One of the issues that demonstrated the approach of the Sri Lankan authorities to the problem of enforced disappearances could be discovered in a close study of the narrative of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP). The issue that the international community has found difficult to deal with is the fact that enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka developed as a State policy. The greatest manifestation of this State policy is that the largest number of cases of persons who had disappeared has faced that fate while they were in the custody of the security forces. The laws were made in order to enable enforced disappearances. (The writer is the Asian Human Rights Commission’s Policy and Programmes Director)

Source: The Nation June 24, 2021 17:03 UTC