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

BRIEF STATEMENT OF FACTS:
The Commission was one of three zonal Commissions appointed in 1994
to inquire into involuntary removals and disappearances since January
1, 1988. Unlike the other two zonal Commissions, the geographic area
covered by the North East Commission was an area in an active state of
war, which hindered the functioning of the Commission. As noted in the
Final Report of the Commission:
Unlike other Commissions this Commission had to investigate
disappearances in areas of Military operations. The Commission
had to either cancel several sittings or postpone them due to
the unsettled conditions caused by the ground situation. On one
occasion in Batticaloa, the Commission found shells zooming
over the Circuit Bungalow where it stayed and heard the rattle
of gun-fire for hours. On this occasion the LTTE attacked the
Batticaloa Police Station in the heart of the town. In fact we
were advised by the President’s office on 10.12.96 not to go to
Jaffna to hold inquiries as conditions were not conducive for
holding public inquiries. 61
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS:
There is no aggregate analysis of the findings of the Commission
in respect to the entire geographic jurisdiction of the Commission.
Rather, the findings are framed in terms of the particular district and
tend to be very case specific. Thus each district and, to some degree
each incident, is isolated. Although patterns of abuse can be seen
when reading the report as a whole, there has been little attempt to
analyze patterns throughout the Report. Nonetheless, the Commission
found that:
According to the evidence recorded, ninety percent of the
removals was ascribed to the security forces – Army, Navy,
61.
Final Report, North East Commission, p. 5.
41