Japan To Assist CoI
By Waruni Karunarathne
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI), appointed to investigate into the cases of missing persons, is to meet the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka this week to discuss the funds required for counselling programmes in the North and East.
Speaking to The Sunday Leader, Secretary of the Commission H. W. Gunadasa said that the Japanese Embassy had agreed to provide funds for the counselling programme proposed to be carried out in the North and East.
He said the President has already given the approval for the commission to initiate this counselling programme in the North and East to provide relief and the necessary psychological assistance, especially to the families of those who are reported missing. “This programme requires about Rs. 80 million and the Japanese Embassy had agreed to provide that amount.
They have given us an appointment on the 22nd of this month to meet the officials of the Embassy to further discuss the funding.,” he added. Gunadasa said that the counselling programme is expected to cover all the 79 divisions in the North and East and provide counselling to more or less 21,000 families.
Recently, the commission submitted its interim reported to the President and the President had given his approval for certain recommendations presented by the commission.
However, Chairman of the Commission, Maxwell Paranagama told The Sunday Leader that the interim report was only for the President’s reference and it will not be released to the public unless the President decides to do so.
“In the report we recommended that certain cases where certain wrongs have been committed by the security forces and the LTTE must be further investigated in-depth.
With reference to that we highlighted the importance of appointing an investigating team to look into those cases. We recommended a team to be formed with retired officers and public servants who have experience in such investigations and recommended them to assist the commission in those investigations,” he added.
He said that there are some people who are in need of various relief and they will be identified during the counselling. He further said that the commission had analysed various cases since 1983 – 2009 in the report and have categorized the complaints by various districts, gender, etc. However he insisted that those facts are only for the reference of the President and therefore will not be publicized.
