Around 11,000 complaints concerning missing persons remain to be investigated, Justice and National Integration Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said.
The Minister made the remarks yesterday (25) while visiting families of missing persons in the North ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, observed on 30 August.
During a visit to Kanagambikaikulam on Iranamadu Road in Kilinochchi, Nanayakkara presented documents approving a livelihood assistance allowance to the family of Shanmugam, whose two daughters disappeared in 2009.
“The value of those lives cannot be measured in monetary terms. However, their families must be supported economically,” the Minister said.
He said around 200 complaints relating to missing persons in the Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts remained under investigation and pledged to complete those inquiries by the end of this year.
Nanayakkara acknowledged that public confidence in the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) had declined in the past, discouraging some families from lodging complaints. He urged families who had not yet reported disappearances to submit complaints to the OMP.
The livelihood assistance programme is administered by the OMP to strengthen the economic conditions of families of missing persons.
Jaffna District MP K. Ilankumaran, Kilinochchi District Secretary S. Muralitharan and OMP Kilinochchi District Coordinating Officer Krishanthi Ratnayake also attended the event.
