A/HRC/22/38 conduct comprehensive investigations and had submitted to him the material collected by and the recommendations made by the previous commission of inquiry. The Government pointed out that, if adequate evidence was disclosed by the investigations, filing of indictment would be possible within a reasonable period thereafter. It should be highlighted that it is now more than five years since the presidential commission of inquiry completed its report, and more than six years since the incidents. 21. The importance of effective action against extrajudicial killings to prevent their recurrence was highlighted again by two serious incidents in which prisoners were killed while in custody. During a riot at Vavuniya prison, in June 2012, it is alleged that excessive force was used by State forces and prisoners were subjected to torture, resulting in the death of two remand prisoners. During another riot in Welikada prison, in November 2012, which resulted from a raid on the prison by special task force officers, 27 prisoners were reportedly killed and 43 wounded with allegations that a number were extrajudicially executed. The Government states that police investigations into the two cases are currently in progress, but no further information is available. 2. Missing persons and enforced disappearances 22. In its report, the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission called for a comprehensive approach, as a matter of urgency, to address the issue of missing persons. It also called for recommendations of past commissions to be implemented given “past incidents of disappearances from different parts of the country” (para. 9.48). To date, the Government has not established a comprehensive mechanism to trace adults who went missing during the latter stages of the war, and investigations of disappearances have not yielded tangible results in the form of arrests or prosecutions. 23. A distinction should be made from the outset between missing persons and those forcibly disappeared. While the former are persons whose whereabouts are unknown as a result of, for example, armed conflict or internal violence, enforced disappearances is understood as the deprivation of liberty of a person by the State, direct or otherwise, and the refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or the concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. 24. On missing persons, the Commission recommended that every effort be made by law enforcement authorities in cooperation with relevant bodies, particularly the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to trace the whereabouts of missing persons, ensure reunification with their families, and for these families to be informed of such progress (para. 9.50). The Government has chosen not to include this recommendation in the national plan of action, although it has established a tracing programme for missing children. The Government reported that it had recorded 2,564 untraceable persons, of whom 676 were children and 1,888 adults, also noting that a large number of tracing requests related to children reportedly recruited by the LTTE. 25. The Commission’s recommendation on providing assistance to families of the missing in terms of legal aid and psychosocial support (para. 9.58) was also unfortunately excluded from the national plan of action. The Commission’s recommendation on the creation of a centralized system of data collection on missing persons maintained by different agencies (para. 9.51) was assigned in the plan of action to the Ministry of Defence, in partnership with the Department of Census and Statistics. While how this centralization of data collection will function still remains to be seen, it is important to highlight the fact that victims’ relatives must have trust and confidence in it, including in the circumstances where Government forces are believed to be responsible for missing persons. 8