military juntas in\nLatin America also where there were agreements between guerilla movements and their\ngovernments. Sri Lanka, on the other hand, was a democratic state with a democratically\nelected government, whose legitimate army fought a war within its borders\nagainst a secessionist group and won an outright victory.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\nYahapalana went ahead and the Office of Missing Persons was put in place. The\nOffice of Missing Persons is no Office\u2019, said critics. It is a fully fledged\nquasi judicial body just one step away from a fully fledged war crimes\ntribunal. The \u2018Missing Persons\u2019 had to be connected with <\/p>\n\n\n\n

armed\nconflict, political unrest and civil disturbances. Therefore the\n\u2018Missing Persons\u2019 would be those missing in the northern and\neastern provinces only. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOMP would operate entirely outside the state justice system. OMP can arrive at\n\u2018findings\u2019 relating to serious crimes like abduction and murder without any of\nthe safeguards availed to suspects in ordinary courts, said critics. The OMP has extensive\npowers to compel the giving of testimony and production of documents and other\nmaterial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Evidence\nOrdinance will not apply. The OMP can admit as evidence statements which\ncontravene the Evidence Ordinance or considered inadmissible in civil or\ncriminal proceedings. This is most dangerous, said critics. OMP can\nreceive complaints from just anybody. Without safeguards of the Evidence\nOrdinance, a \u2018case\u2019 can be built up against   a person by the OMP and he can be removed\nfrom the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Right to\nInformation Act and Official Secrets Act will also not apply to the work of the\nOMP. Right to Information Act has been excluded so that people could give\ninformation without fear, said supporters of the OMP. This is necessary because\nthe OMP is a mechanism designed to discover the truth of a missing person’s\nfate and not act as a prosecutorial or judicial body. However, only information\nthat is communicated in confidence will be excluded from the provisions of the\nRTI Act. All other information will be subject to the Right to Information. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any    unreliable organization can make a\ncomplaint, false statements included, without having or face any consequences,\nresponded critics. They can\nadmit any kind of evidence in building up a story against a person, and that\nstory could cause serious damage to that person\u2019s reputation and career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OMP can\noperate in complete secrecy. OMP can\ninitiate an inquiry on the basis of a complaint, which is then kept secret. This\nmeans that people can charge each other in secret. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

No court, not\neven the Supreme Court can order any officer of the OMP to submit to its courts\nany material communicated to him in confidence. Not even\nSupreme Court of Sri Lanka can penetrate this fog of secrecy, remarked critics.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OMP\ncan summon any person in Sri Lanka before it. \nAnyone who fails or refuses to cooperate with the OMP may be punished\nfor contempt of court.\u201d OMP\u2019s power\nto charge contempt of court is equal to that of the Appeal Court. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All\ngovernment bodies, including the armed forces and intelligence services are\nmandatorily required to give fullest cooperation to OMP.  All local authorities rank below the OMP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

OMP\ncan establish committees, division or units for the administration of the OMP\nand can delegate its power to them.  OMP\nofficers have been conferred immunity.  They are above the law.  OMP officers can, without warrant, at any\ntime of day or night, enter any premises, including sensitive military\ninstallation and seize any documents or object they require for\ninvestigations.  Documents supposedly\nseized from military organization can be circulated all over the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OMP   is allowed to   bring in foreign personnel   and OMP can appoint foreigners as officers\nand staff of the OMP.  Critics pointed\nout that the members of the OMP can delegate the work to others who need not be\neven Sri Lankans. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nOMP can raise funds from national or international sources. They can receive\nforeign funding directly. OMP has the power to enter into agreements on any\nsubject with any foreign government, NGO or any other institution, including UN\nagencies like OHCHR. Since these UN organizations have been taken over by the\nwest through funding, the OMP will be operated by the West. OMP can have\nagreements with LTTE as well, observed critics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nmembers of the OMP must statutorily have experience in investigating Human\nRights Law (HR) and International Human Rights Law (IHL) and they need not be\ncitizens of Sri Lanka. This means that the appointees can be representatives of\nwestern funded NGOs or those who have worked with western sponsored\ninternational war crimes tribunals, said analysts. These\nofficers can be foreigners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a missing person is found, the OMP need not announce the fact. If\nthat person so wishes he can remain missing, though he may be hale and hearty\nand living abroad, observed critics. \nUnless he agrees, his relatives will not be informed either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of those listed missing during the war could have\nobtained new identities courtesy of foreign governments, observed Gotabhaya\nRajapaksa. Foreign governments including Australia had refused to assist Sri\nLanka in its attempts to locate missing persons now living overseas under new\nidentities. Thousands have received new identities, especially in Europe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maxwell Paranagama said that his Commission had received 16,000\ncomplaints regarding wartime disappearances and was inquiring into them when\nthe present government terminated the proceedings of the Commission. Some\nforeign funded NGOs resented investigations undertaken by the Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paranagama said some of those declared as missing here were living\nabroad. “Unfortunately, foreign governments have declined to help our\ninvestigations by making available lists of those Sri Lankans living there as\nrefugees or given citizenship,” Paranagama said, adding that four of those\nreported missing had been jailed in the Maldives. “We were able to speak\nto them over the phone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kamal Gunaratne\n   was also critical.  This is absurd he said. Anyone<\/strong> can just\ncome and complain that their son or family member is missing.  OMP is just accepting complaints. The names of\nthose giving evidence are kept secret. You need to ascertain the accuracy of\nthese claims. How can we issue death certificates   without knowing what happened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 If we are to issue death certificates or\ncompensation then it has to be established without doubt that the person\nconcerned is really dead. That cannot be done by this OMP. If we issue a death\ncertificate, and later that person is found, this whole process will become a\njoke, continued Kamal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The motives\nof the present OMP can be questioned, concluded Kamal Gunaratne .The OMP has been\ngoing to people\u2019s houses and getting them to come forward and say that their\nloved ones are missing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chairman\nof the OMP stated in 2020 in an interview,   over\nthe last two years, we have built up the institution, including recruitment of\nstaff, building technical capacity, developing a temporary database, collating\ninformation and establishing a Victims\u2019 and Witnesses\u2019 Protection Unit and an Investigations\nand Tracing Unit .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 OMP was now  \nbusily at work, said the Chairman. There are ongoing individual investigations\nwhich are at different stages. Depending on the facts of each case, the OMP is\nrequired begin an investigation at different points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In some cases, an investigation has begun with\na complaint from a family member regarding a missing or disappeared loved one.\nIn another scenario, the OMP has, in keeping with its mandate, intervened in\ncases because unidentified human remains have been discovered and they may\nbelong to victims of disappearances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the OMP\nAct, it has the authority to intervene and observe inquiries into human remains\nbefore a Magistrate\u2019s Court. OMP has also provided financial and technical\nsupport in the Mannar mass graves investigation.   (Continued in C12)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS  (Continued from C10) OFFICE OF MISSING PERSONS   (2016) The Office of Missing Persons Act was passed in Parliament on 12.8.16, during the rule of the Yahapalana puppet government. It was rushed through Parliament ignoring objections. It went through all three readings within 40 minutes. The Bill was not referred to Supreme Court.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116461"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116461\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}