Disappearances committee in Palaly

[TamilNet, Saturday, 13 December 1997, 23:59 GMT]
The committee appointed by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence (MoD) to inquire into complaints of disappearances in the peninsula under Brigadier Bandula Kulatunga arrived in Jaffna today.

Senior Government administrative officers here were earlier expecting the committee to have its sittings in the Jaffna kachcheri this time. But the committee is still in Palaly they said.

All its earlier sittings were held in the Palaly airforce-army base complex.

The MoD committee has informed the Missing Persons' Guardian Association (MPGA) of Jaffna that it has recorded 27 complaints of disappearances which took place in 1997, 306 which happened in 1996 and 45 complaints about people who went missing in 1995 - 96.

The committee has told the MPGA that of the 306 complaints about persons who went missing in 1996, people turned up to give evidence only for 223 and that 83 complainants had failed to appear before the committee.

The MPGA officials flatly deny this saying that the 83 persons gave evidence before the MoD committee.