The Chief Minister also accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of playing for time over the issue.

Speaking to the New York Times, Wigneswaran said that he fears the Prime Minister has refused to release prisoners because he does not want to anger the Sinhalese majority ahead of parliamentary elections.

“I’m talking of a history of not living up to promises in the past,” Wigneswaran said. “The prime minister wants to play for time because the elections are coming.”

Even without a verified list of prisoners, Wigneswaran said that dozens who are widely known to be held for political reasons could be released immediately.

Wickremesinghe told the New York Times that a tentative list of prisoners has already been created.

“I just want it to be verified twice over from my end before we say here’s the final list,” Wickremesinghe said. “We should have it by March. And if there is any secret camps, you can close it down and get these people.”

Tens of thousands went missing during the civil war ending in 2009, including people who were killed in battles as well as those said to have been shot in custody. But there have long been rumors of secret camps holding thousands of detainees, a notion Wickremesinghe sought to dispel.

“There are a few hundreds, I think, not thousands,” he said. “There are people who are missing whose names are not found anywhere,” which means they either “are not among the living or they left the country. That’s all.”

In a separate interview, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said that frustrations over the delays were understandable. “Nobody seems to know who they are, even those who ought to know,” Samaraweera said of the prisoners. “The officials themselves may have been too intimidated to ask questions about things they ought to know.”