Census on deaths during conflict

24 November 2011 07:31 am Views - 5584

The Government is preparing a census of persons who either died or went missing during the period of conflict, according to Secretary of Defence Gotabaya Rajapaksa. The Secretary told the first “Conference on Reconciliation”, held earlier this morning, that the government saw the need to address the issues of accountability and this was a step towards that effort.

“The government officials in the north have been entrusted with the task of completing this census and they will identify individuals specifically by name,” the Secretary said.

He promised that the data had been collected for the census and it would be released soon.

“We have divided the deaths into various categories natural causes, accidents, those that died fighting for the LTTE, those that were forced to fight for the LTTE, those that died resisting the LTTE and those that died while fleeing the country illegally by boat,” he said.

He further stated that those who died owing to the military were a very small figure and that if credible allegations were filed, the military would take responsibility for these deaths. (Dianne Silva)