OFFICE OF MISSING PERSONS (OMP) FOR SHORT – ACT NOW PASSED

“This is I believe one of the MOST IMPORTANT pieces of legislation that has been passed in a VERY LONG TIME to PROTECT US CIVILIANS from FUTURE INCIDENCES OF GOVERNMENT EXCESSES LIKE WHITE VANS”

The importance I have attached to this piece of legislation cannot be emphasized more, and so I have not only italicized my comment above, in bold letters and enlarged as well!

I will not go into the history of the need for this Bill turned into an Act, except to keep the scholar and reader aware of the background by reading the link here:

http://www.ft.lk/article/562065/Invisible-crime--recurring-nightmare

Of course the author Dharisha Bastians emphasizes the past, which resulted in the need for this Act, however I emphasize the need of this Act as a deterrent for the future, so that 

“NO LEADER ENGAGES IN EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS EVER IN FUTURE”

Sri Lanka had disappearances of over 1000,000 loved ones since 1971, FORTY FIVE YEARS DAMMIT! We do NOT want any more. Our psyche, conscience and our very being cannot handle ONE MORE DISAPPEARANCE. 

Don’t forget that the majority of disappearances are of young Sinhala Youth, a whole generation that was lost, and another generation that is still suffering due to their loss.

Security forces under Sirimavo Bandaranayake and Ranasinghe Premadasa accounted for the bulk of these killings with the killers still in the land of the living. The killers got their instructions to kill from the top, and they obeyed orders by rounding up LIKELY suspects and killing them and possibly burning, burying and destroying evidence without trace. LATER Mahinda Rajapakse's Forces ALSO engaged in the same, under orders from above. ALL IN THE NAME OF PROTECTING THE PUBLIC.

The Tamil disappearances whilst still just as personally traumatic are relatively few in comparison, about 11,000, though most of the kerfuffle at the UNHRC is about ONLY them as the pressure is from the Global Tamil Lobby, where there is very little pressure exerted from the parents and family of the others who are suffering to this day with no one representing their interests.

There is very little point ( I know a parent or relative of a missing person in 1971 will dispute this point) in investigating their disappearance, as there is very little information now available of what happened to them, by name, rank and serial number, and may cause MORE confusion than solving.

I only hope that the MOST important point to come out of this is that anyone who disappears from now on WILL BE INVESTIGATED TO THE FULLEST by the OMP, and the culprit found, and the information passed to the AGs department for prosecution of the culprits, WITHOUT DELAY. Only then can we rest easy!