03/23/2010
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Groundviews
Several Commissions of Inquiry into Disappearances of Persons (COIs) had been appointed by successive governments since 1990. Of these, the writer had been the Secretary to what is known as the Central Zone Commission and the All Island Commission appointed in 1994 and 1998, respectively. Militancy of Sinhala youth in the South and the Tamil youth in the North resulted in what the NGOs estimate to be the disappearance of nearly 60,000 youth from various parts of Sri Lanka. However the Commissions appointed in 1994 received only 27,526 complaints. Of these 10,136 complaints were inquired into by the All Island Commission appointed in 1998. The following comments and observations are made as a corollary to the book that is being launched today. It is hoped that the readers would get a clearer picture of the task of the COIs and what followed after their reports were submitted to the President.