{"id":67238,"date":"2020-01-21T02:07:23","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T07:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67238"},"modified":"2020-01-21T02:29:55","modified_gmt":"2020-01-21T07:29:55","slug":"president-gotabaya-rajapaksa-tells-un-resident-cordinator-that-persons-reported-missing-during-civil-war-are-actually-dead-and-steps-would-be-taken-to-issue-death-certificat-after-necessary-investig","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67238","title":{"rendered":"President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Tells UN Resident Coordinator that Persons Reported Missing During Civil War are Actually Dead and Steps Would be Taken to Issue Death Certificat After Necessary Investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of persons reported missing since the time of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war are \u201cactually dead\u201d, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said.<\/p>\n

The President made the remark in a recent meeting with the UN Resident Coordinator, according to a statement from his office. Outlining his plans to address the issue of missing persons, \u201che explained that these missing persons are actually dead. Most of them had been taken by the LTTE or forcibly conscripted. 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,\u201d the statement said. <\/p>\n

After the \u201cnecessary investigations\u201d, steps would be taken to issue death certificates of the missing persons, while their families would be supported, the official media release said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Families of scores of disappeared persons in Sri Lanka\u2019s war-affected north and east have been relentlessly agitating by the roadside, for nearly three years now, demanding the whereabouts of their relatives, including many that families say they saw surrendering to the Army.<\/p>\n

Family members have refused to accept their relatives\u2019 disappearance as \u201cdeath\u201d, without seeing the body. Some are pursuing court action.<\/p>\n

In 2017, representatives of protesting families met with former President Maithripala Sirisena, who promised to release a list of names of those who surrendered to the Army. The families did not receive it. As part of its commitments to the UN Human Rights Council, the former government set up the Office on Missing Persons in 2018 to probe complaints of disappearances \u2014 some estimates point to nearly 65,000 \u2014 in the war-affected north and east, as well as in the southern parts of the island where several thousands were reported missing, including during the leftist Janata Vimukti Peramuna-led insurgencies against the state.<\/p>\n

The OMP held consultations across the island, but its future after regime change remains unclear, amid reports of the new government possibly revising the OMP Act and exploring a compensation package for the families.<\/p>\n

A month before his election, President Rajapaksa told a media conference that he would not honour Sri Lanka\u2019s commitments to the UNHRC on post-war accountability and reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Asked then about the fate of those who surrendered to the Army when he was Defence Secretary in his brother President Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s government, Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa said, \u201cthat\u2019s only an allegation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Further, in his recent meeting with the UN representative, President Rajapaksa discussed matters pertaining to poverty alleviation, climate control, digitising government offices, and better management of refugees, his office said in the statement.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Thousands of persons reported missing since the time of Sri Lanka\u2019s civil war are \u201cactually dead\u201d, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said. The President made the remark in a recent meeting with the UN Resident Coordinator, according to a statement from his office. Outlining his plans to address the issue of missing persons, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Tells UN Resident Coordinator that Persons Reported Missing During Civil War are Actually Dead and Steps Would be Taken to Issue Death Certificat After Necessary Investigations’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67238"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67241,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67238\/revisions\/67241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}