President Maithripala Sirisena yesterday (28) handed over appointment letters to commissioners of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) at the Presidential Secretariat.

The OMP law was passed in Parliament in Aug 2016 and will now be operational.

The OMP is tasked with determining the status of all missing persons in Sri Lanka and is the first pillar of the Transitional Justice mechanisms under design and implementation.

The Commissioners, who were appointed for a 3-year period and are;

Saliya Pieris, PC – Chairman/ OMP

Jayatheepa Punniyamoorthy – Member/OMP

Major General (Rtd.) Mohanti Antonette Peiris – Member/ OMP

Sriyani Nimalka Fernando – Member/ OMP

Mirak Raheem – Member/ OMP

Somasiri K Liyanage – Member/ OMP

Kanapathipillai Venthan – Member/ OMP

Sri Lanka’s National Budget for 2018 also made an allocation of Rs 1.3bn to establish the OMP.

The Commissioners were selected in an open and competitive process conducted by the Constitutional Council (CC) of Sri Lanka and were nominated by them for appointment to the President.

The OMP will be an independent body reporting to Sri Lanka’s Parliament and is expected to bring a degree of closure to surviving family members of Sri Lanka’s internal conflicts and will set the stage for sustainable reparations for victims and their families. (GID)