Sri Lanka's Office on Missing Persons (OMP) said on Thursday that it would be publishing an interim report with recommendations on August 30, to coincide with the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
The interim report will be launched at a commemorative event organised by the OMP in Colombo's J. R. Jayawardene Centre, named after the former Sri Lankan president who oversaw the pogrom of Black July 1983.
Sri Lanka's OMP has been repeatedly criticised by Tamil families of the disappeared as an "exercise in futility", stating it lacks independence and failed to take their views into account.
Explained their boycott of the OMP, mothers of the disappeared wrote in a letter last month:
"There is no transparency adopted in the selection of the Commissioners for the OMP. Selections were made by the Constitutional Council in which Sinhala Politicians are also members, who repeatedly said that they will not allow any members of the Security force to face justice. Can OMP guarantee that alleged perpetrators will be brought to justice?
Out of the seven Commissioners is a former senior Security force officer. How can we go and seek justice from him? Can OMP take steps to remove him as its Commissioner?
Repeated requests to have some OMP Commissioners from the UN and other international experts were rejected. How do you expect us to have confidence in OMP, given the long and failed history of Sri Lankan Government appointed Commissions to deal with abuses against Tamils? Can OMP include UN and other International experts as Commissioners?"
