Japanese advisor to help commission

President Mahinda Rajapaksa had appointed another international expert to advise the Presidential Commission to Investigate into Complaints Regarding Missing Persons (Commission) Chairman of the Commission retired High Court Judge Maxwel Paranagama said yesterday.

The Japanese expert, a former international judge Motoo Noguchi is the sixth foreign adviser appointed by President Rajapaksa to advise the Commission.

Noguchi is a former International Judge of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Trust Fund for Victims of the International Criminal Court.

Six experts from Western and Asian countries have been appointed to the Commission at several stages.

They are Sir Desmond de Silva of UK (Chairman), Sir Geoffrey Nice (UK), Prof. David Crane (USA), Mr. Avdhash Kaushal (India) and Mr. Ahmer Bilal Soofi (Paksitan) and Judge Motoo Noguchi (Japan).

The Advisory Council was appointed in July 2014 to advise the Commission on matters pertaining to its work, including legal aspects.
The Missing Persons Commission has conducted eight public sittings up to now and 19,761 complaints had been received including more than 5,000 from the families of the Security Forces.

The Commission is conducting public hearing now in Vavuniya and Paranagama said four days up to 14th to 17th had been allocated for public hearing.

He added that more than 2,000 complaints had been investigated up to now.