The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID) called on the Sri Lankan government to bring about truth, justice and reparations to victims of enforced disappearances, stating that “the time for action has come”.

In a statement released to mark the end of the group’s visit to the island, the UN WGEID said the “extensive use of enforced disappearances, followed by an almost complete lack of judicial accountability and decisive and sustained efforts to secure the truth about the disappeared - including the determination of their fate or whereabouts – as well as the absence of a comprehensive reparation program and social, psychological and economic support for the relatives, have left profound wounds in society and a deep sense of mistrust among the relatives”.

It further added “this context of mistrust is exacerbated by the continued and extensive presence of the military in the North and East of the country”.

Calling on the Sri Lankan government to “translate that announced commitment into concrete and urgent specific measures to address disappearances,” the statement added:

“The time for promises is over. The time for action has come.”

“Today, the Sri Lankan Government has the challenge to transform its promises into a concrete, comprehensive, legitimate and participatory framework established to secure the rights to truth, justice, reparations, memory and guarantees of non-repetition for the victims, their families and Sri Lankan society as a whole, in the context of a reconciliation process,” said the group. “While reconciliation is extremely necessary in Sri Lanka, it cannot be achieved at the expense of the rights of the victims.”

The statement went on to outline steps that the government should take going forward, including the immediate repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and prosecutions for enforced disappearances.

“The Working Group considers that prosecuting and trying only few emblematic cases will not be sufficient to comply with Sri Lanka’s international obligations nor to satisfy the expectations of the victims and important sectors of society,” said the statement.

“According to Sri Lanka’s international obligations every victim of enforced disappearance should receive full and integral reparations without any type of discrimination,” it added.

“The number of cases before the Working Group is the second highest in the database of the Working Group worldwide,” it noted. “Nevertheless, it unfortunately represents the tip of the iceberg.”

See their full statement here.

The statement comes after the group announced it had discovered a “secret underground detention cum torture centre” located in Sri Lanka and called on the government to reveal the existence of other such centres if any existed, in a press conference in Colombo.

See our earlier post:

UN confirms existence of secret torture camps in Sri Lanka, calls on gov to reveal other possible locations (18 Nov 2015)