President Maithripala Sirisena handed over the appointment letters to the commissioners of the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) at the Presidential Secretariat yesterday (Feb 28), the government news portal reported.
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 were appointed for a 3-year period include;
Mr Saliya Pieris, PC – Chairman/ OMP
Ms Jayatheepa Punniyamoorthy – Member/OMP
Major General (Rtd.) Mohanti Antonette Peiris – Member/ OMP
Dr Sriyani Nimalka Fernando – Member/ OMP
Mr Mirak Raheem – Member/ OMP
Mr Somasiri K Liyanage – Member/ OMP
Mr 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 Colombo–Kandy main road at Pahala Kadugannawa has been closed indefinitely after a deadly rockfall in the area that left six people dead and four others injured.
The Cyclonic Storm “Ditwah” moved further north from Trincomalee today evening leaving a trail of destruction including more than 90 deaths, over 100 missing and tens of thousands displaced, officials said.
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A third rescue attempt to save 28 people trapped on the rooftop of a farm building in Vithikuliya, Nikaweratiya, has failed due to the dangerous water surge from the Deduru Oya.
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