President Maithripala Sirisena offered new investigations into alleged secret detentions centres would be established to ascertain their whereabouts.
Speaking in the former wat zone of Sampur, Mr Sirisena said,
“If there are allegations that people are still being held in some locations, the government will set up a mechanism to inspect them.”
The announcement comes after Sri Lanka’s prime minister last year said that the disappeared are most likely dead.
The North-East has seen intensifying protests related to the plight of the disappeared.
Last year, Sri Lanka’s prime minister Ranil WIckremesighe said that it was most likely that a vast majority of the disappeared were dead.
President Sirisena’s pledge to investigate the location of the disappeared comes despite the government’s refusal to release a list of names of those that surrendered themselves over to the government at the end of Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.
