The figures on abductions and disappearances given by the official Presidential Commission Inquiring into Abductions and Disappearances run counter to the most recent claims made by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on abductions and disappearances in Sri Lanka, and reported prominently by the media.

The Chairman of the One-man Presidential Commission Justice Mahanama Thilakaratne says the larger number of persons reported missing or disappeared have come back to their homes.

According to the Presidential Secretariat the charge by HRW that the Sri Lanka government is one of the world’s worst perpetrators of enforced disappearances is not borne out the facts available from the investigations carried out by the One-man Commission, and that the statements by HRW on this subject are tendentious exaggerations.

While HRW accuses the Sri Lankan security forces of the abduction and disappearance of hundreds of people – mostly Tamils- since 2006, Commissioner Thilakaratne states that that the Commission has so far not found any armed forces or police personnel guilty of alleged abductions or disappearances or linked to unidentified dead bodies and unexplained killings in the country.

The Commission which has covered alleged incidents of abduction and disappearance from March 2006 has concluded investigations into 6543 of 7130 complaints lodged with the Police about disappearances and related incidents. Of this number the Commission has found that over 6000 persons have returned to their homes.

There were 108 cases of abductions and disappearances reported form areas in the Northern Province and the relevant parties have returned or have been found; while of the 670 cases reported from the Eastern Province, 402 cases have been resolved so far, according to the Commission.

The Presidential Secretariat states the HRW report is a gross exaggeration that does not take into account the steady decline in disappearances over the past 12 months, mainly due to the new measures taken by the government, and HRW is basing its claims on unsubstantiated claims.

Recent Police investigations have also revealed the involvement of important cadres of the terrorist LTTE in carrying our abductions in Colombo and elsewhere, which aspect appears to have been ignored by HRW.