Untitled - International Commission of Jurists

However, the weak process of re-referrals meant acquiescence to the same structural
obstacles to truth, justice and reparations that the Commissions, in theory, were
created to overcome. With the Kumaratunge administration itself plunging into
renewed conflict with the LTTE, leading to the return of the phenomenon of enforced
disappearances and extrajudicial executions in the North and East during the years
thereafter, any existing political will to address gross human rights violations
effectively dissipated. As noted below, the recommendations of the 1994
Disappearances Commissions led to few prosecutions.
The 1994 Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission
observed great care in not publicly naming alleged perpetrators. Its reluctance to
‘name and shame’ alleged perpetrators emanated from the fact that these alleged
perpetrators had not been given an opportunity to refute the charges made against
them. The 1994 Northern and Eastern Disappearances Commission and the 1994
Central, North Western, North Central and Uva Disappearances Commission
Commissions, however, did name some politicians, security personnel and police
officers as being ‘credibly implicated’ 309 in the enforced disappearances in their
respective reports. The issue of protecting the rights of alleged perpetrators in
commission proceedings is taken up in a subsequent chapter, below.
3.1.4. Reflections on the Recommendations
The 1994 Commissions Reports are unambiguous with regard to the expectation that
justice and reparations follow their determination of truth as disclosed through their
inquiries.
This Commission recommends a vigorous prosecution of those responsible for
disappearances. 310
Severe disciplinary measures should be meted out to Government Officials
who have failed to take adequate measures to prevent disappearances. 311
The Recommendations of the 1994 Disappearances Commissions in relation to
reforms of the law and legal process included the following:
Investigations into all acts of gross human rights abuses should be carried out
through a special unit of the police under the direct supervision of an officer
not below the rank of a Deputy Inspector General of Police; 312
309 This term which has been used commonly by all three Commissions, refers to instances where an
alleged perpetrator’s name is found to repeatedly occur in the evidence of witnesses before them.
310 Final report of the 1994 Western, Southern and Sabaragamuwa Disappearances Commission,
Sessional Paper No. V, 1997, at p. 175.
311 Final report of the 1994 Commission of Inquiry into the Involuntary Removal or Disappearance of
Persons in the Central, North Western, North Central and Uva Provinces, Sessional Paper No VI-
1997, at p. 3.
312 ibid, at pp. 68 and 171 Following these recommendations, a Disappearances Investigation Unit
(DIU) was established under the Deputy Inspector General of Police of the Criminal Investigations
Department. It has been consistently maintained by the government that police officers are
‘handpicked’ for this Unit and that great care is taken to ensure that they have a ‘good record’ – as
reiterated in confidential interviews with police officers conducted for the purpose of this research.
However the performance of this Unit has been poor despite the good intentions of some police officers
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