More than 1,500 people have been asked to depose before a Sri Lankan government-appointed panel probing the disappearances of Tamils during the nearly three decades-long civil war with the LTTE.
H W Gunadasa, the commission’s secretary, said they will sit for six days from Saturday in Nallur and Jaffna in the north.
“We have intimated over 1,500 of them to come and give evidence from today. New complaints also can be lodged during these days,” Gunadasa said.
The Presidential Commission to Investigate Missing Persons headed by retired judge Maxwell Paranagama was appointed in 2013. Initially, it was due to conclude on February 15 but was granted a further six months.
The probe panel was mandated to probe disappearances of Tamils between 1990 to May 2009 when the war with Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) ended.
By mid-October this year, the commission received over 18,000 complaints from civilians with another 5,000 complaints from relatives of missing security forces personnel.
The panel’s interim report recommended a separate war crimes division within the Sri Lankan legal system and insisted that Sri Lanka is obliged to fall in line with international humanitarian law.
The report also blamed the LTTE for killing a large number of civilians.
Last month the UN working group on enforced and involuntary disappearances visited Sri Lanka. During a 10-day visit, they asked the government to meet the rights and legitimate expectations of thousands of families of the disappeared. Their report will be submitted at the UN Human Rights Council.
The country’s Northern Province witnessed a 28 years long civil war which ended in 2009 when government forces defeated the Tamil Tiger who were fighting to create a separate state for Tamils in north.