Sri Lanka new government to investigate war missing
Sri Lanka’s presidency said Friday that death certificates for thousands of people missing presumed dead from the country’s civil war will only be given out after proper investigations.
The statement followed comments from President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that those missing were “actually dead” had caused anguish among relatives that the government would close the issue without addressing what happened to their loved ones.
“After the necessary investigations, steps would be taken to issue a death certificate and the necessary support for the families to rebuild their lives,” Rajapaksa’s office said.
It also said that Rajapaksa in his earlier comments that emerged on Monday did not refer to the number of people reported to be missing since the end of the drawn-out Tamil separatist war in May 2009.
But official figures show that over 23,500 complaints in respect of missing people had been registered with the authorities. Among those were some 5,000 security personnel.
The question of missing persons has been a hot-button issue for successive Sri Lankan governments.
It was among topics discussed during a meeting Rajapaksa had with the UN resident coordinator in Sri Lanka, Hanaa Singer, last week, but they did not mention numbers, the statement said.
The president’s office on Friday repeated that most of the missing civilians had been conscripted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) which was crushed in a major offensive that ended in May 2009.
“The families of the missing attest to it. However, they do not know what has become of them and so claim them to be missing,” the president said.
Under current law, families cannot access property deeds, bank accounts or inheritances left by missing relatives unless they can conclusively prove they are dead — an often impossible task.
The previous government set up an Office on Missing Persons in 2018 to investigate those never traced after the 37-year Tamil separatist war, as well as during a Marxist uprising.
International rights groups claim at least 40,000 ethnic Tamil civilians were killed in the final stages of the separatist war, but the government has disputed the figures.
Thousands of people also went missing during a crackdown by security forces and pro-government vigilante groups on Marxist rebels between 1987 and 1990.
(AFP)
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There we go again.
Many promises in the past to investigate and issue Death Certificates.
Will never be done because issuing Death Certificates will amount to admission of war crimes and trials for war crimes in the International Courts.
Dear Govt, stop fooling the masses and fez up to your past crimes !
Kota Katu,
In response to your comment,
Issuing death certificates for the “missing, presumed dead” once appropriate investigations are undertaken is the most pragmatic way to deal with the current situation.
This will enable the families concerned, and the country, to move forward.
Let’s not forget that missing individuals come from the LTTE combatants themselves, and all communities, as the LTTE killed and burned bodies of their victims, including border villagers.
Regarding the arbitrary figure of 40,000 dead during the last stages of the war; this needs to addressed as stated in Lord Naseby’ s report, suggesting a much smaller number. Also, the report is likely to refute “war crimes” allegations, much to the dismay of LTTE supporters.
Ada Kota-Moley (Short Brain Kotiya), did you say “war crimes?” Wow! Not quite deficient brain….killing terrorists, heinous terrorists at that like the LTTE in this case, was not a war crime. US does it all the time happily.
My Dear Mr/Ms Kata-Kolu, May I ask you one question? Accusers say 40,000 civilians killed. To start with can they provide the names, address, next of kin of all those 40,000? May be they can provide the ID numbers too.
Mr Amarakoon,
You wanna list of the 40,000 my dear pal?
Go to UNHRC website and the list is there.
Well said Amarakoon.
I would say GoSL must ask all the western govts to give the full list of all Tamil refugees, with finger prints and a blood sample of each, to prove that they are not hiding in the west as bogus refugees (then again it will not be 100% conclusive, but can go a long way to weed out the ‘fake-dead” hiding in the west.
Let me explain…
There was a time when it was well known how these so called Tamil refugees would board the plane, with no restriction whatsoever, from BIA and then get to UK, Canada, Norway, Germany, Sweden, etc. and just before the plane would land, they would go to the toilet and tear up and flush their SL passport and claim refugee status once they land, giving bogus Tamil names and then be admitted by these gullible western countries. But, not only that, then they would go to the SL high commission in that city/country and say they lost their SL passport and based on the real or a fake birth certificate they get mailed to them from SL, they would get a ‘temporary travel document’ and re-enter Sri Lanka and then get a new passport under the real name or that fake birth-certificate name and repeat the whole dirty game over and over again – and this way some of them after having done this multiple times, used to get like 5 refugee welfare cheques monthly mailed to them for 5 different addresses from those very same kind (but totally gullible) western governments/cities!
This is not me saying, but first hand what I heard from an educated Tamil immigrant in the west, who came to the west based on merit/qualifications (as a Doctor) and he was just disgusted to see what was happening as those same bogus refugees were then also into credit/debit card counterfeit frauds, gang-warfare with other Tamil refugee groups, trying cut in on the Heroin trade in major cities in the west, etc. etc. and the term “Sri Lankan Tamil” then was a dirty household name with most police forces in the west then.
So GoSL, before you embark on this journey to issue death certificates, be very very careful and also that ludicrous 40K missing number must be taken with only a pinch of salt!
Dear Amarakoon,
You wanna list of the 40,000 missing in the last days of the genocide in 2009 Mate?
Again, you wanna list Mate?
Ha Ha,
Just Google Mate; you will find not only list but the names of those who caused geonocide against ecah name in the list, Mate.
Make sure you clean your bottom before you go to bed tonight, Mate.
There’s severe water issues in Melbourne, my dear.
Reply to Mr/Ms Somasunderam
– Maybe my name is there too!
Warm wishes from Chennai
Dear Sandun,
The Nation is free to lick senile Lord Naseby and continue to cling to his stupidity.
Since 2009, many Govt leaders from all majority parties have stated that ‘Death Certificates’ for the missing persons will be issued after ‘Investigation’.
The Yahapalana even set up Office of Missing Persons to fool the IC; the Office has no funds to pursue its goals.
Fundamentally, there is a problem in accepting the missing persons (from all communities) as ‘dead’ because that leads to an acceptance of genocide by both parties (GOSL and LTT) to the war as ‘war criminals’.
Reply to Kota Katu,
Understand the meaning of
“Genocide” before using the word.
It will give more credibility to your statements.
Your reluctance to accept Lord Naseby’s reports, including foreign military observations of our army’s behaviour, suggests that you cling onto ” war crimes chants”, rather than wanting to explore further.
That is your prerogative and the LTTE supporters, but it will not stop others from seeking the truth, and declaring it!
Daer Mr/Ms T. S’Sundaram & Esmee, Well dude I didn’t see the list of 40,000 there. Could you please help me.
BTW, LTTE in uniform killed by SL Army
LTTE in uniform killed by LTTE (ex: injured LTTE put in bus & exploded)
LTTE not in uniform killed by LTTE (ex: injured LTTE in bus may have been in civil)
LTTE in uniform killed by civilians (ex: some civilians attacked LTTE)
LTTE not in uniform (members of LTTE civilian armed force) killed by SL Army
Civilians (not engaged in any kind of hostilities) how many of them died during the last phase – how many were killed by LTTE (when trying to flee or refusing to comply with LTTE) / how many died during cross fire between LTTE & SL Army / how many were killed by SL Army (intentionally) / how many were killed by SL Army (unintentionally)
Civilians who were part of LTTE civil armed force – how many of them got killed during battle with SL Army?
How many LTTE / SL Army / LTTE civilian armed force / Civilians got injured & died from their injuries during the last phase.
Got it Dude….
Dear Amarakoon,
Perhaps you looked for the list in the wrong place.
The 30 yr war was between a professionally trained Armed Forces of GOSL and rag-tag LTTE.
At the end of the war, >40,000 persons are missing including GOSL Soldiers, Civilians and LTT.
The professionally trained GOSL Armed Forces are denying records of incidents in the war theatre.
How shameful; many GOSL Commanders were trained in Kotalawela Academy, in India and in Lord Naseby’s Institutions in the UK on how to conduct a war.
The LTT were a rag-tag ‘Army’; no professional training; no discipline; no records.
It is shocking for GOSL’s Professionally Trained Armed Forces to deny records in incidents !!!
Dear respected MR. T. S’Sunderam, If I look in the wrong place tell me where is the correct place. I have not any damn place where 40, 000 (Magic number) are listed by names. SL has birth certificates, ID cards, addresses. Where those people lived? You say LTTE is a rag-tag-army. My friend they had ships, submarines, match-box flying machines, uniforms, Cyanide capsules, even child solders had uniforms. They got modern communication equipment from a Western country. They killed thousands of Sinhala/Muslim civilians using most sophisticated weapons. Please do not try to play ‘Baratha-Natyam’ here. Tell me dude did LTTE killed thousands of civilians by using catapults?
Dear Sri Lankans, try hard as you may, you will not convince the rabid Tamileelamists masquerading here under different names, including under Sinhalese names to misguide patriotic Sinhalese (a favorite ploy we used to see during the height of the LTTE war, especially when the LTTE was losing, as that was with express intent to demoralize the Sinhalese and prevent Sinhalese youth from joining SL armed forces).
These rabid eelamists are now complaining like wimpy dogs, but during the hay day of LTTE’s horrific terrorism in SL, they were not only contributing very lavishly to keep that horror going in SL, but were cheering LTTE military victories with all kinds of ceremonies. At that time they were so cocky thinking that LTTE would decisively defeat the SL armed forces in that horrific asymmetrical warfare (read: unbridled, horrific terrorism) LTTE was dishing out Sri Lanka where LTTE was into huge carnages of civilians with train, bus, supermarket, building, etc. bombings and also waylaying buses, trains and slaughtering civilians – after separating Tamils from Sinhalese – where including children were en-mass killed by shooting and hacking with swords and axes.
Yes now they complain, but if they were so righteous in their thinking and approach, did they take to the streets in protest in the western capitals and demand LTTE to stop such carnages? These are just hypocrites not worthy of a second thought!
It is just too bad that SL armed forces played by the rules of warfare and human rights as otherwise by all accounts, including that of LTTE converts who later joined SL armed forces to fight the LTTE, LTTE would have been wiped out long before. Sure, as in all wars, there have been isolated incidences of excesses, but as Kamal Gunarathne’s book states, those have been investigated and the guilty parties have been summarily punished by SL armed forces.
As for “professionally trained army” (referring to SL armed forces) vs. “rag-tag army” (referring to LTTE), that’s a load of horse-sh*t! Actually, LTTE was trained by the professional Indian Army and that is a fact that is undeniable as Indians themselves have admitted to it. If the Indians didn’t do a good job by advising the LTTE that killing breast feeding mothers (with the infant still on feed) by hacking with axe first the mother’s chest and then chopping off both the mother’s and the infant’s head for added good measure is a no-no in waging war, well it seems they didn’t do a such a good job uh?
Who are these rabid, hypocritical, racist separatists now trying fool?
Not me!