sri lanka's commissions of inquiry - Law & Society Trust

the disappeared 291 and erection of monuments in memory of the
disappeared and the families of the disappeared. 292
In terms of implementation of the recommendations of the CHC, a
capacity building project was initiated by the International Centre for
Transitional Justice on the request of the government of Guatemala. 293
Its mandate was to review and reform the justice system in order to
increase the capacity of the system to prosecute perpetrators. This
program was completed in 2004. However on the downside, when
the UN Working Group on Disappearances visited Guatemala on
the request of the Government in 2006, there were three thousand
one hundred and fifty three pending cases of which two thousand
eight hundred and ninety six were pending as of January 2008. The
Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation reports that as
of that date there were no prosecutions of those responsible for the
disappearances in Guatemala, with an estimated forty five thousand
persons having disappeared during the armed conflict 294 . This type
of impunity is reflected in the failure by successive Governments in
Sri Lanka to successfully bring to book perpetrators who have been
credibly implicated and publicly named by successive Commissions
of Inquiry.
On a more positive note, the Commission on Wartime Relocation
and Internment of Civilians established by the United States
Congressional Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs in 1980
was relatively successful in achieving successful implementation of
its recommendations. Its mandate was to investigate the relocation of
110,000 American citizens between 1942 and 1945. It found that there
was no military or security reason for such relocation and exclusion of
291.
All Island Final, p. 15.
292.
All Island Final, p. 86.
293.
CSVR, Guetamala, ibid n. 288.
294.
CSVR, Guatemala, ibid n. 288.
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