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Following the recent establishment of the Human Intervention Unit by President Kumaratunga, immediate action has been taken regarding certain representations made by the relatives of service personnel missing (MIA) or killed in action (KIA), the Special Media Information Centre said. One area relates to the continuation of payment of salaries and other allowances to the next of kin (NOK) of service personnel. The President has already issued instructions to the Commanders to continue payments uninterrupted. According to current procedures, death benefits go only to the NOK of personnel, as declared by the concerned officer. As a result parents who subsisted on a serviceman’s income are sometimes left destitute. From now on every service person will be asked to declare annually, a percentage that can be paid to the NOK, parents or any other named person. Hereafter the service personnel can nominate the person to whom the benefits (salary, compensation, insurance etc.) are to be paid in the proportions he specifies. One of the chief concerns of relatives of persons MIA or KIA is that dad bodies of personnel are sometimes disposed of without adequate identification. This has caused severe psychological scars to the members of the family particularly when there is no possibility of definite identification. The President has instructed the Commanders of the Forces to issue instructions to the field commanders that all possible means of identification of service personnel (i.e., compulsory wearing of identification disk (Dog Tag), photographs, x-rays, dental records etc.) should be used in this connection. Instructions have also been issued to promptly inform the families of those personnel who are believed to be MIA. Regular meetings are held with the relatives of persons MIA and KIA at the Human Intervention Facility Unit located at Pedris Lane Colombo 3. The objective of this facility is to provide emotional support, strength and assistance to the soldiers already engaged in combat and to the families of those missing and killed in action. Meanwhile a letter issued to all the Ministers, Secretaries to the Ministries, District and Divisional Secretaries, the President has requested that priority attention should be paid regarding the activities initiated on the welfare of service personnel.
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