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Missing persons: Relatives wary about obtaining CoAs
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By Namini Wijedasa
Expressing their grief : A commemorative event to mark International Day of the Disappeared at the Office on Missing Persons. Picture source: OMP
Many relatives of the missing and disappeared are avoiding certificates of absence (CoA)–a new document that lets them address practicalities such as property transfers without confirmation of death–because they suspect the State will use these to dodge investigating the fate of their loved ones.
Since CoAs were introduced by law in 2016, just 732 families have taken them. But the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) has recorded more than 14,000 cases from all districts while the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints of Missing Persons, headed by Maxwell Paranagama, had more than 23,000 files.
The OMP is collating its data in a continuing effort to get some clarity on the numbers. Meanwhile, there are more public enquiries now about the possibility of obtaining CoAs after it became known the Government will pay Rs 6,000 a month to each certificate holder as interim relief until the Office for Reparations decides on compensation.
The Cabinet adopted the proposal this week. But the OMP first recommended in August 2018 for a monthly allowance to be paid to the surviving spouse, children or parent of a missing or disappeared person. That is if the family has no income. It will be directly disbursed into their bank accounts from next month.
Relatives are entitled to CoAs where any person is reported missing or hasn’t been heard of for more than one year and his disappearance is attributable to the conflict in the North and East or its aftermath, political unrest, civil disturbances, enforced disappearances or is a member of the armed forces or police and is identified as missing in action.
The CoA provides for the legal status of a missing or disappeared person. It is issued by the Office of the Registrar General on production by the next-of-kin of an interim report issued by the OMP.
The certificate should allow these families to access administrative and financial services or other benefits in the absence of a death certificate. They include access to bank accounts of the missing person, property transfer or ownership, ability to marry again and access to public assistance such as Samurdhi.
Many of the families are in dire financial straits, especially when the breadwinner is gone, an OMP Commissioner said. This includes the aged parents of missing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna insurgents who vanished decades ago. Such relatives, too, are entitled to the allowance provided they change any death certificates they might hold into CoAs. But there are issues related to this.
For instance, a CoA is valid only for two years with option of a further two-year extension (the allowance will only be provided on the basis of a current certificate). There is the question, then, of whether those who held death certificates will revert to those documents after the expiry of the CoAs. These matters are under examination.
However, the OMP is ready to facilitate the issuance of CoAs to holders of death certificates whose relatives were missing or disappeared, said the Commissioner, who did not wish to be named. “If they give us the necessary document certified by the grama niladhari and if the facts are clear, we will give them an interim report enabling them to have the death certificate cancelled and a CoA issued,” she said.
The Matara OMP office has received multiple queries tied to the proposed allowance. “Some of them have severe financial issues,” the Commissioner explained. “The parents are very old and in need of that support.”
Those death certificates dating to the 1980s predominantly cite the reason for demise as “disappeared for more than one year”. The burial place is recorded as “not known” or marked with a dash. There was also a category of relatives who didn’t get death certificates for their missing or disappeared family members.
At the grassroots, families in the South face other practical challenges, according to Brito Fernando, President of the Families of Disappeared Organisation. Grama niladharis, who must issue a letter attesting that they have not seen or heard from a specified person for more than a year, have not all received the relevant instructions and are reluctant to take the step.
“Some family members met the Batticaloa District Secretary who admitted that the grama niladharis were not informed or educated,” said Mr Fernando. He said they would try to organise an awareness programme in this regard. “The mechanism is not working smoothly.”
Relatives could be asked for police complaints or other evidence to back their claims, even if the disappearances took place years ago. But there are examples, too, of grama niladharis who were willing to provide the required letters. There was a need for consistency and streamlining.
The majority of those who have obtained CoAs were from the North and East as the status quo was clearer cut, the OMP confirmed. Still, the numbers were low because of the fear that the Government will gradually issue death certificates and “forget truth and accountability”.
There was “huge resistance” to certificates of death, confirmed Mirak Raheem, another Commissioner. Families saw it as a way of the State writing them off and saying their loved ones were not missing or disappeared.
“There is also suspicion about the CoA and a lingering fear that, to agree to the CoA, is giving up on the right to truth and justice,” he observed. And there were many who said they didn’t want anything, including compensation, but to find their loved ones.
The fears, the OMP emphasises, are unfounded. Separately, the office is trying to alleviate challenges that holders of CoAs face when accessing services like banking and insurance. For instance, families made representations saying they had difficulty applying for a visa without a death certificate. The OMP wrote to the Foreign Ministry Secretary and missions established in Sri Lanka explaining the purpose and validity of CoAs.
But the situation is more complex where banks are concerned. The banks are seeking a directive from the Central Bank allowing them to allow access to the accounts of the missing or disappeared on the basis of CoAs. The OMP has requested a meeting with the Central Bank Governor.