A calculated attempt was being made by certain sections of the media to deceive people living here and abroad regarding the number of missing in Sri Lanka during the humanitarian operation, Vavuniya Government Agent P. S. M. Charles yesterday.
Responding to a query by the Island, the Vavuniya GA said that BBC Tamil Service posted an unsubstantiated report captioned "1,000 children 'still missing' since war" on its website on Aug. 29 in spite of her briefing the BBC's local correspondent regarding progress made by a Family Tracing and Reunification (FTR) Unit with the support of the UNICEF. She said that information provided by her had been used to propagate a lie that nearly 1,000 children reported missing during the final phase of the war were still unaccounted for.Ms Charles said that when it was alleged that nearly 1,000 children disappeared during the final phase of the conflict she would like to know what exactly the media meant by 'final phase.' Was it a reference to the fighting from January to May 2009 after the fall of Kilinochchi or a longer period," Ms Charles said.
"The FTR activity spearheaded by the UNICEF was launched following a spate of complaints received by me and the Probation and Childcare Commissioner in charge of the Northern Province.
In fact, the process began at the end of the conflict in May 2009. The FTR received only 2,564 tracing applications up to June 30, 2011. Of them 676 related to missing children," Ms Charles said.
Based on complaints received by the FTR unit, UNICEF said that 64 per cent of the complaints regarding missing children were lodged by parents who accused the LTTE of conscripting them.
The UNICEF recently handed over a copy of its report to Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa. The government made available a copy of the report to British Defence Secretary Dr. Liam Fox when he visited Colombo to deliver the Kadirgamar memorial lecture.
Ms Charles said that since the conclusion of the conflict they had been able to locate many of those missing children. Among them was a child missing for the past 15 years, she said.
She expressed confidence that more missing persons could be found with the help of various government and non-government agencies involved in the process.
Ms Charles said that anyone wanting to make further inquiries could get in touch with the UNICEF in Colombo.
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