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

(d) whether there is any credible material indicative of the
person or persons responsible for the alleged removals or
disappearances;
(e) the legal proceedings that can be taken against the persons
held to be so responsible;
(f) the measures necessary to prevent the occurrence of such
alleged activities in the future;
(g) the relief, if any, that should be afforded to the parents,
spouses and dependents of the persons alleged to have been
so removed or to have disappeared (sic);
and to make such recommendations with reference to any of the matters
that have been inquired into under the terms of this Warrant…. 46
5.1.1 Limitations of The Commissions’ Mandates - Concerns
about Political Will
Limitations built into the Commissions’ mandates raise questions
about the intent, seriousness and capacity of the Government to address
past violations of human rights and counter the prevailing climate of
impunity. According to the then Minister of Justice, Constitutional
Affairs and External Trade, G.L. Peiris:
[t]he government owes a duty to the parents and kith and kin
to help them to ascertain the fate of their loved ones and offer
some compensatory relief to lighten their misery… [but] it is
not possible for us to embark on a futile and impossible task of
apportioning blame. 47
46.
See Mandates of the Commissions for the Central Zone, P.O. No. SP/6/N/191/94, 30 March
1995 (Final Report, Appendix 1, p. 7) and Southern Province, P.O. SP/6/N/192/94, 13
November 1994 (Final Report, Annexure A, p. 179), and a restatement of the mandate for
the Commission for the North and East (Final Report, p. 1).
47.
Daily News, 15 October 1994 as cited in Amnesty International, “Time for Truth and
Justice: Observations and recommendations regarding the Commissions investigating past
human rights violations” (AI Index: ASA 37/04/95, April 1995).
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