The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) will open a regional office in Jaffna on the 24th of August.The inauguration will be held under the patronage of Karu Jayasuriya, Speaker of Parliament and Chairman of the Constitutional Council. Minister Mano Ganesan will also participate, the OMP said.The office at No 124, Adiyapatham Road in Jaffna will be the third regional office of OMP opened this year. Presently the OMP has regional offices in Matara and Mannar. The OMP has a primary mandate to search for and trace the fate and whereabouts of missing and disappeared persons in Sri Lanka.The establishment of the OMP is an acknowledgement of the widespread disappearances that have occurred over four decades in multiple contexts in Sri Lanka and is an explicit recognition of the responsibility of the State to provide answers to the thousands of affected citizens in the country.The OMP says the regional offices shall ensure greater access to the OMP by families of the missing and disappeared. They will provide a range of services including accepting complaints from family members, following up with district level state agencies on administrative issues faced by families and carrying out inquiries on individual cases."As the OMP continues to establish its offices and operationalize its mandate, it remains committed to protecting the rights of victims and their families," the OMP said in a statement.